Anneliese Laffitte

Anneliese Laffitte (85) of Fayetteville, NC; beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother, and the cutest girl there ever was, went up to the heavens (as she would put it) November 14, 2022. She is survived by her husband Frank, her children Birgit (Peter), Sylvia (Tim), Diana (Will), Neil (Michele), and her grandchildren, Matthew, Kayleigh, Dylan, Logan, Lauren, and her great grandchildren Riley, Analiza Raegan, Emmy, and Cashton. Anneliese grew up in Germany during the second world war. Her first job, beginning when she was three, was to stall the young SS officers who came around periodically on loyalty checks. All German families were required to have a portrait and a bust of Hitler. Her family kept a sheet over the portrait and a pillowcase over the bust. Anneliese had a little stool so she could see who was at the door. If it was soldiers, she would turn and salute her mother, and then open the door and stall the three young captains or majors until her mother had time to whisk away the sheet and the pillowcase. “Pick me up,” she would say, and then she’d take one of their caps and put it on her own head. The cap would fall around her ears and they would laugh, but she could peek out under the bill and see whether her mother was ready. After the Russians took over, her family lived from what food they could find in dumpsters. Once they were stood up against a wall to be shot and Anneliese’s mother talked their way out of it. At one point Anneliese had to crawl across the girders of a bombed-out bridge to escape from enemies. When I (Frank) met her more than thirty years later, Anneliese was still waking up in a panic every night dreaming she was crawling across that bridge. When I shave in the morning, I often ask myself, “Well, Laffitte, what have you really accomplished?” One answer is, “I married Anneliese and she stopped having that dream.” Anneliese was full of courage and determination from happier times, as well. Here's a story as she told it: When I was three or four on Sunday mornings Fraeulein Anna would tell my mother she was going to church and she’d take me along. I guess my mother figured she was taking me to the Protestant church, but she took me to a Roman Catholic church a little ways out of town and left me there by myself. See, Fraeulein Anna was dating German soldiers, and that was a good place to meet them and drop me off. I would dip my finger in the holy water about ten times and sprinkle it all over me, and then I’d look at the pictures. The church had beautiful pictures, more than the Protestant church. I went up to the altar and to the lectern, but I wasn’t tall enough to see the Bible. So I couldn’t preach. I saw a man talking to a wall. After a while I got bored. I knew just about every inch of that church. I had said my prayers, and I didn’t think God wanted to hear my prayers twice. So I decided I’d figure out how to ring the bells. I climbed up where I had once seen the boy go who rings the bells. But I couldn’t reach the rope. So I climbed. I had a time to get up there, and then I slid down until I was sitting on one of the smaller bells. I still couldn’t reach the ropes, but when I reached for it, the bell rang a little bit, and I realized I didn’t need the rope. I could just swing on the bell. I had a big rocking horse back home, and the bell worked the same way except I had to rock side-to-side instead of back and forth. Well, the pastor lived close by, and when he heard the bell he came running up to see what was going on. He thought the boy who rang the bells was there too early. But he couldn’t see me. He looked all around. Finally I peeked around the bell and said, “Hallo! Hier bin ich!” He nearly fell down the stairs. He went and got the man who took care of the church to fetch me. He said, “I was scared you would fall.” I said, “No. I wouldn’t fall. I was sitting up there. I wanted people to come to church. Almost nobody’s here.” He said, “Yes. But you could fall. Promise you won’t do it again. We’ll ring the bells when it’s time for people to come to church.” I said, “You promise?” He said, “Yes. I promise.” And all this time Fraeulein Anna was calling for me. When she found out what I’d done, I said, “If you tell Mutti, I’ll tell her about your boyfriends.” She promised not to tell and so did I. But then somehow the subject of church came up and I told my mother I liked the pictures better at the Roman Catholic church. So one day she followed us, and after that Fraeulein Anna didn’t take me to church any more. There are many more stories but it's best to say, that if you knew Anneliese aka Lisa, then you were truly captivated by her. She could and did wrap Army generals around her pinky when needed. She even danced with Elvis Presley once at her business school when he was in Germany years ago. She loved her family both here in the States and in Germany very much. Some of her favorite things to do were walks on the beach, tending her plants and taking care of family. She constantly made sure no one in the family ever went hungry from beach trips with a huge cooler of food to making sure you took the crackers and a bottle of water home with you "just in case." She loved to include special Salesian Missions poems she copied by hand into her children's cards. At Christmas, in particular, she almost always included her favorite wish - "May you always be blessed with good health, happiness, love and wealth." Love, Mama. We can only imagine the reception she had in heaven amidst the hugs of welcome and tears of joy from her family members who preceded her. A private funeral will be held at a later date.

Anneliese Laffitte

March 31, 1937 - November 14, 2022