an update on the Fritzls

I first wrote about the Fritzl family’s ordeal a few weeks ago, and I’ve continued to keep tabs their recovery in Austria, which, happily, is going far better than I think anybody anticipated. And I continue to use their experience as a touchstone for reminding myself just how lucky I am in life.

Some updates:

The Fritzl family made a big poster for the town of Amstetten, to thank them for their love and support. It said: “We, the whole family, would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you for sympathy at our fate. Your compassion is helping us greatly to overcome these difficult times, and it shows us there also are good and honest people here who really care for us. We hope that soon there will be a time where we can find our way back into a normal life.” They traced their handprints on the poster and each person wrote a message in his or her handprint. The messages included:

Stefan: I miss my sister. Am enjoying freedom and my family. Like the sun, fresh air, and nature.

Alexander: I wish for freedom, power, and strength, and the sun. I miss fire brigade, school, and my sister Kerstin.

Grandma: I wish to live with my children in peace with the help of God. I miss my kind friends and my freedom.

Elisabeth: Wishes—my daughter Kerstin’s recovery, my children’s love, protection for my family, people with warm hearts and understanding.

Lisa: Wishes—health, that everything goes well, love, happiness. Misses—Kerstin, school, friends, fresh air, Class 1C.

Felix: Sleigh rides, driving in a car, playing ball, swimming. Playing with other children, friendship, running in the meadows.

Monika: Wishes—that Kerstin gets better, lots of love, that everything is soon past. Misses—fire brigade, music school, friends, school, Kerstin.

Meanwhile, Josef Fritzl has been sent hundreds of love letters from lonely women offering him romance. Some of the women have said that Fritzl is “good at heart” and misunderstood. Oy.

And in that vein, a scant two months after Elisabeth and her children were rescued, tourists have begun posing for photographs outside the Fritzl house. Two police officers are now permanently stationed at the house to deter tourists. One local resident told the press, “It is bad enough that journalists and TV crews have beleaguered our town, but now there is this ghoulish tourism with people coming to Amstetten just to see the house in Ybbstrasse. It is appalling, we just want to be left in peace.”

Backtracking a bit, it’s being reported that when Elisabeth saw her mother for the first time in April she broke down in tears and said: “I can’t believe I’m free—is it really you?” At their emotional reunion, Elisabeth said: “I can’t believe I’m out. I didn’t think I would ever see you again. It’s all too much for me. I don’t ever want to see him again.” She was also reunited with the children that were taken away from her while she was forced to living the tiny dungeon with her three other children. “My babies. You are so beautiful,” Elisabeth said as she held them close and stroked their faces.

Elisabeth’s sister Gabriele has said: “None of us can believe how normal Elisabeth seems. She is healthy and very chatty and doing very well. Every day she gets a bit stronger. I can’t say what the family is going through. It’s more than anyone can believe. It has devastated us. We are working together to support Elisabeth. She is overjoyed to see her children. She told them they were beautiful and she is spending all the time getting to know them.”

The family’s lawyer Christoph Herbst said: “Elisabeth is very happy to be re-discovering the world. She is very keen to go outside and feel the rain on her skin. But it is important for them to adjust slowly. For now they just talk to each other. But Elisabeth and her children who lived in the cellar have no concept of time and of the future. Some people who hear the story think Elisabeth is like something from a horror film. But rumors that she has no teeth and cannot talk are not true. If you met her you would not realize what she has been through, as she seems just like every normal person. She tells her family that all she longs for is a normal life—or as normal a life as they can get. That’s her only wish.”

Life is also difficult for the three children who were living upstairs because they are now in darkness at the clinic. Herbst said: “But they are all happy and there is a lot of laughter, which you might not expect. Felix makes everyone laugh. They are teaching him to run because inside the cellar he could not run. It is really brilliant how Elisabeth has reacted to the outside world. They are all rather fine. Elisabeth is really an impressive person. She is very strong. She’s happy now for the first time.”

In his first British TV interview, Herbst told how five-year-old Felix recently saw a thunderstorm for the first time. He said the family live a “more or less regular life” in the Austrian hospital they have lived in since the authorities discovered that Josef Fritzl had locked up his secret family in the cellar. He said: “They rise at about six or seven in the morning. Then they have breakfast together. They get the breakfast from the hospital... Then they sit together at a large table and talk, discuss and make jokes. Then everybody does their own thing. They play on the computer, they read books, do some drawings, whatever they want ... It’s very amazing to watch the family because they behave like a normal family.”

