Ode to Joy by Kenn Clarke

Ode to Joyâ&#x20AC;&#x160;! Lennox Raphael

The Grand Lady of Bellevue

Seassay by Lennox Raphael 4

Photography by Kenn Clarke 5

Here she comes, Anne Lise Bergmann, smiling, and, without meaning to be, grand lady of Bellevue. “Beautiful day,” she says, with a smile lighting up the springcold Copenhagen beach morning in Denmark. What can you say : what do you say ? To begin with, say Anne Lise Bergmann, 95+ ! Born 5th November 1918 – “Guy Fawkes day”, she laughs and sings the Guy Fawkes song : “Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason, and plot, I see no reason why gunpowder treason, should ever be forgot :” Her daughter, Vibeke Beckett says : “Yes, my mother is certainly life-affirming. I have three siblings, two brothers and a sister. There are five years between us. My sister, Hanne Skårup, 69, a retired librarian, is the eldest. Next is me,

Vibeke Beckett, 64, dentist ; then Jørgen Bergmann, 59, dentist, and the youngest, Per Bergmann, 54, also a dentist”. I have been going to Bellevue, day in, day out, every morning, since 1994, and I see her all the time. So here she comes walking across the sand, a vision of the Joy of Life, ANNE LISE BERGMANN.

She leaves her Lyngby home at earliest dawn, takes the first bus, gets off at Klampenborg – and, walking across the grass downhill past the hill-top restaurant, nothing is easy, but the will, her spirit, and the alluring perfume of morning sea rising from its depth as she strolls bravely, steadily into the sea morning breeze. Say, Anne Lise Bergmann. Say vision of the Joy of Life. “My mother has been a housewife looking after home and children ! Never forget who you are, she would say to us always.”

Remarkable. At an age where one is allowed respectably to remember nothing, when the bed could very easily be one’s best friend and companion, when one can say easily, well, my days are done, and I’ve done enough, and I can sit down and wait for the end, well, this Anne Lise Bergman inspires me. “My mother is a fantastic, warm, loving, and tender person. She is strongwilled, and has had a healthy sense of gymnastics, skiing and keeping herself fit. She is also humoristic with a well developed self irony, and has a vivid interest in other people, and in her family, her children and grand children, and remembers everyone’s birthdays, both family and friends. There is always a handwritten card, a letter or telephone call, and for those close, a gift. For her, everyone is special. No one is forgotten. And my mother, always well principled, evaluated the way things were from from situation to situation, and as children we were never bound by limiting norms. On the contrary, we were encouraged always to live life to its fullest ! – to play, to dance, educate ourselves, travel, party ! !” ANNE LISE BERGMANN

“Here she comes,” says another woman on the beach, so much admiration in her voice, one’s insides tingle. “Here she comes, the Grand Old Lady of Bellevue !” But she isn’t old, she is herself, and, day-in-day-out, she rolls out of bed and into her morning mood, and, entering the cold Bellevue water, shakes off the night, and any wandering dream, and makes the morning light, and the day too, and makes my moment rosy, and I hope it does the same for you.

“My father, Finn Bergmann,” says Vibeke, “was educated at the navigational school in Copenhagen. He sailed as captain for the first years of their marriage, came ashore during the war and was employed in the Department of Commerce (Maritime Department). He later became Director of the Maritime Directorate, responsible for the education of Danish seafarers, retiring at 70 and going on to work on the Esplanade for Mærsk McKinney Møller with whom he had a close friendship. My mother even had the honor of baptizing one of the Mærsk ships, the Margrethe Mærsk, in 1974. True to form, my father was a born leader, intelligent, warm, strong, decisive, ambitious,

and empathic. He was eventually awarded the prestigious ‘Commander of Dannebrog’, and died 16 years ago.” ANNE LISE BERGMANN. It’s cold this morning, not even 7 yet, and I am out with a friend, the one who took these photos, and, for a moment, expressing sporting impatience, we are lamenting the delayed arrival of summer, how it seems the summer to come will be another green winter to plague our expectations... and then we see her, Anne Lise of the morning, towel wrapped around her, feeling her way across the sand to the bridge, setting down her stick, holding her way across the bridge, as off comes the towel and into the early spring winter-water morning she goes, swims about, and emerges with an even bigger smile than the shy morning sun. ANNE LISE BERGMANN. “My mother and father gave us children a wonderful upbringing, infusing us with a love of life and confidence and security, which has stayed with us to this day giving us the courage to deal with all sorts of challenges.”

ANNE LISE BERGMANN. I am impressed. And not only impressed, she inspires me ! All I can say to myself is I want to be like that when I grow up. I want to remember her and grow old the beautiful way of not waiting for life to do you favours. ANNE LISE BERGMANN “I have been blessed with four children and 11 grand children,” says Anne Lise, “– two of them, Anders and Thomas Beckett, are presently climbing Mount McKinley in Alaska – intending to ski back down after reaching the summit. I have also been blessed with 11 great grand children – and another on the way next month”.

ANNE LISE BERGMANN She’s been bellevueing, some would call it winter-bathing, and would call her a winter-bather, and she has nothing against this name-calling, but, for her, it’s all very simple, the taste of water, the taste of life, getting up early, making her day, setting the morning right, celebrating the joy of life, being herself, ANNE LISE BERGMANN, the beautiful sea.

