Elisabeth von Trapp's Journey: Echoes of Sound
ELISABETH VON TRAPP’S JOURNEY - ECHOES OF SOUND
Special | 47m 52sVideo has Closed Captions
Elisabeth von Trapp travels to Austria to explore her family's history.
Elisabeth von Trapp, the granddaughter of the legendary Maria and Baron von Trapp, whose story inspired The Sound of Music, embarks on a profound and intimate voyage to Austria. As she travels, she explores the deeper truths about her family's history and the underlying beauty behind the global theatrical and cinematic phenomenon.
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Elisabeth von Trapp's Journey: Echoes of Sound is presented by your local public television station.
Elisabeth von Trapp's Journey: Echoes of Sound
ELISABETH VON TRAPP’S JOURNEY - ECHOES OF SOUND
Special | 47m 52sVideo has Closed Captions
Elisabeth von Trapp, the granddaughter of the legendary Maria and Baron von Trapp, whose story inspired The Sound of Music, embarks on a profound and intimate voyage to Austria. As she travels, she explores the deeper truths about her family's history and the underlying beauty behind the global theatrical and cinematic phenomenon.
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Where to Watch Elisabeth von Trapp's Journey: Echoes of Sound
Elisabeth von Trapp's Journey: Echoes of Sound is available to stream on pbs.org and the PBS app.
[ Bell tolling ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -My birth name is Maria Elisabeth von Trapp.
I was born into the von Trapp family.
My father is Werner von Trapp.
He was one of the Trapp Family Singers, and he married my mother, Erika Klambauer.
And she's from Salzburg.
So I basically was born into an Austrian family.
♪♪ The very first time I was here, I was not even a year old.
My father was on tour for seven months with the Trapp Family Singers.
So my mother packed us all up in a plane, flew us over here, and we spent time with Oma and Opa.
♪♪ That is, I think, where I caught the dream... to be here, to return here.
During the time I was growing up as a teenager, I always wrote in my diary, "I can't wait to go back to Salzburg."
That there needs to be more that I have, that I experience here.
♪♪ Being in Salzburg, there is a landscape of history, energy, people, a pilgrimage, and this pilgrimage is of the heart.
And I feel it when I come here.
I'm doing the same thing as everyone else.
So I'm learning the further expanse of where I really come from and the connections of different friendships, acquaintances that have fulfilled the fullness of my relatives' lives.
♪♪ This journey for me is really a rite of passage to finding myself.
♪♪ The very first time I became aware of my relatives', the Trapp Family Singers', work, their legacy, their impact was at a very tender age.
I was 5 years old.
My siblings and I were invited to take part in something that was happening up at the family home, and we met a woman who was dressed in a very bright dirndl dress, and I thought, very different than the way my aunts are dressed.
She had very short hair, not the braided hair like my aunts wearing their hairdos like crowns on their head.
And she's very vivacious.
Spoke not a word of German, and we spoke German at the time.
We would speak to her, and she would say, "Oh, what are they saying?"
It was Mary Martin, who had come to talk about "The Sound of Music," to share it with my grandmother Maria, and to offer it to families.
She sang the songs.
She played with us.
She played ring-around-the-rosy with me, and there was a photographer.
And up the hill we run, down the hill we run.
Up the hill we run, down the hill we run again.
I fall.
She takes me by the hand, this hand.
And we're running up the hill.
And that became the centerpiece photo to promote "The Sound of Music" that would be premiered that November, 1959.
♪♪ Well, we had a great time, but something in me said, "This is unusual."
I didn't see the picture, but I felt the excitement of this woman, and I knew something was -- was afoot.
Something was happening.
Well, we went to see "The Sound of Music" half a year later, and at the end, everybody stood up, standing ovation.
And my grandmother walks up to the stage to speak.
And I was so fearful for her as a 5 year old.
"What is she doing?
She can't speak in front of those people."
She gets up there and she gives this speech and shares a story, and she is as charming as can be.
She's so -- She's so alive in that moment.
I saw it, and all of a sudden I go, "Oh."
It was the beginning of saying, "Everything's great.
What is this?"
And I knew that the children lined up in the story was about my father.
♪♪ ♪♪ That day, something shifted in me.
I saw the story not just being my grandmother Maria's or my father's, but it was somehow a part of me, too.
And that started a question I have carried ever since.
How do I understand the story I come from and still find myself within it?
♪♪ Nonnberg is part of that search, one of the oldest convents in Europe.
It holds a stillness that feels ancient.
