Johannesburg – The mother of 14-year-old Klara Göttert has posted a heartbreaking message on social networking site Facebook, two days after her daughter fell to her death at Northgate mall.“The pain is unbearable,” wrote Liesl Göttert.
“I would gladly have given my life for her to have lived. They could have amputated both my legs, my arms, taken out my heart… I would have given it all just to see her live a full life.”
Her daughter’s body was found at the shopping centre in northern Johannesburg on Tuesday evening, in what is believed to have been a suicide. A Facebook post of Klara being missing went viral that afternoon after she did not arrive home from school.
Göttert wrote that her son would return to the German school in Johannesburg on Thursday for the first time since his sister’s death.
“I need to get through this day, and the day after that… funeral arrangements, food, flowers, reporters, family, Klara’s sister arrives this morning from Germany. Her brother will go back to school this morning and will have to face all the children who have been talking about nothing else.”
The funeral is in Northcliff on Saturday.
Overwhelming support
Göttert said she had been battling to sleep.
“I’ve been awake since 1am. The sleeping tablets my sister gave me had no more effect. Klara would have been in the shower now and she would be singing pop songs. She would have walked past me with a towel wrapped around her slender little body, right about now. It’s the second morning that I have to face this world without my little girl.
“I never knew that a human body could produce so many tears.
“I never heard the birds sing this morning. My hands tremble as I type these words and the laptop keys feel sticky. Maybe because my palms are cold and sweating.
“I walked around outside at 3am. I didn’t even feel the Johannesburg winter this time, Don’t know how many cups of tea I had…”
Göttert, who is a well-known communications expert and has acted as a spokesperson for President Jacob Zuma, said the family had received “literally thousands of messages of condolences”.
“The support is overwhelming, but it still doesn’t bring her back…
“I’m looking at all the flowers that fill the house… but I only want one flower to be in my arms. My Klara. My dearest dearrest dearest precious Klara.”
PH
