Journal Entry 21

01. August 2020

It has taken me a week to get the strength to write a new entry in my journal. On 25. Juli, the knocking on my bedroom door, woke me from my first good sleep since my family was taken from me. Fräulein Heng was calling my name as she frantically knocked harder and harder to get my attention. I immediately jumped out of bed and ran to the door and opened it. There was Fräulein Heng, tears raining down her cheeks. She was uncontrollably crying and was having difficulty catching her breath. I asked her what the matter was, but she could not get the words out. As I looked down the hallway, I could see the king walking towards me. His ashen face told me something was horribly wrong.

When Jonas came within feet of me, he asked that I take a seat. I could tell by his tear-filled eyes that the news would be devastating. I told the king that I did not want to have a seat and that he needed to say to me what had happened. In the doorway, the three of us stood as Jonas told me that my wife’s body washed up along the seashore of the Gulf of Finland. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor with Jonas and Fräulein Heng trying to bring me out of my unconsciousness.

I do not remember much of the day that I received the news of Karina’s death, except the hope that my two children did not suffer the same fate as my wife.