Unique stories
Karla and the role of death
Karla is 8 years old and comes from the old farming community of Häger in Münster.
She is happy here.
And she never wants to leave.
Later, she dreams of becoming a kindergarten teacher.
She lives in a house with her two very big brothers Leon and Finn, her grandparents and parents.
She is a bit of an only child, but only when she is playing.
Otherwise, there is always plenty going on in her life.
Karla loves to try out everything, such as climbing or gymnastics.
She is particularly good at the apparatus in PE lessons.
She can even do the “death roll” on the gymnastics bar.
“You drop backwards without your hands and then jump off.
But there has to be sand under the gymnastics bar or a mat,” she explains.
As a small child, Karla was diagnosed with retinoblastoma.
That’s why she has what she calls a magic eye – a prosthetic eye.
Karla’s friends and classmates know about it because it is important for her to talk to them about it.
It makes you feel better, Karla thinks.
She wants to be treated in the same way as other children.
“Life is much harder otherwise,” she adds.
Where do you get the courage to talk about it so openly with other children, we ask ourselves.
I get the courage from simply thinking about what it would be like to have a secret.
I would find that exhausting.
And mom and dad have always been completely normal and open with my magic eye.
They help me and always say that I can do everything that other children can do and let me try everything
It’s not so easy to find people who understand Karla, who feel the same way and are sometimes treated unfairly.
Just because they have a glass eye.
Our encouragers Theresa and Katrin understand her well.
After all, they were the only ones with a magic eye in their childhood.
I just long for someone to understand me who feels the same way as I do,” she explains thoughtfully
Some wishes do indeed come true.
Like many other children, Karla and her family members were able to go on a trip this year to meet many other children affected by retinoblastoma for the first time.
We got to know a courageous and cheerful Karla who tried everything.
Exactly as she described herself.
She threw herself into the ball pool and jumped meters high on the trampoline.
She learned how to stay strong even when she was being teased.
She made new friends and met up with her friends Theresa and Katrin.
And spoke to the lively Elli in front of a movie camera.
Pretty brave!
She wanted an encourager to give a speech.
That didn’t work out this time, but maybe next time?
“Sometimes you can’t give up, you have to keep trying and always have courage.”
This doesn’t just apply to the role of death, we learned from Karla.