A voice to last...

It all started out with me being unable to find the right words. I couldn’t think of them so I often heard me say „that thing“. All of a sudden, half of my face went numb and my husband hurried with me to the hospital. He was afraid of me having a stroke. After a few examinations, the doctors told me that there is an aggressive tumor growing in my head. There is no chance to cut it out, it has spread into too many areas of my brain already. Up to this point, a diagnosis like this was simply unimaginable for me. 

 

My name is Dani, I am 44 years old. I am married and have a 7 year old daughter. I love my life, laugh all day and dancing is my favorite hobby. I am working as a teacher for English and German – at least up to March 2022. That was when I learnt that I am ill. Since that time, I am spending most of my days at home, have friends visiting me or go with them on a walking tour through the vineyards nearby – even though these tours are gradually getting hard for me. Additionally, I spend a lot of time in the clinic, getting irradiation, have chemotherapy at home and get several other treatments in order to win a little more time that I can spend with my husband and, most importantly, our daughter. This time is unspeakably precious for me and yet totally limited. 

 

It hurts me to think of it that I won’t see our daughter grow up, won’t be able to dry her tears because a boy breaks her heart, cannot celebrate her driver’s licence with her, won’t see  her getting married and not be able to dance with my husband at her wedding reception. 

 

In a time from now, what stays of me are memories in the hearts of my husband and our daughter. In order to turn these memories into very vivid ones, I decided to save them on CD. I will record a so-called „FAMILENHOERBUCH“ (family audio book) produced by the Familienhoerbuch gGmbH and, thus, my voice will stay forever. The recording will be done together with an audio biographer that will accompany me and listen to me for three days. I will tell her my whole life, from childhood to studies, including our wedding, pregnancy and birth of our daughter and the encounter with many cherished people that have left wonderful traces in my life. I will relate about amazing ski holidays, the last of them being only hours before the horrific diagnosis came up. At the end, this CD will comprise 6-12 hours of memories of my whole life – that my daughter and husband can listen to when I’m no longer here. 

 

For those who record their memories, this project is for free. But, of course, the production of it costs money: around 5.000 Euro. I was immediately given the chance to record my memories just because in the past many people donated money for this project. This is what I wish for all those who also decide to produce a FAMILIENHOERBUCH some time in the future. For all those who want to leave audible traces of their lives just as I want it to. Therefore, I kindly ask you to please support this project and donate money for the Familienhoerbuch gGmbH so that other people, as fatally ill as I am, can produce such a precious memory as well. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart! 

 

Yours, 

Dani