Years ago, there was a man who came to visit Wagner Farm. He was a gentleman in every way. In those early visits he would casually walked around to the different animal pens and then quietly leave. One day while helping the 4-H kids wash their calves I introduced myself. That was the day I met Guenter Rossignol. Over the following years we built a friendship. Guenter could be counted on to show up every day at around chore time and he would stroll over to say hi to the horses, then to the pigs ,the sheep and the cattle. I think his favorite farm critters were the geese Tom and Jerry. When they would see him coming they would honk in a way that was different than what we usually heard. Guenter would stick the end of his cane into the fence and the geese would tap on it in a special greeting just for him. From there he would proceed to greet his human friends. Everyone who works at the farm knew Guenter. As he would approach he would say in his deep German tone "Good Evening Sir" as he would hold out his hand. We would talk for a short bit and then get on with our respective days. For me it was to rush off to some other chore. For Guenter it was to say hi to a couple more people and then walk to his car and head back down to his house in the city.
Guenter was a mystery to us. We would try to find out more about him and sometimes he would surprise us with little nuggets of his past. Like the time he met Jessie Owens or the history that his eyes had seen. One day while enjoying a ice cream with Kristen he showed us pictures that he kept in his wallet of a younger version of himself and a prized motorcycle. Even though we only shared a few moments each day with Guenter he was someone very special to us all. Then one day he quit coming to the farm. We called and wrote to him and found out his health was failing. We continued to write but Guenter never came back. Last week his brother Rudi who still lives in Germany stopped by to tell us Guenter had passed. I think he was 86 years old. We see thousands of people every year but the cumulative minutes spent with Guenter will stay with us. We will sorely miss our friend.
