Colette Yvette Bringel

Memorial contributions may be made to NAMI (National Association of Mental Illness). Colette Bringel's mother was German from Bobenneukirchen, near Dresden. Her father was from Mulhouse, Alsace, France. Her parents met in Dresden when her father came back from the Russian Front in World War I. Her future parents soon married and settled in Strasbourg. Colette was born in 1934 and reared in Strasbourg, Alsace, France. She had one brother and six sisters. During the German occupation of World War II she attended German School until the Liberation in 1945; then French schooling resumed at Pigier, in Meknes, Morrocco, where one of her sisters and her brother-in-law Captain/Pilot were stationed with the French Air Force. She stayed one year to help her sister and nephew while her Pilot brother-in-law served one year in French Indo China (Vietnam). Once back in France, she decided to learn English as a third language to enhance her business skills, and, of course, she just loved the language for its own sake! Through a Swiss agency in Lausanne, she and another sister (the youngest one) went to work as au pairs in England. The first six months were spent in Frome, Sommerset, and then one year was spent in London. There she met her future U.S. Air Force husband (who hailed from St. Louis). She married the following year and come to the United States later that same year. Well, the rest of this long story you already know from her son's (Frank Wipfler) bio in the last Newsletter. While she may not have graduated with high honors as her son has, her son is all brains, and she is all muscles!!! Can't you tell? Colette enjoys reading, study of scriptures, classical music, and operas. For hobbies, she makes button dolls (at very reasonable prices!), crochets, knits and creates beautiful gift cards with real dried flowers.