The telephone rings and Father and Uncle Eugen1 have to leave as a business visitor has come to the office. They get up at once. One aunt feels they should not permit a mere visitor to interrupt the coffee hour: "Suppose father and uncle Eugen had been out of town on a business trip?" Nobody even attempts to answer such heresy.

Gradually the others leave, admonished by grandfather to "come back nicely".

However, Aunt Martha2 is still knitting and talking. She reminisces about her grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts and many other long dead and forgotten people.

There is no end in sight. Grandfather grows more and more bored and tired. He seems to feel his age suddenly and it looks as if Aunt Martha would never leave. The telephone rings again. Father knows aunt Martha well and the dear lady's peculiarity. So he asks grandfather to come to the office as soon as possible. A letter has arrived and grandfather's help is urgently needed for the answer. Once again the priority of business over everything else becomes apparent. Aunt Martha excuses herself for any delay she may have caused. Of course, Grandfather has known all along about this pious fraud and slumps exhausted into his chair.

The coffee hour is over. The housekeeper is already planning what cakes, cookies, pastry and other refreshments will be served tomorrow.

The last coffee hour took place on May 2, 1916.

On this day grandfather woke with a slight headache. He told the housekeeper who immediately prepared some special tea. He then felt better and there seemed to be no reason to make any change.

The coffee hour took place as usual. However, since World War I had begun in 1914, both father and uncle Eugen were serving with the army. The guests had come and gone, only one cousin lingered. Suddenly grandfather slumped forward in his chair. A doctor was quickly summoned, but he could only state that a heart attack had ended the life of the beloved old man.

He was 75 years old which was a high age at the time. Fortunately he was in the best of health until the day of his death.

There were frequent dinner parties and other get‐togethers in the family, mostly at the hospitable house of Aunt Maria Guldmann3, but the coffee hour was over for good.

Grandfather's death came at the end of an era. He was spared to see the end of World War I with its catastrophical consequences for Germany.