Claudine Weber-Hof

There was one aspect of Claudine Weber-Hof’s emails that always stood out to me. Claudine was my editor at Spotlight magazine, and in her electronic messages, I often noticed that her valedictions were very elaborate. 

For example, instead of just writing “Warm Regards” or “Sincerely,” she would sometimes write, “Best, and thanks a ton” or, “Best, and thanks again for the fine work.”

As a writer, I often wondered whether such elaborate sign-off lines were “allowed.” But since Claudine was a top editor and had spent her life in journalism, I always assumed she was correct. 

Unfortunately, I’ll never be able to ask Claudine about her proclivity for long valedictions because she died suddenly in January. 

It was only recently, though, that I found out. I was traveling in Munich, where Spotlight is based, and had sent an email to Claudine asking her if she wanted to meet for coffee. A few days later, Inez Sharp, Spotlight’s editor-in-chief, returned my email and told me to call her, which was how I got the tragic news. 

I first met Claudine in 2014, when I pitched an unsolicited story idea to Spotlight. Though she wasn’t able to accept this pitch of mine--and had to reject a few others that were to follow--she always said that she admired my “tenacity.” In 2015, Claudine was finally able to give me some work--just a few small articles for the opening pages of the magazine--but in 2018 there was a breakthrough. I had pitched Claudine with a column idea and the magazine accepted it. Getting the “English Explained” column in Spotlight was a huge coup for me at the time and an achievement I’m still proud of. 

I really will miss the chats I had with Claudine over the years in Germany. She was also an American and we would sometimes talk for 30-minute stretches about our experiences as expats and our love for dogs. Especially memorable was one of the last phone calls we had. In it, she said that she had really enjoyed reading a feature-length story I had written--my first for the magazine--and she looked forward to assigning me similar pieces in the future.

Anyway, it’s incredibly sad that Claudine and I will never be able to get that cup of coffee. It’s also sad that I’ll never hear her voice again, that we’ll never be able to work together again, and that we won’t be able to chat about all the hilarious differences between Germans and Americans ever again. 

You know, as I was writing this post, I actually looked up whether it truly is correct to use non-standard, longer valedictions. Turns out, it’s 100 percent correct. So in honor of Claudine, I’ll close this post with a sign-off line like one of hers.

Yours always in friendship and understanding (and thanks again for the fine work),   

Chad