Gerda Ilse Naydock

Gerda Ilse Naydock (nee Koepke) died at the Rheinisches Landesklinik, Bedburg-Hau which was her home for the last 24 years of her life. During one of her youngest son's visits to Germany from the US, her attending psychiatrist stated in perfect English, 'Your mother was dealt a very bad hand of cards when she was born.' That was an understatement to be certain. As a young girl, she experienced the untimely death of her younger brother, to be followed by the traumatic separation from her parents as she was sent off to live in an orphanage after the latter's divorce. Furthermore, she helplessly witnessed the destruction of her city, Essen by Allied bombing raids during the second World War. Horrified by the bombings, she escaped Germany to live in a more peaceful Austria only to be arrested and imprisoned in Salzburg by the Gestapo for violating the racial purity laws of the Third Reich as she chose to exercise her conscience by feeding starving people in hiding there. After the war, she married an American serviceman, moved to America, gave birth to five children in close succession and endured the premature death of one of these . She simply was unable to adjust to the role of mother and wife due to the ravages of having a serious mental illness. As fate would determine, Gerda was never afforded the opportunity to watch her children grow up or meet her grandchildren and great-grandchildren who lived on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Nonetheless, she was well-loved by the patients and staff at Bedburg-Hau and she became a kind mother and friend to other psychiatric patients who needed her. One could say that Gerda's life was tragic but not a waste as the world is a better place on account of her presence on this earth. Here's to the hope that she has the peace in the aferlife that she was not afforded on this planet. Rest in peace.