Brigitte Petsch Cullen

Brigitte Petsch Cullen, 80, of Frederick, Maryland, formerly of Clovis, New Mexico, passed away on Monday, November 1, 2021 at Country Meadows retirement community of Frederick.

Born May 1, 1941 in Berlin, Germany, Brigitte’s arrival was eclipsed by the bombing of Berlin by Allied forces. While her mother lay in the hospital awaiting the birth of their second daughter, the rest of the family was confined to an air raid shelter. By Brigitte’s first birthday she had spent over 20 days in air raid shelters. The bombing continued to escalate and just before her third birthday, Brigitte, her mother, grandmother and sister packed suitcases into a small child’s wagon and fled Berlin on foot. They walked 155 miles from Berlin to Dresden and on to a farm in Lawalda, Germany near the border with Poland and the Czech Republic. At war’s end they made the return voyage by foot and train back to their apartment located in the newly formed British sector of West Berlin that was now encapsulated by the Soviet “Iron Curtain”.

Brigitte, like other post-war Berliner children, played amongst the ruins, attended school, dealt with food shortages and slipped back and forth across the Soviet border into East Berlin to see relatives and find sources of scarce foods. At 16, Brigitte graduated high school with a Technical degree and bought a train ticket to chase her dreams in Paris, France. Working as an Au pair for an American family in Paris she made time to perfect her French as well as study art and literature at the Alliance Francaise. The next year she returned to her family in Berlin and attended the Berlitz school of English. At 18, she had her first job as an English interpreter/translator for a US mining company in Berlin. While babysitting for a family friend, she met Richard Cullen, an Air Force Russian language specialist stationed in Berlin. They were married the same year on September 25 ^th 1959 and honeymooned in Paris.

In a move that would become quite common for the newlyweds, Brigitte left her family, her belongings and big city life to follow Richard 5000 miles away to his rural hometown of Yakima, Washington in the Pacific Northwest. Within a year they moved to the suburbs of Seattle where language jobs remained challenging to find. With few options for income, she worked part time at the World’s Fair and the local gas company in order to pay Richard’s way through his Bachelor’s degree program at the Univ. of Washington. At the same time, she trained and worked as a dental hygienist. Brigitte and Richard welcomed a son, Michael, born May 29 ^th 1961, and the couple continued to juggle work, education and raising a family. At the age of 23 Brigitte was naturalized as a citizen of the United States of America.

In 1965 the family of three gave away all possessions that would not fit into a 1948 Chrysler Windsor and drove across country for a one way flight to Berlin to help Brigitte’s sister Christiane with their ailing parents. Brigitte’s mother Charlotte had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease after the war. This had placed an additional burden on her 89 year old grandmother and father, who at the time was undergoing cancer treatments. Within a year both parents and grandmother had been moved to more suitable living accommodations, the family apartment emptied and Brigitte and the family were back on a plane with nothing more than what they could carry, heading for a Virginia suburb of Washington D.C.

Virginia is where the family would set roots for the next 35 years raising and educating Michael and their youngest Johanna, born October 21 ^st 1971. Balancing work and family, Brigitte took on flexible administrative positions with the World Bank, the Civil Rights Commission and the Food and Drug Administration. In 1970 Brigitte resumed teaching and translating German and French at the US Patent office, followed by the German Embassy, the Berlitz School and later the Fairfax County Public School system. Always one for a linguistic challenge she enjoyed evening classes studying Italian. In her mid-forties, Brigitte landed her dream job working out of her home office as a freelance technical translator of German patents. She was highly sought-after for her ability to understand and translate challenging concepts in chemistry and engineering. This last job would be a rewarding labor of love for more than ten years. Upon retirement, Brigitte and Richard immersed themselves in the Native American culture through literature, music and weekends at the sacred Pow wow social gatherings of North American indigenous peoples. Through Richard’s mentor work at Saint Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, Brigitte became close friends with Central and South American families, prompting her to study conversational Spanish.

In 2002 Brigitte and Richard moved to Clovis, New Mexico for the second chapter of their retirement. Close to their daughter Johanna and future son-in-law Jerry, the desert southwest would become the muse for their artistic outlet. John and Shannon Muir’s art studio in Clovis would be the spark that ignited an art renaissance for Brigitte and Richard. Over the next seventeen years Brigitte picked up where she left off, as a young artist, producing countless pieces of art in watercolor, charcoal and colored pencil. She also returned to her Christian roots singing in the Westminster Presbyterian Church choir. As was the case wherever they set roots, Brigitte and Richard lived a rich social life. Their friends were essential to happiness in life.

Having driven through every state of the “Lower 48” and crisscrossed the country over five times they made one last stop in Frederick, Maryland so they could be closer to their son Michael and daughter-in-law Allison and move into an assisted living community. Richard and Brigitte celebrated their 60 ^th wedding anniversary on September 25, 2019. Richard passed away from complications of Covid-19 on April 13, 2020.

Brigitte is survived by her two children Michael Cullen (and Allison) and Johanna Cullen Pettrey (and Jerry), her brother-in-law Peter Cullen (and Laura), her brother-in-law Joseph Colgan and eight nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her husband Richard, parents Richard and Charlotte Petsch, sister Christiane Petsch, her nephews Patrick Cullen and Benjamin Colgan, her niece Kellie Cullen and her sisters-in-law Patricia Colgan and Inez Marie Cullen.

A celebration of life for both Brigitte and Richard will be held Summer of 2022 where the family will welcome friends and family. Please share condolences at https://www.keeneybasford.com/obituary/brigitte-cullen.

In lieu of flowers, the families ask that memorial donations be made in her name for any of the following:  St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Best Friends Animal Society or Navajo Ministries.