Because she's so darn cute.
I'm glad she's not hugging trees in the Transylvanian woods any longer.
Or in Austria, for that matter.
She should feel somewhat comfortable here in Utah, because...
If we take a closer look at the mountains of Transylvania,
we could as easily be looking at the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains (Utah)
as at the Harghita Range of the Carpathian Mountains (pictured below).
The Siegmund family spent happy times at a cabin
they called Die Mühle ("The Mill")
in the Harghita region of the Carpathian Mountains (east of Székelyudvarhely).
After moving to Oklahoma in the 1950s,
they would drive for hours to reach the mountains of Colorado every summer,
perhaps to recreate the experience of their homeland.
Marianne's dad spent the last years of his life in Provo
(spending some time with us and some with the Alzheimers),
and whenever we drove him toward the mountains,
he would point to them excitedly and say:
Dort bin ich mit meinem Bruder Walter gewandert!
("That's where I used to hike with my brother Walter!").
Thanks to a U.S. Army transport ship with the romantic name "General Blatchford,"
the Siegmunds found their way from Europe to the New World.
What does that all mean for me?
It means that now I have to check my neck
for puncture wounds
after each full moon.