My daughter has been dancing since she was four years old. At first she tried her hand at gymnastics, then she became interested in ballet. At a certain age her dream was to enroll in the corresponding specialty and then to perform at the opera and ballet theater in the capital. She danced to bruises and blisters, believing that admission or passing the competition is worth every nerve cell spent.
Luck was on her side and she succeeded in a lot, if not everything. She loved to act as an educator, to study, to judge and to come to contests. She was very agile, ambitious and talented. She never gave up and stubbornly pursued her goal. This applied not only to dance, but also to her personal life.
There was a young man in her ballet company – whom she idolized and liked a lot. He always got leading roles while she was amused by the “extras”, but she managed to draw his attention to herself and they struck up a relationship.
He was a very handsome guy, but a little arrogant. I sometimes didn’t like the way he exalted himself and unknowingly put my daughter down. But it was many years after we were married that we really found out how rotten he was.
My daughter was on her way back from final rehearsal before the ballet, wearing headphones and in her thoughts, and missed the moment when the green light changed to red. According to all the rules she should have been let through anyway, but the driver was flying at a huge speed and didn’t have time to slow down.
I was afraid she wouldn’t come to at all, and it broke my husband’s heart to see how her legs were hurt. He left her four months later, while she was in rehab and still hoping she could walk. It shattered her even more, but I supported my daughter in every way I could and subsequently took her home with me.
She needs care and constant help. It has been less than a year and we are still hoping for a miracle. We don’t know what to do next or what she wants to do yet because she’s still raving about dancing, we both do bead and ribbon embroidery, and I’m encouraging her to start her own online custom art store to do something, but it’s like she’s not ready to finally let go of her favorite dance and dive into something radically new.
I hope that the support of friends and even strangers on the internet will encourage her and help her move forward. I always tell her that the thing she loves can change over time, just as the job she loves changes, as do the people around us, and the world itself. It’s okay to change, even if sometimes circumstances force it.
