My sister Jennifer was always a fan of punk rock and new wave music, and being a teenager in the 80’s, there was plenty of that kind of music to groove to. It was her desire for many years to be able to go to Wave Gotik Treffen, a gothic music festival in Leipzig, Germany. But life got in the way as life does, where we don’t prioritize our bucket list items and relegate them to ‘someday’ and then suddenly, the unexpected happens. In her case, she was well enough after her cancer diagnosis to have attended in 2020, but the pandemic hit and everything was cancelled. Last year, the festival was cancelled and she was too sick to have travelled anyway, so her ‘someday’ never happened. She did express regret about that before she passed.

I joined a Facebook group for the Wave Gotik Treffen music festival, and posted about Jennifer’s wish to go and asked if they could help me find someone who might take her ashes there so that we could honour that wish. A kind woman in the group suggested that perhaps I could email a willing participant who could print the photo and take ‘Jennifer’ to the various concerts (and be willing to supply the family with photos of Jennifer’s photo at the concerts). Which I think would be easier to accommodate (not having to deal with ashes traveling with strangers and the potential issues getting them through customs), Jennifer would be there in spirit and we would have the photos as a tribute to Jennifer.

Fingers crossed that some kind soul will be willing to do this for us! I’ll keep you posted!

80’s Jennifer channeling her inner goth/new wave vibe!