My grandmother found something here, and when I go, I'm not just visiting a place she knew.
I'm touching the path she walked.
♪♪ ♪♪ And yet...when I walk through those doors and I'm being welcomed by the Mother Abbess, I could not ask for a greater honor to be included.
It makes my soul feel like I belong.
♪♪ [ Conversing in German ] ♪♪ ♪♪ The silence inside the abbey always asks me to be honest, to sit within the faith I possess.
I believe faith brings us to wholeness, but faith changes.
It fractures and refracts like light through a kaleidoscope.
And I can't see the whole picture alone.
And then there's this strange echo, because right here in this very place, not only my grandmother, but also the fictional Maria once asked her own questions.
Within the film story line, the Mother Abbess explains to Maria, "You have a great capacity to love, but you must find out how to spend that love."
That line has always resonated within me, because love isn't just a feeling.
It's a choice, a direction.
It is the path I have also chosen to walk in my life.
Out there, the line between memory and movie gets blurry.
I see the tours, the bikes, the smiles, and I understand people are searching for a moment they saw on-screen, hoping it might give them one in real life.
You feel the energy of the surrounding hills, and in seeing the spectacular view unfold, suddenly it isn't fiction anymore.
It's experience.
And that feels close to what my grandmother always said, that life wasn't just about big plans, but how things unfolded.
I see these visitors.
I introduce myself, and they light up in meeting me.
But I always remind them, this isn't my story.
It's my father's, my grandmother's.
I'm just walking behind them.
It's good to see you.
-You, too.
-And the last time I saw you, you were all dressed up and dancing a waltz in front of the... -With my friend Kate.
-...in front of the gazebo.
-That's right.
Exactly.
I've got my guests here today.
They were saying that they've met your mother, actually, in California.
-No, not my -- My mother?
-Not your mother.
-My grandmother?
-No, no, your mother.
Oh, the grandmother, actually Maria or -- -We're from a cheese shop in California.
-A cheese shop?
-We sell von Trapp family cheese, love Oma.
-You met my real mother?
-Really did.
She was at the Hotel del Coronado.
-What is the chance?
-She said she was 100 or something.
-So Erika von Trapp?
-Yes.
And she was in her dirndl.
We said, "You must be Austrian.
Can I ask, are you related at all to the von Trapps?"
'Cause we saw the cheese maker.
-Yeah.
-And she said yes.
And she was charming.
It was so perfect.
I loved it.
It's so nice to meet you.
-It is so perfect seeing you, meeting you.
-So nice to meet you.
-All this way that you've come.
But this is serendipitous.
It is -- No.
Coincidences are more than that.
And this is what I was just saying in my interview, that these moments that show up.
I cannot make this up.
And here you're speaking about my own mother who would come up here.
She went to school here, and Frau Gertrudis was her teacher.
It's an "aha" moment for me to see you and meet you.
But here I have a whole joy -- a whole different joy.
It's like from the sadness to the joy to meet you.
But I am just -- I'm over the moon that you two know my mother.
You can't make that up.
Have a beautiful day.
-Thank you.
You too, Elisabeth.
Lovely to see you again.
♪♪ -I have spent most of my life watching others -- guides, journalists, or filmmakers -- tell the story of the Trapp Family Singers.
For a long time, I stayed on the edge of this phenomenon, part daughter, part granddaughter, and, in a large part, as an observer.
But then, at the abbey, while searching for traces of the past, I met someone who met my mother, Erika, not in some imaginary way, but for real.
I hadn't expected it, but it felt like a gentle affirmation, like voices from the past letting me know, "You're not walking alone."
After that encounter, I felt a quiet shift, the way light changes in a place you've always known.
Suddenly you see things you hadn't noticed before.
If it is possible that even streets hold memories, I imagine this Hellbrunner Allee stretching ahead, remembering when I walked at the age of 18 on my way to class at Annahof dirndl dressmaking.
I learned how fabric honors the human form.
It celebrates cultural identity.
Back then, every time I passed the Schloss Frohnburg, from out of those windows, I heard the most beautiful music.
[ Piano music playing ] Music has always been my passion.
Later in life, I learned that my mother had music in her fingers, too, that she could have studied at the Mozarteum, that she, too, had once chosen a different path.
I inherited my father's voice, yes, but I inherited my mother's musical rhythm, as well.
Music brought me here, and strangely, so did fiction.
The first time that we saw the film was the fall of '65.
We all went.
