From a Telephone Operator to a Runway Model to a prominent Houston Banker, Jordis Edith Abfalter Wren left her mark on this world and touched so many lives across the globe.
The life & legacy of Jordis Edith Abfalter Wren!
Category Archives: Life Stories on Film
Real people, real moments, and meaningful events captured on video. This category features weddings, personal stories, celebrations, and custom films created for those who want their story told beautifully.
Rocky waters for the ‘Texas Star’
An arizona couple says “I do” despite having no wedding party following the covid-19 outbreak.
An Arizona couple is moving ahead with their plans to marry this week despite having no wedding party or guests. Their videographer from Texas rallied the troops from across several states to wish the Bride & Groom the very best from thier homes via video. And needless to say, the little ring girl from Atlanta, Georgia stole the show!
HOA sues elderly couple over flower beds, seeking up to $100,000 in damages
Update: After a year of negotiating with lawyers, a 100,000 lawsuit is finally dropped but not without many scars. The Tadema’s decided to sell and move out of the neighborhood.
Update: Despite dozens of landscapers offering to help an elderly couple following a $100,000 lawsuit filed by Land Tejas over flower beds, the property developer refuses to back down. Click link below.
After weathering many storms over their 52 years of marriage including losing a home during Hurricane Harvey, Klaas & Dorothy Tadema never imagined flower beds could force them to potentially lose everything again including their health. Click on link below to view full story.
(Tammy Rose) After working hard and raising five children, retired math teacher Klaas Tadema & his wife Dorothy, a former nurse were excited about spending the rest of their lives in their Dickinson, Texas home. But that dream would soon be shattered after Hurricane Harvey came knocking on their door in 2017.
(Dorothy Tadema) “Almost up to what, 29 inches of water and it was rising and I said to my husband we need to get some help, we need to get out.”
(Tammy Rose) The Tadema’s like so many other families in Houston lost just about everything they owned.
(Tammy Rose) That’s what led the married couple of almost 52 years to buy a home in the Texas City Lago Mar Community.
(Klaas Tadema) “We had shopped a bit with the help of some friends for a good place to live and thought we might be happy in a small house in a development like this.”
(Tammy Rose) Known as ‘Dotty’ to her friends and family, gardening has always been this nurse’s passion and is a stress reliever in her life.
(Dorothy Tadema) “The roses are my favorite.”
(Tammy Rose) After living in the Lago Mar community for almost 2 years, the Tadema’s received a notice that they were in violation of the HOA rules because they had not filled out the proper paperwork concerning the layout of their front yard.
(Klaas Tadema) “I understood that if you wanted to add something to your house, put up some sort of building that an architectural approval would be needed and I can find with that kind of thing, yes. I hardly thought that would be applicable to flower beds.”
(Tammy Rose) After paying a $25 application fee and submitting their proposal, Klaas & Dotty received a rejection letter.
(Tammy Rose) While Klaas and his wife thought they were trying to reach a compromise with the HOA, they received an unwelcome gift this Holiday Season, a lawsuit seeking up to 100,000 in damages, citing a 200 dollar a day fine.
(Dorothy Tadema) “As far as fines go, $20,000 maybe, $200 dollars a day so that’s pretty horrific.”
(Klaas Tadema) “If flower beds were really the issue I would say this is a great big laugh but it’s pretty clear that the flower beds are not the issue. These people are simply after one thing and that is money.”
(Tammy Rose) Dotty who just had back surgery and is now disabled, faces another frightening reality, losing another home.
(Dorothy Tadema) “This lawsuit is emotional, something we don’t need in our lives. This is not retirement for me.”
(Tammy Rose) The HOA who has also filed a motion to put a lien on the Tadema’s home have not responded to my request for an interview.
Keeping pilots in check
As Helicopters Incorporated continues to grow, so does its staff adding a new Flight Instructor Check Airman. This month we feature Pilot Dale Pike who comes with an abundance of experience that once again puts the company above the competiton. Click on link below to view the full story.
(Pilot Dale Pike) “I am checking the tail rotor blades.”
(Tammy Rose) Pilot Dale Pike preflights one of the latest aircraft added to the Helicopters Incorporated fleet, a Bell 505, the first and only ENG aircraft in the country.
(Pilot Dale Pike) “Because it’s new, there is a great deal of training that is involved with new pilot staff.”
(Tammy Rose) The Bell 505, leased by KTRK in Houston, Texas is one of the most advanced ENG helicopters with Churchill Navigation.
(Pilot Dale Pike) “The Churchill system really gives the pilot an immediate visual referance to be able to identify streets without having to take hands off controls and utilize a hard map.”
(Tammy Rose) Pike who is Heli Inc’s new Flight Instructor Check Airman will fly to different bases across the country. Even though pilots are required to train every two years, the company’s goal is to offer instruction annually.
(Pilot Dale Pike) “And really we are looking at qualification, currency, proficiency and review of regulations and operational aspects of all the aircraft.”
(Tammy Rose) Pike started flying at the age of 14, his professional career taking off after joining the U.S. Army.
(Pilot Dale Pike) “I’m currently qualified in 54 makes, models, different types of aircraft with over 17,000 hours of total flight time.”
(Tammy Rose) Pike has had a lot of adventures over his career flying air attack in California, then working for U.S. Customs.
