IN HANDPRINTS of red and blue, on paper decorated with hearts and words of hope, the Fritzl family have reached out to touch the world.
After almost 25 years locked in a cellar, Elisabeth Fritzl and the children she bore to her father, Josef, have painted colourful posters to thank people for their support and candle-lit vigils. From the confines of the Amstetten-Mauer clinic
in Austria, where Elisabeth, 42, and five of her six children are undergoing therapy, the family were encouraged to send out the messages, which have been put on display in the town square.
Stefan Fritzl, 18, who until his release two weeks ago had never seen the sun, or stood fully upright, wrote: "I like the sun, the fresh air and nature."
A message from the family reads: "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."
Elisabeth wrote that she wishes 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".
Kerstin, who is seriously ill, was taken to hospital in the last week of April, the act of compassion that led police to the secret cellar and the end of Josef Fritzl's monstrous reign of terror.
Lisa, 16, who was not locked in the dungeon but who lived with Fritzl and his wife upstairs, wishes for "love, happiness, health" and "that everything turns out well again".
Felix, six, said he is dreaming of going by car again and by sledge, and he wants to play with other children and "run across a meadow". He had his first ride in a car when he was collected by police and officers spoke of his delight at the trip. Doctors caring for Kerstin said her physical condition has further stabilised, but that she remains in a coma.
The woman who has spent her entire 19 years of life locked up was only allowed out for treatment when Fritzl realised she would probably die without it.
Since her release she, Elisabeth and Fritzl's wife, Rosemarie, have spent two weeks at the clinic getting to know each other once more. Berthold Kepplinger, who runs the clinic, said it was becoming more apparent how much time the family needed to heal. He said that the Fritzls would "need to remain here for several more months".
He continued: "They all need to be very carefully protected and very slowly reintroduced to the real world, and to each other. In particular, Elizabeth 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 have to move about in.
"If the treatment is to work properly, then it is especially important that we get respect for their privacy, the need to this cannot be underestimated." He added that the family reunion had "gone extremely well". The children were playing and enjoying activities such as painting. They had also been given a computer.
However, balancing the needs of each family member was complex, he said. For example, the two cellar children and their mother needed peace and quiet and were being kept inside, whereas the three children that had normal lives until now were suffering from the enforced isolation.
The full article contains 609 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