My father got tickets to go to the theater, and, of course, three hours of watching "The Sound of Music," and the scenery opens, and my mother goes [speaks German] 'Cause it was all -- all about coming, the flight into Salzburg, and she just teared up.
She was mesmerized by the beauty that was being presented.
And my father goes, "Where am I in this?
What's happened to all of our names?"
[ Laughs ] He was a literalist in the sense he wanted to say, "This isn't really what happened.
Where are we?"
I said, "Papa, you're going to have to be Kurt for the next three hours."
And then when we finished, we came outside into the Vermont cold air.
We stood around him, and he says, "Ah, I don't remember any of that."
Of course, he said, "Of course, some of it's true," he says.
"But the songs were different.
It's so interesting how it's told from this perspective."
And it was the beginning of his journey making peace with how it was.
But the beauty of that moment was we get in the car, and he tells us impressions that happened to him watching the movie, and he'd say, "Well, of course we didn't go over the mountains.
That would be -- Well, we'd end up in Berchtesgaden.
That's not the place to be at the time."
He said, "We just told everyone we're going on a concert tour.
We had two suitcases in hand, and we walked to the nearest local train station and made our way."
All of a sudden, out of his heart and his emotional perspective in that moment, we saw a part of him that we'd never seen before, and he started to open up to us about his real life.
And there was a beautiful experience that we all had... where we all stepped into his story.
And that unexpected gift, hearing the story in his own words, might not have happened without having watched that film together.
On that day, for us all, fiction opened a door that fact alone could not.
Schloss Frohnburg was never our home.
But nonetheless, it carries something profound, having become a piece of the puzzle in the search.
I don't fully understand where the path of this influence leads, but I'm walking it, listening closely, chasing echoes through those places and spaces, carefully listening to stories not only to confirm my legacy, but to find out what part of it is quietly becoming my own.
-How is everyone doing this afternoon?
[ Cheers and applause ] Are you ready for the real "Sound of Music" tour?
[ Cheers and applause ] -Yes.
-Finally, the day is here.
I'm sure so many of you have waited for that special day.
And it is here.
It has arrived.
And first of all, I'd like to welcome you on behalf of Panorama Tours.
We love "The Sound of Music."
How can we not love it, right?
One of the greatest movies ever.
This afternoon, we have also a special guest on the bus, and that is Elisabeth.
She is the granddaughter of Georg Ritter von Trapp and of Agathe Whitehead.
That was the first wife of, you know, Georg Ritter von Trapp.
And her father was one of the sons, Werner.
You know, the oldest in the movie is not a girl.
It was a boy, Rupert.
It was Rupert and Werner.
And Elisabeth, she is the daughter of Werner.
We have a special guest.
We want to welcome Elisabeth.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.
Thank you.
-And... -Thank you.
-...you know, of course, remember the other day they were wearing curtain cloth dresses, and I said, "Wow, they look so beautiful.
Where did you get them?"
They said, "Sorry, Birgit, to tell you, we tried to find the most ugliest fabric.
We actually made them ourselves."
So we have it all, I tell you.
But they looked wonderful, I have to say.
♪♪ [ Indistinct conversations ] [ Speaking indistinctly ] -Oh, wow.
-Can I take a picture?
-But, of course, not today.
We're here for "The Sound of Music."
[ Indistinct talking ] -Okay.
This is good.
-[ Laughs ] -Thank you.
-Thank you so much.
-You're very welcome.
I just have to ask if these are curtains that you've made into outfits.
-I bought the fabric online from a curtain.
And I never knew how to sew.
I bought a sewing machine to make my mom and I matching outfits for our trip.
-Oh, it's so beautiful that you learned to sew.
-Thank you.
-I had a clothing business for 15 years making Austrian dresses in Vermont.
-Uh-huh.
-But I came here at the age of 18 to learn how to make the dirndl dresses.
Well, the beauty of making something and bringing "The Sound of Music" into your moment, it's amazing.
-That's so sweet.
-Thank you.
-It's so beautiful to meet you.
-Thank you so much.
-You're very welcome.
-So much.
It's so nice to meet you.
-Kathy, and this is Hannah.
-It was my favorite movie.
-Oh.
This is the fulfillment.
It's the fulfillment.
I'm so happy for you.
-Thank you.
-Aw.
-I don't want to cry.
It's just -- -Well, it's the right emotion to have the fullness of what you -- why you're here.
-Yeah.
-It's amazing.
-I'm gonna cry.
-That's why I'm here.
-Oh.
-Thank you.
