This blog is created in honor and memory of our beloved Oma & Opa – Ursula & Heinrich Grimm – who in 1960 escaped communist East Berlin to start a new life in Los Angeles with their two children.

Heinrich was an avid photographer, who documented with his camera so many wonderful and beautiful moments in their lives. Ursula loved to write letters, and kept a drawer full of her life’s journals. In her seventies, she hand wrote their life story for us in a large photo album. “Leaving Berlin – This Can Only Happen Once” by Ursula Grimm is currently being worked on by her granddaughter. Please leave a comment if you would like to be notified when it’s complete.

In 1971, our grandparents Heinrich & Ursula Grimm bought four acres of land in Three Rivers, California, a small river town nestled in the Sierra Nevada foothills near Sequoia National Park. After many sketches, they hired local architect Gary Cort to help build their dream home on the river. Every weekend, the two of them would drive up from Los Angeles to stay in the trailer, enjoy the river, and lend a hand with the building. Finally in 1984, Heinrich retired from working as an engineer at Howard Hughes in El Segundo and Ursula from working at Nolan Miller’s shop in Beverly Hills, and they made the move to Three Rivers.

Heinrich and Ursula were both very active in the Three Rivers Theater Group and Art Guild. Ursula developed a strong passion for painting & watercolor during her time in Three Rivers, and her work was displayed in many shops and galleries throughout town. My sister and I would spend many summers with them in Three Rivers, enjoying the river, visiting Sequoia, doing arts & crafts, watching Laurel & Hardy movies and tennis (Boris Becker!) with Opa, and watching old black & white movies with Oma.

After Opa passed away in 1992, Oma rented out the guest house to a young woman who had arrived in town, Arlene, and with great luck the two of them became wonderful friends, walking to the river together daily with their two dogs and taking trips around California.

We cherish greatly all the memories we made there and Three Rivers will always hold a very special place in our hearts.

Ursula and Heinrich are survived by their children Heidi Peterson and Hilmar Grimm, their grandchildren Andrea Peterson and Monica deAurora, and their great-grandchildren Lawrence and Flynn deAurora.

– Andrea Peterson