JUNE 1959: Thanks to his first big commission as an architect my husband is able to buy an old water mill in Cologne which we extend a bit further after the birth of each child. A little paradise for us all.

AUGUST 1959: My father returns home after my parents had been separated for almost three years. I erase those years from my memory.

NOVEMBER 1959: I go to the university hospital with a protracted inflammation of the middle ear and am kept there for four weeks. This illness will be with me for the rest of my life.