Nanny Stabbing Family Finding Healing on Cross-Country Road Trip
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File photo. iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — The devastated parents of two children who were stabbed to death by their nanny in their Manhattan apartment have spent the past two months grappling with the tragedy while surrounded by family in California.
Now, after their first Christmas without Lulu, 6, and Leo, 2, the Krim family is heading back home to New York City.
On Jan. 2, Kevin and Marina, and daughter Nessie, 4, began a cross-country trip in an RV.
“Along the way, we are hoping to experience some inspiring moments that will help us with our healing and rebuilding when we get back to NYC,” the Krims posted on Facebook.
The Krims need to rebuild because their longtime nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, stabbed Lulu and Leo to death and slashed her own throat in front of Marina Krim in a botched suicide attempt. Nessie survived because she was at a swimming lesson with her mother.
The murders, which shattered the Krim family, also horrified parents throughout the country. For most, the headlines faded, but for the Krims it was an effort to learn how to live with the tragedy.
In California, their starting point, the Krims took a photograph of a beach sunset.
“Here’s a gorgeous sunset at the beach that Lulu and Leo painted for us,” the Krims wrote under a photograph of a vibrant sunset, full of the reds and yellows that Lulu, a budding artist, would have loved to have matched with her crayons.
At a pit stop in Santa Fe, the Krims found inspiration in strolling through art galleries, finding pieces they said Lulu and Leo would have loved.
Two canvases, each with one piece of a heart, were joined together at one gallery.
Elsewhere in the gallery, a whimsical painting of two bears on a bicycle.
Memories and signs like these are what helped the Krims get through their first Christmas without Lulu and Leo.
Everywhere Nessie and her parents go, they see signs and memories of Lulu, who loved art, and little brother Leo, who his mother remarked on her blog spoke “in the most adorable way possible”.
The family took Amtrak surfliner from Los Angeles to San Diego for Christmas in honor of Leo’s love for “tunnel choo-choos,” what he called trains, Marina Krim said.
They got to Union Station in Los Angeles early, she wrote, and had time to explore. By chance, they stumbled upon a mural by Leo Politi, Lulu’s favorite author and illustrator.
“Lulu and Leo were there in spirit with us for our Christmas Eve adventure,” Marina said.
Nessie has been a tremendous source of strength for her parents.
“She saves us every day,” Kevin Krim wrote on Dec. 28, Nessie’s fourth birthday, her first without her older sister Lulu by her side.
“She is very smart, beautiful and tough,” Krim said. “And she’s grown so much over the past two months.”
“We are hopeful,” the Krims wrote, “that 2013 will be a year of healing, growth and peace.”
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio