peter
“I got the news that my friend had a baby, so I went to visit them, and I remember walking up to the crib all excited. While I was looking in I suddenly felt like ‘oh my God, I’m going to fall on this baby.’ So I hurled myself backwards, fell on the corner of the bed behind me and then hit the floor. What followed was an epileptic fit, but I can’t remember anything from then on. They took me to the hospital and did various tests to discover a huge tumour in my brain. I never even had a serious head ache before. I was 31, healthy, working and with two small kids. I was a busy mom. My husband was shocked; but we didn’t really have time to worry. We had kids to take care of. Suddenly our lives turned into survival mode. One day at a time, as they say. Eventually time passed and the surgery went well, and after a few months I was healthy again. Being so close to death can really change the way you see the world. It’s like seeing everything in colour after living a life in black and white. It felt somehow like I had become gifted and had so much energy to live. We take life for granted, but it can really turn around in a single moment. If you asked me what was the most important thing I learned, it was to try not stress so much about tomorrow, because if you keep being worried about it you’ll only see today in black and white.”