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Walter Schels
Klara Behrens
[Life Before Death]
2004, 3 March (after)
Black and white print
Provided by the artist - Walter Schels
LL/28955
age: 83
born: 2nd December 1920
first portrait taken: 6th February 2004
died: 3rd March 2004
Klara Behrens can tell that she hasn't got much longer. "Sometimes, I do still hope that I'll get better," she says. "But then when I'm feeling really nauseous, I don't want to carry on living. And I'd only just bought myself a new fridge-freezer! If I'd only known..."
It is the last day of February, the sun is shining, the first bluebells are flowering in the courtyard. "What I'd really like to do is to go outside, down to the River Elbe. To sit down on the stony bank and put my feet in the water. That's what we used to do when we were children, when we went to gather wood down by the river. If I had my life over again, I'd do everything differently. I wouldn't lug any wood around. But I wonder if it's possible to have a second chance at life? I don't think so. After all, you only believe what you see. And you can only see what is there. I'm not afraid of death. I'll just be one of the million, billion grains of sand in the desert. The only thing that frightens me is the process of dying. You just don't know what actually happens."
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