My Life with Kangaroos: A Deaf Woman's Remarkable Story

6. A Firm Decision

61 6 A Firm Decision OUR yard bordered on some ivy-covered wasteland that harbored a few tall trees. From time to time, one could catch sight of a roe deer, and the birds, whether large or small, were often at war with one another over nesting places. Hedgehogs, too, emerged from their hideaways under the elderberry bush and appeared on our lawn. A brook flowed at the outer edge of this land left to nature, and its banks hosted a riot of wild plants, which I loved so much that I successfully forbade my parents to “improve” anything. For me, this patch of land was a paradise where I could watch the animals’ activities every day, sometimes from my bedroom window, armed with my field glasses, and sometimes from our yard. In this way I laid down a good foundation for my later intensive activity in the field. Among these were my observations of marmot colonies (in the Engadin region of Switzerland) and of chamois near the Aletsch Glacier, in the Jungfrau region. One warm summer day one I was sitting with Auntie on our wonderful garden seats, when she observed that I was interested not only in kangaroos but also in all sorts of other wildlife that lived in woods and gardens. She was right. My interest was in nature as a whole in all its variety and wasn’t restricted to kangaroos. The latter would have meant specializing and could well have earned me a reputation of being a bit eccentric. 9781563685590_My Life with Kangaroos.indd 61 4/8/13 11:04 AM 62 MY LIFE WITH KANGAROOS On one occasion Father came to me in the best of moods and reported that Uncle Fritz in Tessin had told him that there was a German student observing kangaroos at the Zürich Zoo and had written a report on them. A man after my own heart at last! That was the one thing that I had wished for. His name was Karl H. Winkelsträter, a man who hailed from Saarland and was a few years later to become the director of the zoo in Saarbrücken. A few months after hearing this, we began corresponding with each other and talking shop about kangaroos. He recounted his failed attempt to observe the birth of a kangaroo and mentioned the kangaroos’ strange habit of licking their limbs until they were thoroughly wet. As a result of this contact, I was initiated by an expert into a number of important facts, scientific questions, and problems, and this stimulated my thirst for knowledge. It also prompted my mother to scold me to spend more time in the office and less time sitting in front of the kangaroo compound. Regardless of this, I was determined to continue. In further clashes she tried to make it clear to me that, without a university degree, I wouldn’t make much progress in my exertions. This made me furious, and in desperation I ran to my father for consolation. In his cheerful and humorous way, he tried to comfort me, but he, too, suggested that I shouldn’t spend all my time watching kangaroos. In those days, deaf persons were unable to study at a university, a regrettable but unalterable fact. But it was just this that impelled me to find alternative solutions, and I have not least to thank Dr.Winkelsträterforhelpingmediscoveracourseofindependentstudy. In 1962 I took a part-time job as an assistant in the occupational therapy department at the Jewish senior citizens’ home, La Charmille. I worked there two days a week with elderly people . Despite the difficulties some of them had in communicating because of their age, these people were eager to learn handcrafting and other skills such as painting and weaving, and for the most part they were successful. As my boss knew little about weaving, I was glad to be able to help her. But weaving was not all I did; I also painted and illustrated a children’s book. The text was inspired by and based on an Aboriginal animal story called “Laughing Water.” 9781563685590_My Life with Kangaroos.indd 62 4/8/13 11:04 AM A Firm Decision 63 In 1956, after giving up my work as a handweaver around the age of twenty-two, I was employed in the office of my father’s business. I had already learned how to type and now...