-My dad took me for my birthday.
-Yeah.
So sweet.
-I saw when it first came out when I was 10, in 1965.
-Yes, well, I was 12.
So, yeah, we saw the same thing.
-Yeah, we saw it about the same time.
[ Laughter ] -Oh, my goodness.
Here we have the generations.
We're -- We're almost ready.
-Do I have makeup running down my eyes?
-You're fine.
-You look beautiful.
No, it's not running down your eyes.
You look radiant.
[ Indistinct conversations ] -Okay.
-Hello.
-Anyone else?
-Yeah.
-She wants her picture.
-The doctor and your father.
-1, 2, 3.
I take one more.
Perfect.
-Okay.
-And did you want her in there, too?
Birgit?
-Yeah, Birgit?
I'll do the ladies, the three of us.
-The two ladies.
-Oh, you want lady picture.
-Dad, Dad, ladies.
-Lady picture.
Wait, and the curtains.
Oh.
-And the curtains!
-Hi.
Yeah.
Can you come be in the picture?
-We need one curtain right and left.
One right and left.
One curtain.
-Thank you.
-And the curtains.
-Thank you.
-That's so perfect.
-Okay, everybody.
♪♪ -Okay.
-That's so beautiful.
-You have to send that to us.
-Okay, I will.
Yeah.
♪♪ -Why am I relating to "The Sound of Music" from my relatives' point of view?
Because the people who saw it as a child, they're now in their 60s.
And we met a couple yesterday, and she said, "It brings the child back to me."
A woman stood before me.
She said, "I grew up in a very abusive family, and I decided at an early age," having seen "The Sound of Music," she came home after seeing the movie.
And she said, "I vowed to myself I would grow up and have a healthy family."
And with that, she stepped back and she goes, "And here are my four children."
And they stood before me, and she said, "I was so taken by that story, it changed how I could step out of the difficulty of my life and make a new life."
But for her to meet a real von Trapp was the closure that she wasn't just relating to some fictional story.
This is a really important part of the phenomenon.
It's real life.
-Do you mind if we take a picture with you?
-Please do.
-Okay.
One -- -You're cutting Diana out.
-I am.
-[ Laughs ] -I don't have those long arms.
-Don't forget your wife.
I just want to say thank you to you and your family for all the music and joy you've brought to the whole world for all these years, many decades.
-Well, thank you for your kind words.
I was born into that story.
-Yes, but you carry it on.
-It's their story.
-You could have let it go.
And you didn't.
You're continuing it.
And that's what's so special.
-Well, thank you for saying that.
-You're welcome.
-You make my day today.
You do.
It's beautiful.
-Well, thank you.
-But truth resides within story.
And we have the capacity within our thought, our heart, and our soul to, all of a sudden, there's certain scenes in "The Sound of Music" film where I start to cry.
And it's when the father sits down and plays guitar to the children.
And it's making me cry because that's my real experience with my own father.
And everybody has those points where they will have an emotional reality that plays out, whether it's the kiss, whether it's the running down or biking or whatever it is.
Something will resonate if the story is told well.
♪♪ ♪♪ That's a lifetime of hearing stories.
I would -- I need to condense it, because I've done archiving where I look at their photographs and I see how they told their collective story so well that they almost gave up their individual stories.
But then I would sit at their knee and I would coax out of them, what did they feel?
Whether it was my aunt, my father, my uncle, and each one of them held a different aspect of that.
It's like a prism.
And then the biggest story that I experienced as a child growing up, how they remade their life after being successful as a whole group, and then they disbanded as a choir.
That impressed me the most because I saw the strength of each one of them.
My father once said, "The most important thing is to know who you are within the family."
That is also my search.
With time to visit with head curator of the Salzburg Museum, Peter Husty, I'm learning about his vision and work.
He's connecting fiction to nonfiction by careful selection of archival treasures so he can accurately tell my relatives' story.
-As we are preparing the museum, I'm collecting objects, as well, belong to the film and, on the other side, to your family.
And I brought some of them.
What I'm astonished about the photo is that it is about 1937, and in the movie, when they emigrated in 1938, all the children were real children.
And here on the photo, they are all adults.
-They're all adults.
And this is the one thing I do tell people.
They were actively engaged in this decision of leaving.
They weren't children.
So it wasn't just the parents saying, "We're going to do this."
Each one of them specifically said yes.
And I find that that is part of not only their success, but how the phenomenon carries over.
-I have another photo here.
It's very early, from about 1913.
And it's a birthday party.
