It happened some years ago. I cannot remember the exact date. I just remember the feeling of amusement I felt and the excitement that filled the room. It all started when my mom and I went to visit my uncle in the nursing home.
What happened that day is going to remain forever in my heart and mind. It was just a normal visit for us, something we did every three weeks or so. My uncle was like a father to me. When my father died, he was the one who took good care of me. It was really a tragedy when we had to put him into a nursing home, but due to his medical condition, it was impossible to keep him at home with us. He suffered from Alzheimer ... He couldn't even remember the things he had done ten minutes earlier. He sometimes had moments of lucidity, but they were very few.
I didn't know much about my uncle's past life. I lived with him until I was fourteen and moved out with my mom. He then started to show symptoms of his disease.
Back to that day, when we arrived to my uncle's room, my mom told me that she was going to talk to his nurse about his progress. I am not going to lie, it did hurt that he couldn't remember my name. So it was totally a surprise when he greeted me with what he used to call me when I was a little girl, "Hello little bird", he said with that characteristic smile of his, showing those still white teeth he had inherited from my grandfather. My heart was beating so hard that I could beel my heartbeat in my ears. I wanted to scream for my mum, but I didn't want the moment to be ruined. I started to blink repeatedly and when I thought I was prepared I said, "Can I ask you something?" "Fire away" he answered smiling again. "Tell me about your life", I asked with a shaky voice. "Do you want me to tell you everything?" "Everything you can remember", I answered now with a smile playing on my lips.
And that is how I knew that his youth was spent in Austria, where he met his best friend. He told me about how he joined the army, how he survived the 2nd World War and how he got to spend the most part of his life travelling around the world, from Japan to Cuba and from Canada to France. He talked about his lovers all around Spain and Italy. He also explained the part where he had to give up his job as a pilot to take care of me when my father died. He was able to talk for two hours straight. Then, it was like a light switch. He stopped talking and blinked a few times. I understood his illness had come back again. That evening was so heart touching, I was able to know a part of my uncle's life totally unknown to me in the past.
