Rolf's Story continued:

When I didn't die after a week my parents decided that they would take me home and learn to care for me. I couldn't suck so I was fed with an eyedropper. Everytime I needed to be fed it would take one hour so both of my parents had to have lots of patience from the very beginning.

Usually a young baby sleeps most of the time but I didn't or couldn't. I would cry most of the day and night. The doctor's wanted me to take a sedative so I could sleep. After a few days all I did was sleep. To most parents in those times this would be fine, but mine wanted me to be as alert and as full of life as I could be. So after a few days the medication stopped.

For a young couple to become parents is difficult, but especially when you have a child that is totally disabled and will need care for all his life.

To undertake responsability like this, the couple had to be dedicated not only to their child but to each other as well because one of them will probably be doing something for the baby at all times.

My Mother's younger sister Asta came to live with us to help take care of me. My Mother would be up with me most of the night. My Aunt would take over in the morning and take me for a ride in my carriage, if it didn't rain. In this way Ma could do the housework and get some sleep.

After six months I still was not able to do much of anything for myself. My parents took me to a pediatrician. He diagnosed me as having Athetosis,

which is one of the three types of Cerebral Palsy. It makes control of muscles and movement difficult. He explained the process is extremely slow.

He told my parents it requires the patience of both parents and the child. I needed to be exercised often during the day. If I was going to get better, it would be by exercising . He suggested , to begin with, that I should be taken out of my crib ( all the other doctors said to keep me in a crib, that I would die soon ) and be put on the floor during the day so that I could exercise myself and with my parents also working with me, I could build up muscles. The pediatrician knew what he was talking about. I began to move my body when I was on the floor so my muscles were getting stronger.

I was still being fed with an eyedropper, so my Aunt started to work with me so I could swallow. The muscles in my throat were so tight nothing would get through. With time and patience my Aunt was able to get me to swallow baby food and drink milk by putting small amounts of food in my mouth at a time. When the food would come up my Aunt would put it back until I swallowed it. In that way my throat muscles were able to get stronger. This is how I learned to eat and drink. If it wasn't for my Aunt Asta I would be fed by a feeding tube. Instead, after a few years I was able to eat table food.