This went on for several years. Year after year the sister brought a new
baby into the world and she could not tolerate her sister’s children in
the old home. Every time a visit with the children made her so seriously
ill that finally the mother begged the sister to find some other rooming
place. The children were hardly tolerated in the house; they had to be
kept in one certain room. The girl was always afraid that something in
the house would be ruined. That this was not jealousy of her mother is
shown by the fact that it did not affect her to have the mother visit
the sister. In fact she joined the mother readily on such visits and
behaved very pleasantly and quietly at her sister’s. Only when it was a
question of the old home she became a storming avenging angel. Naturally
she also wanted to have her mother to herself. Her boundless jealousy of
the sister had apparently disappeared altogether and had switched over
to the old home where the two had been once so supremely happy. Thoughts
of hatred against the sister’s children and phantasies about doing away
with them, also occurred. She thought of a subtle poison that could be
given with the food in her home. Perhaps she feared the presence of her
sister and sister’s children in the house for that very reason and the
fear may have been a protection against her criminal tendencies.
She had loved truly but one person: her sister. The latter was
everything in the world to her. She called her the second mother, her
friend, her beloved. Her first thought when she awoke in the morning was
of her sister, the endeavor to please her filled her life, and the last
thing she did before going to bed was to offer a prayer for her sister.
She was good and upright because she loved her sister and because she
felt happy that her sister gave all her spare time up to her. She was
trained by her, they went on walks together, her sister trained her
heart. She was supremely happy and wished nothing more than always so to
live beside her sister.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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