I immediately asked:
“Okay. When do we start treatment?”
The doctor went quiet.
The tests showed that the disease had already spread.
Over the following months, they tried everything that still made medical sense to try.
But one day, we were called into the hospital again.
This time, there were three doctors in the room.
I will never forget their faces.
“We can no longer talk about treatment with the goal of a complete cure,” one of them said quietly.
I looked at Daniel.
He lowered his head.
Then I asked the question I had been terrified to ask.
“How much time do we have?”
No one gave us an exact number.
They explained that no one could predict it precisely.
But time could be very limited.
Leo knew none of this.
He knew he was sick.
But he didn’t understand how serious it had become.
We wanted him to remain a child for as long as possible.
That night, Daniel sat beside Leo’s bed for hours, watching him sleep.
Then he came out of the room and said:
“I can’t do this.”
“What do you mean?”
He started crying.
“I can’t wake up every morning wondering if we’re running out of time. I can’t smile in front of him and pretend everything is normal.”
I thought he was simply breaking under the pressure.
I hugged him.
But the next morning, his suitcase was beside the front door.
“Daniel?”
He couldn’t look me in the eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
And then he left.
I was alone.
I told Leo that his father had to leave for a few days.
He asked only one question.
“Will Dad be back for Christmas?”
I swallowed hard.
“I hope so.”
In December, I put up a small Christmas tree in our living room.
One evening, Leo sat at the table and started writing something.
“What are you writing?” I asked.
He immediately covered the paper with his hand.
“A letter to Santa.”
I smiled.
“What do you want this year?”
“I’m not telling you.”
He folded the letter, put it inside an envelope, and looked at me very seriously.
“Mom, don’t read it.”
“I promise.”
Two days later, Leo was at the hospital for another examination.
I was cleaning the table at home when the envelope accidentally fell onto the floor.
It opened.
I bent down to close it again.
