Time to Let Go (29 page)

Walter nodded slowly and took Biddy’s hand. His wife responded by taking a step to stand by his side.

“I just can’t bear to lose her yet,” Walter said, welling up. “I am not ready. Can you understand that?”

“You can’t allow yourself to think that way. You’ve got to stay practical,” Tom said coolly.

“That is easily said.”

“It is also easily done. My sister-in-law has dementia,” Tom revealed. “The family kept her at home for almost six years
before it became too difficult. She stopped recognising anyone around her. After a few months of screaming the house down in fear of all these strangers she was eventually put in a home, where her state was not upsetting us on a daily basis. I think you have still a few good years with Biddy the way she is now. Enjoy them and don’t waste your energy with worrying. There are simple things you can do to make life easier, without it impacting on your quality of life, and without putting her in a home: you have not lost her yet. It isn’t time for that yet. You know where I live - you can always talk to me about it. Call me some time or I can guide you where to get the information you need. People have been through this before you and they can help.”

“Thanks. I will. I just need a little more time. I have enjoyed putting my head into the sand. I am not ready to come up yet.”

“I understand,” Tom nodded. “I will come round sometime next week and see how you are getting on. Today is clearly not a good time. Get Biddy back into the warm,” he said and turned back towards his home.

Walter led Biddy to the living room and sat her down on the sofa. Hanna came down a little while later and sat with Walter in the kitchen, where he told her what had just happened.

“I know it’s hard to accept our help, Dad,” she said firmly, “but you may just have to get over yourself for once and let us in. I am going to be around more often now, so maybe at least you and I can start a new chapter in our chronicle.”

Walter sighed deeply, then threw
her a sideways glance and said: “I’d like that, Pumpkin. I’d like that.”

Ha
nna did quit her job with the airline and never regretted her decision. She sold her flat in London and found herself a small apartment near her parents’ place. She worked with Fariba for three years, during which she prepared two books for publication. Fariba suffered another minor stroke that rendered her incapable of finishing the project. Karim and Hanna joined forces and published both books independently, but eventually found a traditional publisher.

The
two never got together as a couple. Although he always had a soft spot for the stewardess, they seemed better suited in helping each other with their respective problems and formed a working relationship that didn’t translate well into leisure or romance. She remained a great influence on him and vice versa. He eventually fell in love with and married one of the nurses at the hospital a few years after his mother’s death.

Henrik married Sunita and had three children with her. He rarely came to visit his family, uncomfortable with the later stages of
Biddy’s progressing Alzheimer’s disease, and forever sulking about his lack of importance within the family. He took comfort in his own nuclear family and kept sending his yearly email updates about his life to everyone in his address book.

Patrick continued his therapy courses and music recordings until the age of
55 when he retired altogether and moved to live in India: the mecca for meditation and spirituality. He never officially came out to his father, and Walter and he never discussed his work or anything of importance.

Biddy’s disease lasted for another
four years in a state that Walter could manage. Although he received a lot of help from his new friend Tom, and even more so from Hanna, he could cope with his wife in her increasingly unresponsive state, until she lost so much of her motoric abilities that she needed a professional carer. Henrik had her transferred into a care home. The week after she was moved; Walter had a heart attack and passed away.

Once Biddy was in her home
, Hanna began to help Patrick for a few years in Cornwall, where she also met a man at one of the seminars. She kept her independence and had a long distance relationship with him for as long as she was taking care of her mother. When Patrick moved away, she moved in with her partner and ran a bed and breakfast.

Hanna found and rescued the family chronicle, put her own touch
es to it and then published it privately for the family to keep the memories alive

Biddy lasted for another two years in the home. Despite Hanna’s suspicions and fears, her mother seemed to be well taken care of and happy until her peaceful death
.

The End

My book is inspired by my personal experiences with various sufferers of the disease, especially during the two weeks I stayed with affected families. I exclusively used material relating to a medium-advanced stage of the disease. To protect the privacy and dignity of the patients, however, I have altered all of the events and used both first and second hand experiences and anecdotes. Nothing in this book has actually happened. Apart from vague parallels between my characters and patients I observed, any similarities with real people, alive or dead, are coincidental and unintended. The airline plot is also not based on any real incident but inspired by my own imagination during those intense yearly re-training sessions.

Alzheimer
’s is a dreadful disease, the gravity of which can neither be easily understood, nor the complex, frustrating and far reaching consequences for sufferers and their families. My book does not attempt to be a complete representation of, or a manual of how to deal with the disease. Although patterns and stages of the disease are established, the illness affects every patient differently. My book is intended to touch upon those issues but it is primarily a work of fiction and a family drama.

As point of first reference and for a more comprehensive and scientific overview of information and help available, I recommend you visit
:

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/
in the UK

http://www.alz.org/
in the US

There are support groups, helplines and many other sources available in most countries. These will be able to advise you specifically for your individual situation. I can also recommend “Because We Care” by Fran Lewis. This
excellent book has a comprehensive appendix with more or less everything you need to know about the disease: its stages, personal advice on caring, information, tools and help available in the US.

