Page 51 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2021- Online Magazine

allowed to emigrate because and hard workers. Erika has been a
all quotas were full. Late in the Bookkeeper/Accountant since she
day, she was finally able to see was a young girl but is adamant that
the Consul. He believed her she is about to retire. Dean still goes
when she said that, one way to work every day. “I don’t play golf,
or another, her child would be so I don’t know what I’d do with
born an American – either there myself if I retired.” It’s obvious they
in the Consulate, or in America. enjoy each other’s company. “We
He issued a Visa. By 5 p.m., get up early and sit and talk almost
she was on the night train to every morning”, Erika says. Despite
Chicago. the dramatic differences in their
origins and two separately fulfilling
Erika arrived on November lifetimes, Dean and Erika Shuman
1, 1956, and baby Bruce came have settled into a happy coexistence
three weeks later. Henry in another Erika-designed home
had rented a room from Al with an idyllic view of the lake. Their
Capone’s Italian widow, who children, grandchildren and great-
watched television incessantly. grandchildren all agree – they really
The everyday routine with the are a good fit!
Italian widow and American
television taught Erika to speak
English. The Hoeves lived in Chicago for three
years and moved to Los Angeles after short stints
in Michigan and Florida. Two more sons were
born, Clifford and Gregory.

After 11 years in California, Henry came to manage
a pump company in Lubbock. Commuting grew
onerous, and he brought Erika to West Texas. A
beautiful lakeside property in Ransom Canyon
convinced her to move in 1975. They built a
beautiful home that Erika designed.

Three years later, Henry and Erika started a
business manufacturing couplings and general
pipe fittings. Henry served as an Electromechanical
Engineer, and Erika as Administrator and
Accounting Manager. After Henry’s death in 2008,
their youngest son Gregory was named president
of the company. Mrs. Hoeve also served 15 years
on the Ransom Canyon Town Council, and 14
years on the Lubbock Family Service Board. She
was also able to visit her mother many times in
Germany before she died in 2006 at the age of 94.

The Hoeves and the Shumans had been friends
for many years. Dean and Erika reconnected a
few years after Dean’s wife, Joyce, and Erika’s
husband Henry passed away. The relationship
blossomed, and the couple recently celebrated
their tenth anniversary. They are both early risers

Lubbock Senior Link 51