Her husband encourages Manuela to accept her situation, to live well and still make the most of the life time available. An established and satisfied professional, he leaves his job for an early retirement. The couple adapts to a rather homely life, given Manuela's difficulties in moving around. Despite some medication that should delay the degeneration and regular physiotherapy sessions, it is clear that the disease takes its course.
He gradually takes over all the housework.
Shopping, cooking, laundry, cleaning, the occupations previously carried out by Manuela as a good housewife, become her daily commitments. Holiday and travel plans planned for retirement are practically cancelled. The couple trudges forward, hand in hand, because the path soon becomes hard, painful: Manuela really needs her husband's hand for the few steps that she still manages to take.
Special interventions and means are now becoming necessary. Services and parts of the house are adapted to new needs. The wheelchair facilitates increasingly complicated travel. And in any case, to move from the bed to the sofa, to the table, to the bathroom, to the study, the intervention of the husband who literally has to hug Manuela to support her in the transition from one sitting position to another is essential. It is a symbol of how he holds onto his wife to whom he promised fidelity and help "in good times as well as in bad". Months and years pass, in this exhausting daily task of overcoming the limiting constraints of an inexorable degradation of evil, to enjoy the good of living that is still possible.
Manuela survived her illness for five and a half years, more than statistical predictions. She was lucky enough not to feel any pain, despite the certainly heavy inconveniences. Her illness has never affected the clarity of her conscience. She was able to calmly accept her state, thanks also to the love and tireless dedication of her husband, who provided exemplary accompaniment with her.
she died a few days ago almost suddenly, after a day of high fever, which seemed to be due to the flu. The husband woke up in the middle of the night, had the impression that he was no longer breathing, tried to resuscitate her, requested the prompt intervention of an ambulance. Manuela had finished her journey and her labor in her bed, next to her faithful companion in her life.
The accompaniment of a terminally ill patient done with such finesse of love and dedication is a genuine demonstration that this modern humanity is not so depraved after all, that it is still capable of thoroughly practicing the most noble and demanding human values. n