In the last few weeks Nadine developped a distinct interest in her family’s history. She’s asking her dad a lot about dates and tends to remember past events more clearly. I wouldn’t go so far to say that she’s haunted, but obviously she’s diving for her submerged childhood memories. One story is about how her grandfather died when she was still a toddler. She has a certain picture in mind with him holding her younger sister at Christmas and also got a scene of his dying moments a few days later with people sitting around him in a circle reciting German poet Wilhelm Busch.

But most of her memories are related to her grandmother Erika Requardt, pictured above with her husband Willi and Nadine’s father aund uncle. I’m told that Nadine has a lot in common with Erika, both in character and in look. After having to flee from her hometown in Elbing during the war, Erika ended up in Wiesbaden, where little Nadine visited her quiet often. She describes her grandma’s home as a place where she was allowed to behave unrestricted and has plenty of pleasant memories about being there. Erika died when Nadine was twelve years old. The memories of the funeral of this woman, with whom Nadine shares a strong bound, became also very lively during the last weeks.

I resist turning psychological here and take this phenomenon as an interesting example for what can happen to the human brain under certain circumstances. Call me a physicalist if you like to…