He said of the children: “Elisabeth tried to educate the children in the dungeon. They had lessons, they learned grammar, they learned the language, mathematics. So they have been raised very well, they are very well behaved....I think Elisabeth tried to give them a structure and a good life under the circumstances in the dungeon.”

Meanwhile, Felix was recently thrilled to discover McDonald’s was real—after being taken on a secret trip there. The six-year-old was told ads he saw on TV for the burger giant were fiction. A source said after the youngster tucked into his first Happy Meal: “He loved it.”

Stefan, Felix, and Elisabeth have now discarded the protective goggles doctors insisted they wear as their eyes adjusted to sunlight. The boys have also been given immunization shots normally received by newborn babies—but which their mother was unable to provide during their years of incarceration.

A source said: “It was wonderful. The light sensitivity they were suffering two weeks ago has almost disappeared. Doctors were concerned that the boys lacked immunization to everyday illnesses. But after the jabs, they’re happy that they now have enough resistance to mix with others.” This means that Stefan and Felix have taken their first-ever steps in the “magical” outside world. The brothers finally ventured out of the psychiatric clinic and they marveled at their surroundings as they wandered among trees, picked flowers, and gazed at the abundance of wildlife. They were especially fascinated by hundreds of goldfish swimming in a pond in the grounds of Austria’s Mauer Landesklinkum clinic. Before the dusk adventure, the lads had been allowed only to watch from their hospital apartment—staring open-mouthed at the sight of night turning to day.

The source added: “Elisabeth and Rosemarie enjoy cooking for the children and giving them new tastes. Stomaching new foods is no problem for Stefan and Felix—they are fascinated by every dish. The youngsters are allowed DVDs and computer games at night. The siblings have gelled incredibly well. It’s astounding to think how quickly they have all slotted into their new family roles.”

And the source denied reports that Elisabeth is now white-haired with stumps for teeth. He said: “She is attractive. Her hair’s a normal color, she still has her teeth and her figure is slim.”

But the freed family have been forced to start rigorous exercise routines to restore bodies crippled by lack of sunlight and movement in their 180 square feet prison. Stefan was practically bent double when police rescued him.

Orthopedic specialist Dr. Stefan Preis said: “Their cardiovascular systems, muscles, and joints have been severely diminished.”

Kerstin Fritzl is said to be recovering well after being woken up from her artificially induced coma on May 15.

“She opened her eyes and showed emotions for the first time, we laughed and she laughed,” said Amstetten hospital chief Dr. Albert Reiter, adding that he expected her to develop normally and suffer no lasting damage.

“I said “hi” to her and she replied with a “hallo.” It was an intensely dramatic moment. I am especially proud that Kerstin could walk the distance to her new residence and into her new life,” Reiter said.

Kerstin saw daylight for the first time in her life after she awoke in the intensive care ward. According to Reiter, the first wish she made to her carers was to go on a boat trip—and to visit a Robbie Williams concert. “Even immediately after she awoke she would listen to Robbie Williams until 3am. I then would have to intervene, for her to turn down the music and get some rest,” Reiter said. According to him, Kerstin is able to read and write, communicates easily, and is on the road to a full recovery.

“For all of us, Kerstin’s surprising recovery is a great relief,” said Berthold Kepplinger, director of the Mauer Landesklinkum clinic.

Kerstin’s mother Elisabeth visited her daughter regularly in the hospital but had to be transported in utmost secrecy in order to avoid the attention of the international press. Doctors also insisted on her presence for therapeutic reasons, and claim that her presence alongside Kerstin immediately after she woke had had an “immensely positive effect.”

Herbst described the successful family reunion as “miracle” and thanked the medical team for their achievement. He said: “It was a truly touching and happy moment. It was everyone’s—and especially Kerstin’s—great wish to be reunited. It was a miracle.”

In a recent report, Kepplinger said: “The tempo of the lives of the children who lived above ground is very different to those who were confined to the cellar. To them the simple movement of a cloud in the sky can be quite exciting. The others are more active and are being taught by teachers at the clinic. Those who lived below ground are discovering the world for the first time.”

Herbst said: “They all love to pay together and get along really well. They want to make a life together and now we are looking for a place they can start again. To be together is something very precious indeed.”

The family have been given a special area within the clinic where they are expected to stay for several months.

Reiter said: “It was an extraordinary moment when Kerstin, holding my arm, and I were able to walk through the door into a new home, crossing the threshold into a new life. The entire family is happy that they are all together for the first time.”

Felix is enjoying playing outside and also loves climbing stairs, having not been able to in the cellar.

