“It’s a new dawn 
It’s a new day
It’s a new life for me…♪♫”…

“And am I feeling good?” Diana asked herself as she walked down from her bedroom in her new Overijse home, carrying little Rose in her arms.

The sun came in lightly through the kitchen window. The air was filled with the wonderful aroma of coffee. On the counter, Guy had pilled up some homemade pancakes and had left a flower from the garden on her plate. Diana picked it up and caressed little Rose’s cheek with it. The answer was “yes”, she felt good, great actually. 

Who would have thought this could work? One year ago she would never have imagined this turn of events. A child, shared housing and, most of all, no longer exercising medicine… But it somehow all fitted well. She had loved her work as a doctor and missed it from time to time. But the pandemic had turned it into a living nightmare and she was also glad to be out of it. She also knew that she could no longer take the risk of being seen in hospitals. How would she explain the way she had disappeared without any notice? And Rose? How long before people would put two and two together? Rose was her priority now and everything just needed to reorganize itself around her; it was as simple as that. 

She nevertheless still felt the need to heal people; it was her life purpose and she had always known it. She had some experience in Reiki and Reflexology so the stretch towards starting a holistic practice right here in the Overijse house had been a short one. She would give it a symbolic name like “holy me”, not putting her name forward. Patients would come to focus on themselves, healing being by definition a very self-centered matter, and she would be the discreet warm and kind practitioner who accompanied them on their healing path. 

She fed little Rose a piece of pancake. The little girl munched on it eagerly. Stroking her fair hair lovingly, Diana couldn’t remember her life before her. “Rose deserves to grow up in the light and get the best life can give her,” Diana thought. “Every child deserves the best for the good and simple reason that they give us the most beautiful thing that exists down here: pure and total trust. We adults should make it our absolute duty to live up to that,” she thought silently. “That’s the way of life,” she told little Rose. “The big ones take care of the little ones, it’s just the way it is” she finished, then kissed her on her nose.

Rose was walking now and couldn’t wait to be put down to go outside and say hello to Ute who, now heavily pregnant, was relaxing in the garden. Diana watched the child as she carefully went through the French windows that gave on to the terrace. She poured herself a big cup of coffee and looked at the time on the oven. She had slept late. She felt rested.

Guy walked into the kitchen carrying a plastic bucket filed with tools “Good morning pretty face, we thought you’d never wake up” he teased. “You know me Guy, as long as Rose sleeps, I sleep!” she joked back. He had turned out to be such a wonderful man she thought to herself. Nothing like the guys back home she had been on dates with. The problem was she had always intimidated them. She had too many diplomas, knew too much, was too opinionated about everything… Most of them couldn’t keep up. Guy’s raw masculine energy made him confident and allowed her to just relax and be herself. She didn’t need to constantly adapt to his insecurities and that was precious. 

“Why don’t you join Ute outside? The weather is nice,” he said. Diana nodded and smiled but Guy was already on his way to the garage. She staked a few pancakes on a plate, covered them with maple syrup, and then picked up a fork and her cup of coffee. She would take her breakfast outside near Ute. 

As Diana passed through the opened French window, she heard a loud thudding sound. She froze, waiting for something to clarify what she had just heard. But nothing came. Sometimes you know what has happened before you actually see it. This was one of these moments.