Your grandparents are two wonderful.
Here's Agathe.
And here is Georg von Trapp.
And with all the relatives, the relatives of her family, were the white hats.
This is all the Austrian noble families.
-Yeah, for me, this is the journey that I have come to ask you about, Peter, because this is a beautiful example of where they came from.
-Another photo here that shows Georg, your grandpa, with his submarines.
Yeah.
And in World War I, he was really one of the most important submarine captains of the Austrian Navy, as we had a navy at the time in Istria, in Trieste.
And then he met, during this period in World War I, his wife -- or his late wife, Agathe, in Trieste, in Istria.
And it was, from the very beginning, a relationship of romance, I think, and bad luck.
World War I began in 1940, and then it was not secure anymore in Istria for his wife and children.
And during the period from 1911 till '22, they had seven children, including your father, Werner.
And it's going on like this, because four years later, in 1922, Agathe died.
And I think after World War I and after this shock in '22, he was a little bit lost in his life, so to say, and he didn't know what to do because he had no work anymore.
And then friends of him offered him to come to Salzburg.
And this was the start here, because he bought a house in Salzburg from his friends.
And then he started, with seven children, a new life.
I have also plans from this house from our collections.
And you can see.
It's quite interesting because this is from the Villa Trapp.
And these are the plans of the architect to reconstruct it.
And we can really see that there is the floor where the rooms of the children are.
One daughter, another daughter.
The sleeping room of the others, the day room.
And here is the sleeping room of Georg von Trapp.
And on the other side, there's the room of the Erzieherin.
-The Erzieherin, yeah.
And the Erzieherin would become Maria.
♪♪ -And that's the Maria with the later success of the choir, as well as in the movie.
She is the central point of the further life of the family.
-And they are getting married up in Nonnberg.
-For sure.
This is really a starting point of the life in Salzburg.
♪♪ -I always knew I had to see the real house, where laughter and song echoed throughout the rooms and the gardens, where my relatives' earliest discovery in singing and making music together all began.
Once, I had the chance to visit the Trapp Villa with my parents.
During this visit, my father told me a story.
Within the first year that Maria spent time with them all, she cheerfully challenged the boys to climb the tallest trees standing in the garden surrounding their home.
She was the one who got to the top first, but in making her way to the top, she tore her dress, scraped her knee, as well.
And knowing the lyrics to "How do You Solve a Problem Like Maria" in "The Sound of Music," my father, he was so amused and amazed, saying, "How in the world did Rodgers and Hammerstein ever know to write those lyrics?"
I feel drawn to be here, to step into this unique space where all the earlier stories took place.
I remember when I once crossed the Trapp Villa threshold, it felt as if I was stepping back in time, and I imagine my grandfather's essence welcoming me into the living room.
I believe in that moment, from the many stories I had been told over my lifetime, that day came to life and sparked my imagination.
And as I stepped into the room, I felt as though I was able to step deeper into my whole life, as well.
Pater Andreas.
-It's good to see you.
How are you?
-It's so good to see you.
-Yes.
-And I'm so grateful that we could visit here, because I've had the thought of having time together.
And here we are.
-Yes.
-And if it weren't for you and the Precious Blood Order, we would not be standing here.
-This is true.
Yes.
Because we were already in the house before the war.
-Yes.
-Your family left.
And then your grandfather, he wanted that somebody lives in the house... -Yeah.
-...until they come back.
So this was his vision, I think, to come back again.
-Yeah.
-But they could not, so... And then -- And then the war came, and Heinrich Himmler came.
He took over the house here.
And then we had to go out again.
And after the war, you in the States, you decided not to come back.
So they wanted to sell the house and as Missionaries of the Precious Blood to have a seminar here, that the students can live here.
And this was the first effect was the first seminar of our congregation here.
-Really?
-Yes.
And we -- And the students lived here and they went to the university.
And, you know, I was a very friend of your father.
-Yeah.
Werner.
-Werner and Erika, your mother.
-Yeah.
-Because I got to know them when I was a student.
And they came over for one year to stay here because -- -Oh, yeah, with my grandmother, with Oma.
-And they went back to the States.
But they always came back.
-Yeah.
-So and also when they -- they came to the -- to Salzburg, they visited with me.
-To me, it's such a beautiful gift being here.
And I really thank you from the bottom of my heart for the work you've done to restore this beautiful home and the fact that I can be standing here greeting you up here and you making it possible.
And it's just a beautiful return from other visits.