Special Thanks as always to my editors
: Deborah Wall and Ryan Cheal for their hard work and saintly patience; and to my fantastic beta readers:

Melodie
Ramone (author of “After Forever Ends”)

Danielle
DeVor (author of “Constructing Markus”, “Sorrow Point” and “Tail of the Devil”)

Murielle Cyr (author of “Turtle Wish”,
“Culloo” and “Catori’s World”)

Paulette
Mahurin (author of “The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap”)

Bob Rector (author
of “Unthinkable Consequences”)

Anna George
Othitis (author of “My First Travel Book” and “My Greek Traditional Cook Book”)

Fran Lewis (author of “Because we Care“, “Bad Choices” and editor of “MJ Magazine”)

Damian Stevenson (author of “The Ian Fleming Files”)

Julia
Gousseva (author of “Moscow Dreams” and “Anya’s Story”)

all
of who have given me invaluable input and advice. I cannot thank you enough.

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More books by Christoph Fischer:

The Luck of the Weissensteiners

(Three Nations Trilogy: Book 1)

In the sleepy town of Bratislava in 1933 the daughter of a Jewish weaver falls for a bookseller from Berlin, Wilhelm Winkelmeier. Greta Weissensteiner seemingly settles in with her in-laws but the developments in Germany start to make waves in Europe and re-draw the visible and invisible borders. The political climate, the multi-cultural jigsaw puzzle of the disintegrating Czechoslovakian state and personal conflicts make relations between the couple and the families more and more complex. The story follows the families through the war with its predictable and also its unexpected turns and events and the equally hard times after. What makes The Luck of the Weissensteiners so extraordinary is the chance to consider the many different people who were never in concentration camps, never in the military, yet who nonetheless had their own indelible Holocaust experiences. This is a wide-ranging, historically accurate exploration of the connections between social status, personal integrity and, as the title says, luck.

Praise for The Luck of the Weissensteiners: “…powerful, engaging, you cannot remain untouched…” “Fischer deftly weaves his tapestry of history and fiction, with a grace…”

On Amazon: 
http://bookshow.me/B00AFQC4QC

On Goodreads:
http://bit.ly/12Rnup8

On Facebook:
http://on.fb.me/1bua395

Trailer:
 http://studio.stupeflix.com/v/OtmyZh4Dmc/

Sebastian

(Three Nations Trilogy: Book 2)

Sebastian is the story of a young man who has his leg amputated before World War I. When his father is drafted to the war it falls on to him to run the family grocery store in Vienna, to grow into his responsibilities, bear loss and uncertainty and hopefully find love.
Sebastian Schreiber, his extended family, their friends and the store employees experience the ‘golden days’ of pre-war Vienna, the times of the war and the end of the Monarchy while trying to make a living and to preserve what they hold dear.
Fischer convincingly describes life in Vienna during the war, how it affected the people in an otherwise safe and prosperous location, the beginning of the end for the Monarchy, the arrival of modern thoughts and trends, the Viennese class system and the end of an era.
As in the first part of the trilogy, “The Luck of The Weissensteiners” we are confronted again with themes of identity, Nationality and borders. The step back in time made from Book 1 and the change of location from Slovakia to Austria enables the reader to see the parallels and the differences deliberately out of the sequential order. This helps to see one not as the consequence of the other, but to experience them as the momentary reality as it must have felt for the people at the time.

Praise for Sebastian: “I fell in love with Sebastian…a truly inspiring read for anyone!!!!” – “This is a MUST read, INTELLIGENT, SENSITIVE, ENGAGING, PERFECT.”

On Amazon:
http://bookshow.me/B00CLL1UY6

On Goodreads:
http://ow.ly/pthHZ

On Facebook:
http://ow.ly/pthNy

Trailer:
 http://studio.stupeflix.com/v/95jvSpHf5a/

The Black Eagle Inn

(Three Nations Trilogy: Book 3)

The Black Eagle Inn is an old established Restaurant and Farm business in the sleepy Bavarian countryside outside of Heimkirchen.  Childless Anna Hinterberger has fought hard to make it her own and keep it running through WWII. Religion and rivalry divide her family as one of her nephews, Markus has got her heart and another nephew, Lukas has got her ear. Her husband Herbert is still missing and for the wider family life in post-war Germany also has some unexpected challenges in store.

Once again Fischer tells a family saga with war in the far background and weaves the political and religious into the personal. Being the third in the Three Nations Trilogy this book offers another perspective on war, its impact on people and the themes of nations and identity.

On Amazon: 
http://bookshow.me/B00FSBW2L6

On Goodreads:
 
http://ow.ly/pAX8G

On Facebook:
 
http://ow.ly/pAX3y

Trailer:
 
http://studio.stupeflix.com/v/mB2JZUuBaI/

Christoph Fischer was brought up near the Austrian border in Bavaria and has since lived in Hamburg, London, Brighton and Bath. He always loved books and one of hi
s first jobs was in a library.

‘Time
To Let Go’ is his first break into contemporary fiction after his historical ‘Three Nations Trilogy’, consisting of ‘The Luck of The Weissensteiners’, ‘Sebastian’ and “The Black Eagle Inn’. The trilogy has a thematic connection but no direct link in the plots.

Since becoming an author
, Christoph has begun to support other authors and has joined several Internet author groups.

For further information you can follow him on
:

http://writerchristophfischer.wordpress.com

www.christophfischerbooks.com

www.facebook.com/WriterChristophFischer

@CFFBooks