Memories of Joel Weltman

In memory of

Joel Weltman

Hollywood, FL, USA

November 3, 1943 - February 10, 2020

Nov 3, 1943 - Feb 10, 2020

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Bendt Sten

2023, Drosselvej 17, 7470 Viborg, Karup J, Danmark

Memories of my brother and friend Joel; when I power up my computer, on the screen there's Joel, drinking a cup of coffee. Taken by Shannon Weltman.

I miss you Brother 🙏😢🙏

And I miss our conversations🙏

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Shanon Weltman

Bendt Sten

Hollywood, Florida, USA

I met Joel on Facebook. We shared many interests, planes and photography and the human interaction. After many mails and messages, we talked almost every day. I decided to go and visit Joel. We spent many hours, talking and watching clips on YouTube, with and about planes. We were like brothers, as if we had grown up together. After the initial visit, I spent many days of leave with Joel, I served in the Royal Danish Air Force.

We traveled along the east coast of Florida and to Key West af well.

I miss you brother🙏🙏🙏

And wish you were here to receive this birthday wish.

Happy birthday Joel🙏🤗🙏

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Shanon Weltman

Bonnie Singer

Always think of you on your birthday, and remember happy times. Bonnie

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Bendt Sten

Shanon Weltman

Bendt Sten

Hollywood, Florida, USA

I met Joel on Facebook. Er shared many interests, planes and photography and the human interaction.

After many mails, messages, and a few years of talking, almost every day. I decided to go and visit Joel. The visit was a great success. We were like brothers. 🙏🙏🙏

And I, after the initial visit. Spent many days of leave, from my job in the Royal Danish Air Force, visiting and travelling along the east coast of Florida with Joel. Including a couple of trips to Key West.

Thank you brother for many great visits and find memories. And last but not least; I miss you Joel.

I wish you were here to receive this birthday wish.

Happy Birthday dear Joel 🙏🇺🇸🇩🇰🙏

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Shanon Weltman

Linda Bladholm

ICE CREAM IN EUSTICE

Me and Joel were on another Florida road trip, this time to Mt. Dora in Central Florida about an hour east of Orlando. It is in what is called the Lakeland area because there are many lakes in the region. We enjoyed looking around the antique shops and quaint boutiques where I bought a sort of hippie long floral skirt. We drove out of town and came across Eustice right on one of the lakes where we stopped for ice cream. We could have had ice cream in Mt. Dora but suddenly it seemed like we had to have some in Eustice. One reason for the stop was the name, a variation Eustace. I met Euatance in South India and since we were both in Chicago then we became friends. Joel met him when I married and moved to Miami Beach and we were all friends so when we saw the sign not far from Mt. Dora for Eustice (the Latin name means prosperous and fruitful) we knew we had to stop. I think it was an old timey Dairy Queen, the kind you can only find in old small towns. Suddenly ice cream was our purpose and I got butterscotch ripple and Joel stuck with vanilla. We sat under a live oak dripping in Spanish moss--not sure why they are called live oaks as opposed to dead oaks and why is Spanish moss and not Florida moss but I just recall sitting there very contented in the company of Joel and our ice cream cones on a hot day with a car with broken AC and a long way home to Miami.

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Bendt Sten

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Linda Bladholm

Charleston or Bust

On one of our trips from South Florida to the Washing D. C. area to visit Joel's mom, Freda we were barreling down I-95 heading North when the signs for Charleston South Carolina started popping up. After always planning our route north (usually the fastest and most efficient) Joel often would take a detour to explore side roads and small towns which I loved. Suddenly Joel took and exit and we were heading east to Charleston, a city neither of us had ever been sure. Sure it was out of the way but it was Charleston or bust! Joel was at his best when doing something spontaneous. It took about three hours and we parked and walked around the pastel antebellum homes (mansions mostly) lining the harbor and then exporing the historic market district nearby where horses pulled carriages for rides and produce was sold. We had shrimp and grits with a iced sweet tea and regretfully headed west and back to the interstate but I'll never forget the few hours we spent in the old port city that was built on the slave trade but we didn't dwell on that, we were stepped in Spanish moss and an city the pre dated the Civil War. This was not the time to dwell on dark side of history, we just enjoyed an escape from the reality of visiting Joel's clan. Yes, we arrived late but it was worth it for a lifelong happy memory.