But there is a return in my heart, I feel, because this home has been so cared for and you renovated it.
And even my father, I'm sure it was a very important part of his life to see that this part of their experience could be continued.
-Mm-hmm.
-And I thank you so much for the many ways that you have blessed our lives.
-Okay.
-Thank you.
Thank you.
-It's just very nice to meet you.
-Yeah.
-To have this opportunity to talk to you, yes.
-Yeah.
And that we have the chance just to visit.
♪♪ -But it's a long way, if we look at the photos, from the choir to the Broadway musical, as well to the movie from 1964.
And in between, there was a quite important book, I think.
That's the very original of the U.S.
success of everything, because Maria wrote the story down in a book, and the book is -- the content of the book is a perfect mixture of everything -- singing children, Austrian tradition, the emigration, the success starting in the United States with the tour, as well, with the lodge in Vermont that they established, because they settle in Vermont.
It's the same scenery, same landscape as we have in Salzburg.
What was first very necessary for their life to earn money with the -- with the tours and with the concerts, I think it was later on a little bit a problem for all of you and all of your aunts, wasn't it, because they were still in this traditional way of singing their music they brought from Europe.
And it ended, I think, in 1952 or '56.
-I think the last year was 1957 when they disbanded.
Everything changed.
Like in the '50s, there was a marked difference in the music and the expectation of audiences.
And that's one of the difficulties with touring musicians.
She was ahead of her time, how inventive she was.
When a situation was at risk, she always was willing to dare, and I think that's what they always mentioned.
Without her, they would have not -- they might not have stayed together or been able to stay together that long.
Every time "The Sound of Music" shows up in my life, in dialogue, meeting people that want to relate to me, I have found it's a connector that's just an amazing gift.
I could be the opposite, that I would just deny it and push it away.
It would take a lot of energy to do that.
Then I decided that I would play the part of Maria in the musical, and I fell in love with "The Hills Are Alive" as Maria sings it.
It's a hymn.
It's beautiful.
I got to know "The Sound of Music" from the inside being Maria and I did that two years after my grandmother passed away.
I actually told my parents, "I dove into the eye of the storm and I have accepted 'The Sound of Music.'"
And finally, I had my father come to the studio so he could really hear what I was recording.
And his reaction was all I needed.
He was just tears 'cause he could hear the music beautifully and it was surround sound.
And he understood what I was developing.
But it was in the context of his own life.
They had recorded 15 albums.
And here I was able to bring him to the studio and say, "This is what I wrote."
And all I needed was to have him say, "That's beautiful," that he supported my journey, and I have to be different.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ See, that's Papa's room on the second floor.
It's all lit.
He must be inside.
[ Laughs ] It's beautifully done.
Oh, my.
Oh, you look beautiful.
I love your outfit.
I know what part of the story we are in now.
This is like being in another world.
And you brought a beautiful world to me.
You always brought me books to read.
And I thank you for the many beautiful ways that you've blessed my life.
But today you come into a whole different magical world for me.
And the stories you used to tell when we'd come to visit and we'd sit at your feet.
Now you're at my foot.
You were at my wedding.
And how careful you checked out who I was marrying.
And you were there when we took our wedding picture.
♪♪ I'm so happy to see you.
I'm so happy that you're telling the story.
And I know you told me once, and you were much older.
You said, "It's a beautiful story and needs to be told."
And you today, as I see you, you're telling it.
You're telling it beautifully.
And so many times we would talk about music, life, choices in life.
Well, one day I will meet you in heaven as I meet you here.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Papa.
Thank you.
♪♪ Thank you.
I love you, too.
I love you dearly.
Auf Wiedersehen.
Auf Wiedersehen.
Yeah.
Auf Wiedersehen.
Auf Wiedersehen.
♪♪ ♪♪ The very weekend that my father passed away, I was in Death Valley.
[ Chuckles ] Way in the west.
Death Valley the day after he passed away.
The following day, very soon thereafter, I met a man who said he was born into a family where his parents were really amazing individuals, and it took him a lifetime to find his way beyond the shadow of their life.
This is what we're meant to do.
We're meant to evolve further with them, but evolve in love and in hope of our nature, of who we are to become.
I'm Elisabeth.
I'm Elisabeth von Trapp.
I've been growing into my name and into my purpose since the moment I was conceived.
And I know that I'm still learning.
But today I'm more alive in telling and finding and sharing my life with others and trusting and entrusting myself to others than I've ever been.
And you're a part of that.
♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -[ Vocalizing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪
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