Liza's Story Part 4

This part reveals how Liza got to Switzerland and how school and ice skating on Lake Lucerne went. What was the unexpected turn of events that her host family didn't expect and how did a park ranger save her life?

On November 8, 1923, the National Children's Aid League sent the skinny Liza to Willisau, in the Swiss canton of Lucerne, to be raised by a family of eight, factory workers. Here, although she was given everything she needed, although her longing for her mother and her enormous homesickness could not be appeased. She became more and more introvert, which also was exacerbated by the fact that her friends made fun of her for her lack of language skills. Hence his great perplexity as to how, in a German and French-speaking environment, he could thank God for his great prosperity.. in Hungarian?!

On one occasion he was taken ice-skating on the frozen Lake Lucerne and, through an accidental breakage of ice, broke his leg above the ankle. Unfortunately, the bones were fractured with only a slight deformation, but due to Liza's poor mental state at that time, her doctors decided against corrective fracture repair. Although the deformity was only anatomically definable, the knowledge of this caused a complex for her later developing female self-confidence. Perhaps this was one of the reasons she always wore a long skirt.

Despite all the prosperity and pampering in Switzerland, little Liza ran away to return home to her beloved Mother. A park ranger found the frozen little girl on a bench. He took her back to her hosts, but her trip resulted in a serious pneumonia and a third of her left lung had to be calcified according to that day's practice.

She needed three months of extra care. During the first six months of her stay in Switzerland, Elisabeth lost weight compared to her original weight, but then managed to put on 17 kilos. The eleven-year-old girl now weighs 38 kg. Elisabeth was so homesick that the memory of it stayed with her for the rest of her life. When, forty years later, her true mission on earth unfolded, for which she endured sufferings, the Lord said to her. - Sweet Jesus, it was homesickness. - "Did you realize? This painful suffering I have sent you is a longing for the heavenly homeland. Suffer it for those who do not long for the eternal home." (I/44)