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Bendt Sten

Shared a heart

Linda Bladholm

When I met Joel I did my writing on an electric typewriter--this was 1994 and I did not have or know how to use a computer. It wasn't that I was against technology, it just hadn't come into my life until Joel. After we met in Bangladesh on a press trip and I returned to Chicgo in January with below zero temps Joel invited me to Miami and I took him up on the offer as I'd never been although I had been to St. Pete/Clearwater on the east coast of Florida on a family vacation in high school. Joel was not the easiest teacher but he made me literate and over a week visit that turned into a month. I will always be grateful for him for bringing me into the computer age and teaching a dinosaur (me) the skills I use today.

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Bendt Sten

Linda Bladholm

This is about Michael Jordan and Joel. No, they never met in person but during the Chicago Bulls run for their historic championships Joel and Jordan "met" every night through the TV screen. Around the time I return moved back to Chicago the run had begun and I went to a friends house to watch the games and the ring ceremonies. When Joel I were living at 21st and Liberty , Miami Beach we had a TV and at first I watched the Bulls games alone, basketball was not really Joel's thing, baseball was. But when he heard me screaming when Jordan scored, slowly Joel started watching with me. He came to love the game or if he didn't he loved it for me and we watched every game together and he came to really admire Jordan. Through watching the games and the victories ending with more NBA championships we shared so many special nights cheering the Bulls on. I would say he became as much of a Chicago Bulls fan as he was a New York Yankees fan.
LindA

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Bendt Sten

Linda Bladholm

I'm thinking of Joel today as it marks a year since he found peace. I I I I I first met Joel in JFK airport on a mid January day in 1994 that was 17 below zero-my flight from Chicago was delayed due to an iced engine. I had a very long time reaching NY and was tired but Joel had just hopped up from Miami and had seen on the press trip profile of myself that I had recently been to Vietnam and he wanted to hear all about it. He was so eager I told him some of my experiences and then withdrew to nap. Our flight to Dhaka, on the inaugural flight between NYC and Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh was delayed and delayed due to the freezing conditions but we finally boarded. The first week I traveled alone with a driver and guide but the second week only three people stayed on: Me, Joel and a grouchy older photographer. We went south to Chittigong, Coxes Bazaar and into the hill tribe area near the border of Burma. More than once I got up early to capture a relic or landscape in the glow of the sunrise and at breakfast the old grouch would be so mean to me I was brought to tears and Joel comforted me and told the grouch off. We also tried some hill tribe moonshine made from fermented rice from a recycled pop bottle from a kid named Monque who brought us to his families home for a real experience not planned as part of the press trip. Joel was so happy that day, I'll never forget the pure joy on my future husbands face. God bless you Joel.

Linda

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Bendt Sten

Linda Bladholm

One Halloween we had decided to go to the costume parade that Lincoln Road becomes on Miami Beach. I had spent months making a paper maiche panda head using a balloon and newspaper strips dipped in glue. Joel didn't want to dress up but escorted me which turned out to be good because the eye holes were too small and I was bungling around bumping into people but spirits were high and the crowd was having fun and so was Joel. He took my arm and steered me through the throngs of revelers. I could not wait to get that panda off so I took Joel up on an offer for dinner at Rosinella's, an Italian pace we liked and frequented. Over pasta we talked about the craziness we had been a part of and when I walk by the restaurant which is still there I laugh about the panda head and how Joel guided me through the mobs as I was nearly blind!

