'And one day, without calling ahead, I found myself standing at Joe Louis's door. A woman answered the door, seemed startled for a moment, and then said in surprise, 'Oh, Mr Schmeling! Please come in!'
She told me that Joe unfortunately was not at home but out playing golf, and that she would call him right away. But Joe was already on his way home. I had only waited a few minutes when the front door opened. I heard her speak to him and then he was standing before me. For a few moments he stood there as if he had grown roots. Then he dropped his golf bag and rushed over to me. 'Max! How good to see you again!'
As we sat over a coffee a little later I brought up how people had, since our first meeting, tried to turn opponents into enemies. 'I just want you to know...,' I began, but he cut me off immediately: 'Forget all that stuff!' He said. 'For a long time people tried the same thing with me. There were times when I believed what they wrote. But today I know better.' I sensed that he wasn't just saying that.
We sat there together for hours, until late in the evening, talking about the great fights and the old friends. And it was only then that I realized how much it had bothered me over the years that the hatreds of the times had managed to separate us.'
- Max Schmeling
