> my father JDB – or Johnny B Goode

In memory of my beloved father Johann Detlef Bloecker, who was
born 23. SEPTEMBER 1924 – and died 29. February 2000.

Three months before his death my father and my mother left Brisbane, where they both had visited my first wife and myself. We were working then for EDUCATION QUEENSLAND as German Language Advisers. My father had been seriously ill the years before and certainly knew he would soon die of leucemia. He had flown together with my dear mother to Australia to visit us and to say good bye to us. Being with us in Brisbane for some weeks, my parents went to Noosa by bus, swimming every morning and afternoon in the ocean. One week we took off to be together with them in Byron Bay and showed them the most beautiful Hinterland of Queensland and New South Wales. As the son of a North German farmer he enjoyed every minute of his visit with my mother.

Having survived the last year of the 2nd World War in Russia, my father had found his life motto: “Never give up”!
On Monday 6th of March 2000 we all met in the Christus Church in Kiel – Kronshagen, Germany.
The pastor gave my mother and me the script of his sermon after the ceremony.
This original script I have here in front of me, and I quote the first few sentences:

“Johann Detlef Bloecker stellte sich dem Leben aufrecht, entschieden, bisweilen kämpferisch – er war ein engagierter Gestalter seiner Lebenswelt, in Familie und Beruf. Und er nutzte seine vielen pädagogischen Gaben – für andere!”