The Greatest Loss

On June 21, 2021, at 9:20 PM the light in the eyes of my wife, Christina Iren Horvath, ceased to shine. Her family was with her: our two daughters, Livia and Raquel, and me. She will be greatly missed; she was a beacon in our lives.

While she was taking her last breaths of life Raquel was playing her clarinet, and Livia was comforting her telling her that we were there, that she was not alone, I was holding her hand. In the last second, I felt her grip getting slightly tighter, then a slow release as two big pearls came down her cheeks and her breathing stopped. I think that she was sad that she was leaving us, that we will miss her.

I am very proud of our girls and I know that Christina, as a new angel in the firmament, is also proud of them.

We lost Christina to Glioblastoma (GBM) a very aggressive type of brain cancer. All GBMs types are grade IV and, as of today, there is no cure for it.

The objective of this blog is to honor my family and the memory of my wife Christina. I will write about some highlights of her journey since she was diagnosed in February 2020. I will also write about the things I wanted to do, things we did, our lives together, how we met, and our story, how it matured and reached divine heights.

I used to tell my wife that I dreamt of her when I was a child and that is the reason she existed, and I existed to accompany her through every road she was going to take no matter how sweet or difficult.

Perhaps this blog will help me heal her loss, but that is not why I am writing it. I write because that way I bring her alive again in my mind. My children will read it and will learn about their mother and will understand the way they are today because she forged them that way.

I will write it all

Comments

The Planner 00Iren

When I tell my daughters that their mother was amazing, I am not sure they grasp the magnitude of her stature. They tell me – “Yes dad, we know”. I remember the day I saw Christina the first time. It was in the halls of the chemistry department of Simon Fraser University. We both entered this long hallway at the same time, in opposite directions, in white lab coats, and we had the opportunity to take a good look at each other. When we passed our eyes crossed. She kept walking without turning but I looked back to see her disappear into one of the laboratories. “ Wow, I do not have a remote chance with that girl! ” Years later, after we reunited in Vancouver, she told me that she thought the same "- He is going to make a woman very happy one day" - She told me that she had no idea that it was going to be her. After I received the ultimatum letter from Canada Immigration, I was left with no option but to escape to the United States and avoid deportation and possible impriso...

A Thousand Pictures, Three Remain

A thousand pictures, scattered wide, Moments frozen, side by side. Laughter, sunsets, faces bright, Fleeting echoes caught in light. Yet in the haze of time's embrace, Only three still hold their place. One of love, so pure, so true, One of loss, a tear in blue. One of hope—a flame so small, Yet the dearest one of all. Yes, you have guessed right; I was not having a perfect moment then I discovered these pictures in my Blogger picture drive; fresh air from the past. I will sleep with a smile tonight.

Our Charlie, Hegel

It was 1981, and I had barely survived my first year at the University of Havana, where I was studying chemistry. The leap from high school to university had been a huge adjustment—not just for me, but for many others. In the fall of 1979, about 250 of us began the program together. By the second year, fewer than 50 remained. That year we were introduced to a new subject: Philosophy. Every subject has to start somewhere, and we began with the classics—their ideas, their conflicts, their strengths and weaknesses. But one question weighed heavily on us: why study philosophy at all? Shouldn’t we be focused on chemistry—the nature of substances, their reactions, the concepts of atoms, molecules, and bonds? That was the very first challenge we posed to our philosophy lecturer, and to us, it seemed perfectly legitimate. The answer, fittingly, was philosophical. In the Soviet context, philosophy was meant to train us in analytical reasoning and critical thinking—by grappling with big questi...

My Family After Tragedy

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