It was March the 10th 1918. A fire broke out in Konnersreuth, a small village in Bavaria, located close to the Czech boarder. The flames originated from a home and were threatening to grip the whole village. The simple villagers frantically formed a bucket brigade. A sturdy and simple looking girl or 20 years was a link in
the chain of the villagers passing buckets from one hand to the other. She was standing on a chair and passed the pails of water to a man on a ladder. The heat was intense and there were frenzied cried of "hurry, hurry". In her extreme anxiety and eagerness to help, she became hysterical. Suddenly her arms became stiff and she reeled and fell headlong to the ground.
She was taken to her home and remained for weeks in a state of shock, with severe head wounds. And thus began the numerous journeys, from home-bed to hospital of Therese Neumann, the eldest of the eleven children of a village tailor and farmer. After the accident, she could never stand for long without a sense of falling. Once she fell down the cellar stairs, another time from a ladder. Her home to hospital errands were
spread over a period of 7 years and 40 days and during that period not only the head wounds and the falls but all kinds of ailments came on her, including blindness, paralysis and almost death.