But his brother Stefan is having more trouble adapting to the outside world.

A source at the clinic said: “Stefan is thin as a rake and very pale. For the first few weeks after he came out he only moved very slowly but his motor functions are getting better.”

Rosemarie, meanwhile, returned to the house last week for the first time to pack up personal items before going back to the psychiatric clinic.

This extraordinary family remains in my thoughts!


song heard most recently before posting:
Mad about You—Hooverphonic

another year older

Mother Nature went bananas on my birthday! Four tornadoes touched down in the area and the tornado-free stretches were pummeled by violent storms. There are widespread power outages, damaged houses, downed tree limbs, and at least one person was killed.

My day was good, though, despite the weather. Initially I thought things were getting off to a lousy start, because I arrived at the Metro station and found that every single space had already been snagged by morning commuters. I crept through both parking garages and a big lot and didn’t see any free spaces. As soon as 10am hit, I pounced on a block of spaces that are off-limits until that time.

My first stop was the Natural History Museum. I groaned when I saw a long line of school buses parked out front, and a mind-bogglingly huge oil spill of students clogging the sidewalk. Thankfully not many of them were in the butterfly room at the same time as me. The exhibit was lovely, and its butterfly habitat was prettier than the one at Brookside Gardens, but I think I preferred Brookside because the butterflies were easier to photograph and there was more breathing room.

I had an unhealthy and rather tasteless lunch in the museum’s food court, and then trudged through the heat along the National Mall, checking out two tiny Smithsonian gardens along the way, as well as one of the Botanical Garden’s outside gardens. The Botanical Garden was as beautiful as I remembered it, but it was also smaller than I remembered. Maybe I just moved really quickly, I don’t know, but it didn’t take me long to get through it at all. While there, my memory card filled up, and I had to delete a bunch of pictures, which didn’t thrill me. Note to self: buy a big-ass memory card in the future!

I wandered through the Botanical Garden’s second outside garden, breezed through the Hirshhorn, and when I arrived at the Haupt Garden outside the Smithsonian castle, it began to rain. I ran into the castle just as the first ginormous storm hit. There was really nothing to do in there, so I just sat around, watching people and the clock. Then I stood outside under an eave, waiting for the last of the rain to disappear. I returned to the Haupt Garden, then killed some time doing this and that until it was time to head over to the Elephant & Castle pub to meet Debbie for dinner.

Dinner was great! I custom-ordered a meatless and gravyless Yorkshire pudding, and then Debbie and I split a gigantic brownie/ice cream combo that was so huge, we couldn’t even finish it. I had a pint of Strongbow cider and we each had a small pot of tea as we rode out the rest of the second huge storm.

The third storm hit when I was on the train, but by the time I got to my Metro station, it had passed. Thankfully I never lost the power in my condo. I feel so sorry for everyone who is still without power, because we’re in the middle of a damn heat wave.

Photos covering everything from Saturday’s dinner and burlesque show to my vegetarian Yorkshire pudding are here.

I went to work yesterday morning and saw a sign on a car that was parked at the entrance of our parking lot; it said that we had no power because of the storm and were thus closed, and employees should check back throughout the morning, and TPTB hoped to have power back by noon. If I knew the power would come back quickly, I would’ve stuck around, perhaps bumming around the local library until the power was restored. But Pepco can take forever to restore power, and time is so precious to me these days, because I have so much freelancing to do, that I just couldn’t take the chance of squandering a whole morning that could be spent chipping away at the freelancing, only to find out that the office was going to stay closed all day long because the power didn’t come back. So I turned around and went home. I got into comfortable clothes, started working on freelancing, and then checked my work email. Aaaaaand….I learned that the power had been restored by, like, 10:00. Great. The office only officially opened at noon, though, so I spent the morning working on freelancing and then switched to my regular work at noon. I just didn’t want to drive the 23 miles back to work for the second time in one morning.

Today my department threw me a birthday party with a yummy cake from Whole Foods and a card signed by everybody. Awes!

In even happier news, my oldest and one of my dearest friends Antoinette had her second baby yesterday. I was hoping all day long that the baby would be born on my birthday, but nope—he waited until 11:50pm on June 5th to make his arrival. And he’s a big one: 10 pounds and 11 ounces! Ouch! I thought for sure she’d be having a girl this time (I kept dreaming it was a girl, anyway), and was surprised to learn this morning that she actually had a second son: Matteo Mariano Rudolph. I can’t wait to meet him!


song heard most recently before posting:
Twenty Years—Augustana