The Crystal Gift

„My dear, I’m so happy, I don’t have
to do anything today anymore and nobody
wants anything from me!”
Over thirty years of our marriage we have been
through a lot. Now, from the perspective of years,
I can tell that it was worth to make it through, to for-
give ourselves and each other. With God’s help I have
experienced inner purification and now I am again
a happily married woman. I feel loved and protected.
Stabilisation and harmony in family are priceless gifts
for all generations.
Many years have passed. Only the two of us are left
in our large house. Even before the children moved
out I was experiencing the „empty nest syndrome”.
I was very worried I would feel lost when it happende.
My son moved out nearly five years ago; luckily, soon
after that my son-in-law moved in, and then my grand -
daughter was born. My nest was full again – for the
period of two years. Afterwards my daughter and her
family moved out to their own house.
Well, that’s the natural course of things. Luckily it
happened just before Christmas, when I was so ab-
sorbed by preparations that I didn’t have time to think about how lonely I felt. Then, just after Christmas, we
went for a ten-day holiday in the mountains.
On the first day after our return I went to work.
When I came back home, exhausted, I snuggled in bed
with a book – and to my complete surprise, instead
of thinking how unhappy I was in this empty house,
I said to my husband:
„My dear, I’m so happy, I don’t have to do anything
today anymore and nobody wants anything from me!”
We suddenly realised that during the thirty years of
our marriage we had never lived alone. At the begin-
ning we lived with my parents, then with the children.
Now it has changed; we can finally feel free in our own
house. The last years are possibly one of the most beau -
tiful in our marriage. Naturally, our children still come
for a visit, but it’s not the same. My parents are also our
frequent guests.
The illness is still present in my life. I am aware that it
has moved from relapsing to progressive. In fact, in my
perception, I live with the diagnosis – the illness walks,
step by step, by my side. We face each other increasing-
ly often, with results visible not only to my family, but
also to strangers. In...