My Gran’s best friend from war

All my life until the death of my grandmother and even now, I was very close to my grandmother. I confided in her, spent lots of time with her and even though when I lived abroad I always made sure to have time for her.

While working in the retirement home I had a new “check in”, an elderly woman who couldn’t be cared for anymore at home as she couldn’t walk herself any longer. She had a disease called “elephant feet” where her feet completely were swollen up and she couldn’t walk on her own anymore.

The fun fact was that she was from my very same village however I had never seen her before as she couldn’t leave the house for the years I was alive. The elephant feet was the only issue why she was brought to the retirement home, and different to many other residents, she was mentally fully aware and there. So I spent a lot of time with her, befriended her and she told me the ,let outrageous stories from the war. She knew my family but she hadn’t made one connection at all. She told me that during the war she was sent to “green labor” to Poland. And that’s when it somehow clicked, as I tole her my grandmother was also in Poland doing the same. One word after the other and me talking about my grandmother she burst into tears. Reason for that, she was the best friend of my grand mother during that time in Poland but then they got separated and due to her illness which started very early on she couldn’t leave the house hence she lost contact of the whereabouts of grandmother.

This was just too good to be true, so I made the impossible happen. Not even telling my grandmother the reason I invited her to see my retirement home. (Obviously I told her that it’s not because we want her to be in the retirement home).

So I took my grandmother in my car to the retirement home, and went into the lounge where we had coffee service going on. And there she was in her wheel chair turning around seeing me, and then my grandmother. Immediately both knew each other, it was a moment of magic, priceless and I would never forget that. They spent hours talking reminiscing about the time in the war and what happened after. I know to this date that I made a difference to both though their life circumstances were different that single afternoon gave both of them so much happiness.

For weeks my gran’s friend couldn’t stop talking about her, and lots of stories were then shared with me too. I developed a very strong friendship with her and every day when I worked we would go for walks and chat. But then there was the moment I had to say good bye. My 12 months were over and I had accepted my first hotel job in a hotel with 600 rooms in Vienna, and had to leave. The day I left the retirement home there were lots of tears from staff, the residents but also from me. One last thing my gran’s friend said to me, that when I do come back she she will walk and that’s why I had to come back.

Couple of weeks later, I returned home and also visited my colleagues and the residents of the retirement home, as I did stay in touch with them and they became close to me. I entered the home and immediately I could feel the smiled of everyone seeing me. I was so happy to see everyone.

And then there was my gran’s friend shouting at me from the end of the corridor. I was so happy to see her and started walking towards her and the wheel chair but she stopped me in saying: Let me come to you, I promised you. She got up with all of her will power off her wheel chair, hanged on to the railing and started to put one leg over the other. I don’t even need to mention what went through my mind and how I felt. Of course she didn’t walk all the way and the nurse was behind her with the wheelchair but the pure magic of her trying overwhelmed me completely. According to the nurses, she practiced every day for the moment I would come back like she promised. This really taught me my life lesson, if you really want something you can do it, just continue trying and you will succeed.

As life went on and I moved away even away from Austria, on my visits I couldn’t got to the retirement home anymore as I also had to ensure spending time with my family. So on one of my visits, my mum told me that the friend of my gran had passed away and that the funeral would be that day. I just couldn’t pull myself together and I just couldn’t bring myself to go to the funeral, I was just too in shock and probably also too young to do so,I just couldn’t I needed my moment to collect myself also as all the memories I wrote above came back and I felt said that I hadn’t done what I promised after the retirement home, to continue visit. My house in the village is in between a hill where there are two roads to the left and to the right leading up to the cemetery. Normally when there is a funeral the right road is taken by the funeral director which then wouldn’t psss my house. However, though I didn’t attend the funeral I was in the garden when the church bells rang which meant the funeral was over. And to my very surprise the funeral director drove the left road to bring her to the cremation and the car with the coffins passed my house. It was strange, it did and still does feel like she was saying good bye to me in her own way!