Benefactor’s Family Meets Childhood Recipient 64 Years Later.

German woman comes to Portland to say, “thank you.”

Photo: Standing (right to left) Marilyn Lisowski, Paul Lisowski, Lois Lobdell, John Lobdell. Sitting: Nikolaus Mathes and Barbara Mathes.

After Barbara Mathes’ mother passed away last year, the 67-year-old German woman discovered old post cards and letters from a Washington couple who had sent dozens of care packages to them after the Second World War. One post card was from Grand Coulee Dam with “Uncle Ben lives here” written on it, but no return address. Even though she was very young at the time, Mathes remembered the kind gifts and how much they helped after the war, and set out to find the family to say, “thank you.”

All Mathes had was an old photo (the couple?), the Grand Coulee Dam post card, and the help of Katja Rietze, a journalist and online editor with the Rhein Main presse newspaper group in Germany. After being contacted by Katja Rietze, Eric Lacitis, a reporter from the Seattle Times, as well as The Star newspaper in Grand Coulee, Washington, were instrumental in tracking down the daughter of the couple whose photo ran in a story on the search. Grand Coulee residents identified the couple as C.E. and Marie Benjamin. From there Mathes was put in touch with the couple’s daughter in Oregon through the help of the Seattle Times reporter.

The search ends in Portland.

Mathes’ journey ends August 30, 2010, when she comes to Portland, Oregon, to meet Lois Lobdell, daughter of her benefactors, and Lois’ husband, John. Lois and John live at Willamette View, a retirement community in Portland, Oregon. Mathes will spend three days with Lois and John, and their daughter, Marilyn, who is flying in from New Mexico with her husband for the event.

The Protestant Church of Syke, the small church in Mathes’ town, arranged for donations for families in need after World War II by working with sponsoring churches in the United States, including the Grand Coulee Dam area. The church found a sponsor for then three-year-old Barbara and her mother; Mathes’ father had died in Stalingrad.

Over the course of eight to ten years, the Benjamin family in Washington packed and sent over 70 packages of food, clothing, chocolate, shoes, books, and “stories about Native Americans.” C.E. or “Uncle Ben” who was the inspector of building construction on the Grand Coulee Dam also sent post cards, telling Barbara about his work on the dam.

Barbara Mathes currently lives in the town of Wuppertal near Duesseldorf with her husband Nikolaus.

Lois Lobdell can be reached at:
12705 SE River Road, Apt. 308D
Portland, Oregon
503-652-6426
loislobdell@comcast.net

Read the Seattle Times article.