My Story: Pete and Eve

“We talked about her illness over the six years, changing the emphasis as time progressed and the worse she got, and discussed what it all meant. What was consistent, though, was our agreement none of it was what we wanted or had planned for, but it was what we had, and we needed to make sure we made it work because we were magic together and could conquer the world if we set our minds to it, but it had to be the two of us together. 

She could be quite lucid at times, right up until four or five days before she died. Well, that’s subjective too. By lucid I mean she could answer questions like Are you in pain? She could squeeze my hand and tell me she loved me, and I believe right then she knew who she was, who I was and where we were. 

For most of the time I don’t think she knew what she wanted, except to be with me, but by late 2021 she was too far gone to understand she couldn’t be with me if she were dead. 

At a minute to midnight on Wednesday, July 6th, 2022, I sat on a chair and held Eve’s hand while she lay dying on the bed we’d shared for more than twenty-five years.” 

Pete Elverhøi, writing about his wife Eve in his book ‘Goodbye Forever, Again’.