During these years she also found time, in 1966 to marry Jörg Hildebrandt, brother of the musical director of the choir in which they sang. The two had known each other through the church since 1950: they had also been near neighbours, with a shared childhood experience of living along the East–West front-line before 1961. The marriage produced three children, born in 1969, 1971 and 1974. Her research career left her with enough space to devote time to the family, which was very important to her. Her husband later recalled that they ate together each evening six days per week, and on Sundays had a family lunch in the middle of the day after getting back from church. When she died, aged 60, she would still be living with younger family members in a large "multi-generational family house" they had been able to have built after 1990.