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Bendt Sten

Linda Bladholm

I have happy memories of a day trip to Key West with Joel and John Rosenquist, the damaged goods son of the famous pop artist James Rosenquist. He had brain damage from a car accident and while not severe he had a childlike quality about him. Me and Joel laughed as at every stop he would say "let's get beer, wine and soda" Of course all we bought for him was soda. John was smart and funny just different but we liked him despite being his baby sitters. We got to Key West and went to Sloppy Joe's, the Hemingway hangout and bar and me and Joel had a beer, then we went to the big buoy marking the southernmost point in the U.S., took pictures and went to the Hemingway House to see the memorabilia and pet some six-toed Hemingway cats. Joel was always in a good mood when we traveled any where, it was like all the stress of life was suspended and he told jokes that made me and John laugh. We got conch fritters and Key lime pie from a seafood shack and just bummed around having a fun day until sunset when we headed to Mallory Square where is a performance every night, sort of a street artist circus with music. What I remember most was how thrilled Joel was when a guy came out with several faming hoops that his trained cats jumped through. After the show we ate seafood at Blue Heaven and I suggested we stay over night but Joel was ready to head home knowing what a long haul it was from Key West to Miami Beach. We dropped John off when we got to Miami and got home exhausted but happy at what a great adventure we'd had. To thank us Mr. Rosenquist took us out to dinner at a fancy Thai place on Washington Avenue on Miami Beach where we recapped the whole day over pad Thai and a few beers. I still think of the excitement on Joel's face watching the cats going through the flaming hoops.

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Bendt Sten

Linda Bladholm

I met a Finnish music producer through a singer I was photographing (she was a singer) and she told me a Russian Cantor need photos for the cover of his CD. Me and Joel met Vladimir and liked him instantly. He had already paid for the production but it was very poor and Joel figured he was just ripping the guy off and going ask for more money to do it again. So Joel invited the producer to service at Temple Emanuel on Washington and 17th Street Miami Beach. Vladimir didn't know he was there but turns out the producer was blown away and decided to do another improved production at no charge! Turns out he was trying to rip Vladimir off but hearing him sing , he realized the guy was very talented. When we explained this Vladimir he said "the oil and water always separate" meaning the bad sinks and the good rises. For the rest of time I was with Joel we always said "the oil and water always separate" over everything not right, big or small and we would laugh remembering Vladimir saying the expression in his thick Russian accent.

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Bendt Sten

Linda Bladholm

One day on our trek to an Asian supermarket for supplies, I got an idea to write a guide to Asian markets for the Miami Herald where I am a columnist as many people including Joel told me they found them smelly and confusing. Joel looked at me and said "you should write a book". At the time I was working as an illustrator for conflict-resolution books for K-8th grade. Joel said quit that job, I'll support you so you can write the book. So one of Joel's students took over at the Peace-Education Foundation so I didn't leave anyone in the lurch. And my author of the Demystifying series began. I owe that career to him and and am forever grateful.

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Bendt Sten

Linda Bladholm

When we were living in Miami Beach at Liberty and 21st I had a pet turtle, a small red slider that I got very attached to. I can't remember his name but I'm trying to. We brought him on a road trip to see Freda in a plastic container punched with holes. By the time we reached the D.C. area I could tell the turtle was sick. After checking in at Ilona's Joel drove me around looking for a vet that dealt with turtles until we found one that did. She gave him a shot and he seemed fine and entertained everyone--how many people travel with turtles? Back home one day about a year later I took a writing break and went to admire the little guy but he was belly up on his back and dead. I called Joel at work, crying and he said he was in middle of project but we'd deal with it when he got home. About 20 minutes later he walked in the door and wrapped his arms around me comforting me. He had to go back to work but I will never forget him coming home knowing how devastated I was.

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Shanon Weltman

Bendt Sten

Linda Bladholm

The first year I was married to Joel we lived in Park Slope Brooklyn and it was Christmas Eve and he knew having a tree meant a lot we out in search in the dark and cold and found a very small one, probably the top of a larger one. We came home and I decorated with ornaments I had collected over the years. Mean we had some mice that would get into the stove and roll around some pistachio nuts. At first Joel wanted to set trap but I said it IS Christmas Eve. WE walked to a nearby church for midnight mass--Joel was Jewish but didn't mind church once in a blue moon. The priest was very tall and Joel called him the basketball padre. For the few nights we listed to the mice then the nut rolling stopped and Joel said I sometimes can't open a pistachio, how could a mouse with such tiny paws? I was touched. Linda

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