— Episode 3 in a five-part series about what happened to Harry —
“Harry is awake. He is conscious. The doctor wants to speak with us.”I suddenly had to completely reorient myself.
I had prepared for the worst, and suddenly that was no longer the case.
Rosario came to pick me up so we could go to the hospital together.
No one had expected Harry to wake up, so the atmosphere in the car on the way there was light. We joked that, in gratitude, we should make a pilgrimage to the Santuario di Santa Rosalia on Monte Pellegrino.
No one had expected Harry to wake up, so the atmosphere in the car on the way there was light. We joked that, in gratitude, we should make a pilgrimage to the Santuario di Santa Rosalia on Monte Pellegrino.
Harry was asleep when we arrived, but the doctor woke him briefly for us.
The doctor was very optimistic and enthusiastic:
His personality was also completely different.
He had always been someone who had worked in construction his entire life: practical, down-to-earth, not particularly careful or refined in the way he expressed himself. Now he sounded like a British aristocrat.
The doctor was very optimistic and enthusiastic:
“He is still a bit confused, but that is normal when people wake up from a coma. It can still turn out well.”I spoke Dutch to Harry. Rosario—who had lived in Berlin for forty years—spoke German to him. German was not a problem for Harry, who had grown up near the German border in the Netherlands. But Harry responded exclusively in English. And in a remarkably articulate way, far beyond anything he had ever been capable of before.
His personality was also completely different.
He had always been someone who had worked in construction his entire life: practical, down-to-earth, not particularly careful or refined in the way he expressed himself. Now he sounded like a British aristocrat.
When I repeated my name several times, hoping he would recognize me, he said:
“My girlfriend also listens to the name Diana. I am so grateful you remind me of her.”He told a romantic story about how he and his girlfriend Diana had once met in Rome, and how beautiful life was with her.
He continued speaking in this aristocratic English until I thought of asking him—in English—whether he also spoke Dutch. Only then did he switch to Dutch, and his story immediately became simpler and more matter-of-fact. Everything still revolved around Diana, but now it was about things like eating together, sleeping together, and how he and Diana would do “it” anywhere, at any time.
In the meantime, he did not recognize either Rosario or me.
In the meantime, he did not recognize either Rosario or me.
Photo: engin akyurt
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