Well-known, long-term resident dies
KALLE Trautmann, a well-known, long-term Yeşiltepe and Girne resident, passed away on Monday night during a visit to İstanbul and will be buried in Girne tomorrow.
Mr Trautmann and his artist wife Heidi were on a trip with eight artists from the Cyprus Paper Artists’ Association, including İsmet Tatar and Emel Samioğlu, for a joint exhibition which was then cancelled by unanimous decision. Mrs Trautmann said: “Kalle, my husband and best friend, left the garden of life on October 2, in the middle of the night, in İstanbul, in his sleep, the way he always wanted it to be.
“I want to thank all those who have expressed their sadness.”
The popular artist, who also shared a photograph of her husband “taken just some hours before he left us, in a small café near Taksim Square in the midst of our friends”, was deluged with messages of sympathy from the North Cyprus artistic community and friends.
After building their yacht Early Bird together, the Trautmanns sailed the Mediterranean for six years before visiting Cyprus in 1999 and “laying anchor for good in 2001”.
Mr Trautmann was a keen nature lover, designer and builder and completed much of the work on their self-designed and built Villa Manzara home in Yeşiltepe himself. The couple moved to Girne for convenience a few years ago.
His funeral takes place at noon tomorrow in the Girne International Cemetery, run by The Foreign Residents in the TRNC and situated opposite the Pia Bella Hotel.