Heidi
Clara Sesemann
Heidi's friend
A kind, thoughtful girl in Frankfurt who cannot walk. She and Heidi become best friends, and the mountain gives her strength.
Clara Sesemann is the daughter of a wealthy Frankfurt merchant and uses a wheelchair. She is gentle, patient and polite, and she lives a quiet life in a big house under the eye of Fräulein Rottenmeier. She is delighted by Heidi, who laughs at the rules and tells her about the mountain.
Clara is generous. When Heidi's rolls for Grandmother are thrown away, she promises her a whole mountain of fresh ones. She longs for the open air and for a friend who will treat her as she is. She is a thoughtful listener, and she is quick to see how Heidi sees the world. Her illness has kept her indoors for so long that the smallest things, such as kittens, a night under the stars or a cup of warm milk, make her glow.
“Heidi, look! I can walk! I can really walk!”
In the story
Contains spoilers.
Clara laughs with joy at the kittens Heidi smuggles in. When Heidi goes home, she gives her dresses and books and the promise of the rolls. In May she comes to the Alm in a sedan chair with Grandmamma, drinks goat's milk, sleeps in the hay loft and loves every minute.
The wheelchair is destroyed, but Alm-Uncle carries her up to the high pasture. There she wants to stand among the flowers, and with Heidi and Peter holding her up, she lets go and takes a few steps. She walks to Alm-Uncle and then to her father, who drops his cane in shock.
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