
“I lifted my head and through a veil of tears watched Jörgi turn around one more time….Then I heard and felt a loud thump, and the door closed shut. they were gone. From then on, that three-year-old girl began living alone inside herself in a closed-off world.”

Winter 1963: Kerstin and Jörgi at home in Worms before the illness

Summer 1963: Kerstin’s iron frame bed with her Steif monkey

Early Summer 1963: Jörgi feeds Kerstin at the Kinderklinik

Early 1960s: Prinzregent Luitpold Kinderklinik in Scheidegg

Christmas 1963: Kerstin's family visits Scheidegg. At the guest pension.

Kerstin and Jörgi at the window

On the path to the Klinik

Sledding on a hill near the pension

Official Christmas photo of Kerstin

Christmas Eve at the Kinderklinik

Kerstin by the tree

February 1964: A little dwarf dressed up for carnival

May 1964: Mother’s Day photo at the Kinderklinik

September 1964: Jörgi’s first day of school in Worms

August 1965: Kerstin arrives at the train station in Worms with a social worker (far left); she is greeted by Mutti, Omi Charlotte, Jörgi, and Vati (taking the photo)

July 1998: Return to the Kinderklinik

Hallway where Kerstin met her parents as a child.

Kerstin at the Ulrichskapelle, the chapel in the woods

Kerstin's husband, Richard

View from the Kinderklinik

Children walking through the woods

Woods surrounding the Kinderklinik