Elisabeth and the Children Move Forward

PerryPeabody wrote:

Josef Fritzl's dungeon family speak of joy of being free mirror.co.uk By Andy Rudd 14/05/2008 The dungeon family of evil pervert Josef Fritzl have spoken of their joy of being free and hopes of returning to a "normal life". Hand-painted posters drawn by the family were put on display in the Austrian town of Amstetten, saying: "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 that 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." Elisabeth . . . wrote that she hoped for a quick "recovery of my daughter Kerstin, the love of my children, protection of our family" and "people with a lot of heart and understanding". Doctors said that Kerstin was now in a more stable condition despite still remaining in a coma. Kerstin sparked the massive police investigation when Josef Fritzl took her to hospital to get emergency treatment on April 19. Elisabeth's children, Lisa, Stefan and Felix also talked about their hopes for the future. Lisa, 16, who was not locked in the dungeon, wishes for "love, happiness, health" and "that everything turns out well again". She misses the sister she has never known, Kerstin, as well as "school and friends." Stefan, 18, says he’s happy about his new-found freedom but misses his sister Kerstin. He likes “the sun, the fresh air and nature”. Felix, 6, says he dreams of being driven in a car again and sledging. He had his first ride in a car when he was taken by police after he was freed two weeks ago. He says he wants to “run across a meadow” and play with other children. Clinic director Berthold Kepplinger explained that although the family were progressing it would still be a long time before they would be allowed out of the clinic. He said: “What is now clear is that the family will need to remain here for several more months. "In order to give them a good start in their new life they all need to be very carefully protected and very slowly reintroduced to the real world, and to each other. "In particular Elisabeth and her two children from the cellar need to have further therapy to help them adjust to the light after years in semidarkness. "They also needed treatment to help them cope with all the extra space that they now had to move about in. "This will be achieved with further physiotherapy and Ergotherapy. "If the treatment is to work properly then it is especially important that we get respect their privacy, the need to this cannot be underestimated. "We are doing everything we can to protect the family from external stress and stop the risk of the secondary trauma." He added that family reunion had "gone extremely well" and that the family were all settled into a new daily routine. The children are playing and enjoying activities like painting. They had also been given a computer which most of the time they were using to play games on. Dr Kepplinger said: "We are making every effort to give them what they need as a group or as individuals, and we are carefully monitoring progress. "Eventually we hope to merge all the individual therapies so they work together." http://tinyurl.com/3o59s3 There are eight pictures of the handdrawn and handprinted poster that Elisabeth and the children drew on this site. I don't know how to bring them to this forum; if someone can do that, I thank that someone.