A PAINTED HEART

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It was 1998 when an eight year old girl gave me a folded slip of paper over the small table of her wheelchair. Patricia had a big smile on her face when I unpacked it and found a colorful heart painted with wooden pen on it. It was such a warm parting present after several month of internship at the Pater-Rupert-Mayer-Centre in Regensburg/Germany.

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On an evening 2011 I held this slip of paper in my hand, when I opened the exhibition 'Joy of Life' with Mister Mehringer, the former director of the Pater-Rupert-Mayer-Centre. It should have been a piece of paper that unfolded its impact for decades to come. Because the most valuable impression of my time with the second grade class of Patricia was something exceptional in the interconnectedness of the children.

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OF AUTHENTIC JOY

 

Although or possibly because some of these children are disabled even in multiple ways, they treat each other so very mindfully, considerately and cooperatively. Surely one might witness a whole other palette of emotions through their day to day, like frustration, anger, arguments on this and that. But for me the most precious notice during my time at the centre was a joy, fully authentic, an authentic joy of life.

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Against this background 2011 evolved the corresponding pictures. Six month prior to the exhibition I was allowed to move freely through the centre and so got the opportunity to accompany the every day life of school, festivities, sport events with my camera. Up to this day the photos have still been hanging on the corridor and room walls of the Pater-Rupert-Mayer-Centre. In addition the photos found usage in the brochure and the website of the centre.