The other morning, for example, another Sunday in her wonderful Copenhagen, at 6:30, I wonder whether she’d be out today. And there she is, coming down the grassy knoll. I go to the water. It is cold, but cold is merely a word, never mind, and words confer feelings and celebration, like these celebratory steps of hers, bit by bit, kneading her stick into the sand – or on ice – a heroic presence this, across the then new, temporary Bellevue bridge, against wisps of morning beach sun, laying down of the stick on the bridge, knotting her towel on the railing, and, easy does it, down the steps, into the water, the look of joy and astonishment on her face, another morning, the life of water and life itself, another good day, the beginning of another moment – Anne Lise – reborn, moments reborn, a wish for myself, for anyone, the expressive joy of life, every morning, every day. What a woman, what an individual, what a someone ! This Anne Lise Bergmann. And how does it make me feel ? Good. When I see her, I believe in life, I want to be like this when I grow up, I want the imperishability of her spirit, the great love, the open fearlessness, the pointing of the way beyond time, out of the prison of meaning, that people should only be what they ought to mean

for themselves (according to tradition) that age should mean a place or a proscribed line, a measurement that is limiting of the individual’s urge to be. “Yes, are we fresh !”

She’s fresh as a daisy after that morning swim – but, not just water, it is spirit that takes one to the water, the holiness of being here now in one’s spiritual disposition as a person, never stopping to think twice, non-blaming, non-complaining, non-frowning upon the slightest excuse, but all-doing, all-feeling, all-being, exploring the divine in Nature and the constantly flowering spring of mind translated to body – and body transformed into the essence of life. Another day, another morning, each moment a feeling of otherness in being oneself through a community of others. This morning, for example, a Sunday morning, and for her, and I do feel this way too, every morning is a Sunday morning, life ticks away on a fast-moving train of thought – a meditation – Anne Lise – a meditation always in the

making, woman of bright early morning light, woman of the heart, where time alone is not the shadow to be contested by will – big elegance ! – and when I see her, I’m in love with her – she is life, – and all I can say to myself, as the sun perks up – when I grow up I want to be like Anne Lise Bergmann. Some people, their presence, their love, their indifference to time (as a person) teach us everything, and always something of value – that you have to reach out, man/woman, – don’t hold back – keep healing the self, smiling, laughing, removing the self from boundaries, expressing the beautiful morning of the soul, and, as ordinary as it sounds, being yourself. “Yes, are we fresh ! ? ! ”

23 ANNE LISE BERGMANN

All mornings are the same mornings, all morning to be, the same morning, doing is curing, healing body and soul, refreshing the mind, not surrendering to what things ought to be, or what age is supposed to represent, and taking up one’s mind and walking down the grassy incline to the morning light, and making each moment real – and a feeling of Beauty.

Larger than life she is, her embroidery of being, she has something in common, even in picking her way across the sand at Bellevue, with a projectile of great size, loaded, doing it, exploring the universe of personal time, and, like waves coming in with eyes open, alert to the shore, moving always, psychologically fit to be her own transformative, positive self, harmonizing, a credit to human nature.

There is that time for everything, Anne Lise Bergmann believes, and no better time than now to be in the center of the circle of life and its quiet joyfulness and remaking of confidence, never taking oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s true nature for granted in this destination-journey in the miraculous wonder of life with nature there for the taking, as she walks past the singing tree and chesnut chandeliers through the grass and yellow dandelion flowersâ&#x20AC;&#x160;: and, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s face it, joy is just a medicine, her thinking as she walks graciously, mindful of each step, in touch with a reality deeper than how old you are, feeling good while one is here on Mother Earth, down the steps to the morning sea, delicious, blue, colorless, perfumed tears of memories of the past, joy, nature put to good use, age doubled, soul of welcome from the laughing ocean, becoming sea and person, the meaning of constant ressurection.

For every cigarette there may be a nicorette, but nothing beats getting up and getting the gifts of Nature this beautiful Sunday morning. ANNE LISE BERGMANN “My mother has always been very principled, evaluating situation to situation, never holding us back as children with constricting shackles or conservative norms, but, instead, encouraging us to embrace life to the full : to play, dance, to educate ourselves, to travel ... to party ! “Life was better for me when I was young”, says Anne Lise. “Now everything goes more slowly. Of course, I enjoy life when it goes quickly. But I still wish to see my great grand children grow up. I don’t want to grow so old that I am bed-ridden. Then I might as well die.” ANNE LISE BERGMANN “And my advice to young people ? Do what you want to do while you can. Grab Life. Live honestly, and always keep a Yes on the tip of your tongue”.

Lennox Raphael, author of the play Che !, which ran in Manhattan for over a year, swims year ‘round in Copenhagen.

Seassay – Lennox Raphael Photography – Kenn Clarke Graphic design & layout – Kenn Clarke © 2013 – Lennox Raphael and Kenn Clarke – All right reserved A special thanks to Anne Lise for the “Yes” on the tip of her tongue, and to Vibeke, her daughter, for her assistance and support.