(Pilot Dale Pike) “We would take off in the middle of the night, chase a direct smuggler if he didn’t comply we vectored the host nation aircraft into that. They would do international interception procedures and if the pilot didn’t comply, they would shoot them down.”
(Tammy Rose) When Pike isn’t flying he enjoys playing the guitar and of course catching his favorite fish.
(Pilot Dale Pike) “I play a little bit of everything from classic rock, blues, country, pop. None of it very well. And my business card says, music you know by heart and in parenthesis underneath it says, the more you drink, the better I sound, so that’s my philosophy about music.”
The extraordinary life of Vietnam War pilot kim page!
During his one year tour of duty in Vietnam, Senior Warrant Officer Kim Page would survive numerous helicopter crashes while his flight crew ultimately saved countless lives. After more than 50 years of flight experience, I am blessed to be working with one of the best in the industry. Click on link below to see Kim’s story.
Hans Rose’s Life & Legacy
My dad couldn’t talk or stay awake much the last few months of his life but he was able to muster up the words, “I love you, Tammy” one more time and said, “They’re all waiting for me” before gently passing away in his sleep on October 17, 2018, at 9:30 A.M. My mother & I knew exactly who he was talking about, his best friends, Jim Mueller, Bill Yellin & his grandfather, Hermann Rose who are already in Heaven. I can hear them all say with laughter, the party has just begun.
I’ll always remember our last conversation which centered around the many trips my dad took me on, my favorite to this day is Disneyland in California. My dad lit up like a Christmas tree as we reminisced about our days at the Magic Kingdom. While I was excited to experience every ride, my mom shouted in fright while on Space Mountain vowing to never return. My dad and I always got a good chuckle from that memory. I was also able to show him through FaceTime one of his favorite travel spots in the Bahamas where my dad scored a bunch of silver statues before we boarded a cruise ship.
While I was afforded the luxury of traveling the world, my dad almost lost his life at a very young age trying to survive the aftermath of World War II. After almost starving to death in the Traunstein Refugee Camp, his family immigrated to America in 1957. I’ve always believed it was his humble beginnings that motivated him to make sure everyone else around him was taken care of. He never forgot his German roots and would often fly back to East Germany before the Berlin wall came down to bring his relatives’ basic necessities they couldn’t afford or get on their own. Hans was like a Santa Claus to so many people taking loved ones on lavish vacations and offering up his home to anyone who needed a place to stay.
Ever since I was a little girl, my dad told me intriguing stories about our German heritage that would not only inspire me to write several books but launch my career as a journalist. Thank you, Dad, for your love and support and teaching me to keep going no matter how bad things may seem.
Click on the video links below as we say goodbye to the greatest man I knew.
A news helicopter goes down in the middle of a live report.
It was my first day flying with Photojournalist Matt England in WISN-TV 12’s Helicopter when something suddenly went terribly wrong on a hot summer day in 1997. Click on video below to see more.
Back in time with another former Berlitt homeowner
I was recently contacted by Günter Waschke, whose family received my great-grandparents home in Berlitt, Germany following World War II. It means so much to me that so many people have reached out to me after completing my dad’s documentary. Here’s part of my interview with him from overseas.
(Tammy Rose) “What can you tell me about my great-grandparents Helene & Richard Pein?
(Günter Waschke) “I was 4 years old, so I do not remember much. Helene loved me as little Günter because her son Günther was killed in the war.”
“From Richard, I have no rememberings other than he was the Mayor of Berlitt and was regarded as a bad Nazi by the upcoming Communists. They forced him to move to Granzow on his second farm. Pein’s farm in Berlitt was expropriated and divided into small farms distributed to refugees from East Germany like my mother and me. The same process was conducted with the big farm of Earl/Graf Königsmark who had committed suicide before the Russians invaded. His castle was used as a school following the war and is located across the street from the Pein home near the Church of Berlitt.”
(Tammy Rose) “Thanks so much for the information. Why did your parents leave the farm? My dad thought our old farm was purchased by a polish couple who worked for my great-grandparents.”
(Günter Waschke)”No polish workers bought the farm. It was expropriated and the farm was divided into small pieces which were given to German refugees. The political idea was “Junkerland in Bauernhand”. If there were polish workers as prisoners of the Nazis they moved back to Poland after the end of the war.”
(Tammy Rose) “What else can you tell me about that time period and our old house?”
(Günter Waschke) “My mother and I fled from our original home near Poznan, Poland in January 1945 by foot and took only what we could carry. I cried because I forgot my doll called Ria. We lived after the war in the right part of Pein’s house, seen from the street side, until 1950. Then my mother and I left Berlitt because my father who was a prisoner of war was set free and we moved to West Germany. Additionally, it was better to go to the west because Berlitt had become part of the communist German Democratic Republic under the goodwill of Stalin. Last year, I have been in Berlitt visiting my cousin who lives still there.”
Our ‘Buried Treasure & Family Secrets’ revealed 73 years later.
Growing up my dad told me an intriguing story about my great-grandfather Richard Pein who was at one time the Mayor of Berlitt. A well-respected member of the community, Pein allegedly buried gold coins worth millions of dollars beneath his pig barn shortly before the Russians invaded his small community at the end of World War II. Now, 73 years later I’ve finished a journey my ancestors couldn’t make and return to the home of where the treasure was allegedly buried. Click on the link above to see how the story unfolds.
