My husband, our two sons and I had been living in Peru for a couple of years when I met Emilie. It was nice meeting another Swiss woman who had also been living in Peru and had two sons around the same age as ours.
We became very good friends and our families did things together almost every weekend; like going on picnics, hiking or eating out; and our boys also slept over at each other’s houses often. We even travelled throughout Peru, visiting historic sites together and having holidays at the sea side.
Emilie had problems with her Peruvian husband though and my husband (also Peruvian) and I supported her in every way we possibly could. We had her children at our house a lot and we did things with them to give Emilie a break.
She then got pregnant again and had her third child, this time a girl. We sometimes did the shopping or ran an important errand for her.
I slowly started noticing that she was irritable with our older son, but put it down to her stressful situation. I also noticed that she would only come to the house when my husband was around and caught her flirting with him a few times. At first I didn’t think anything of it because by then we had all known each other for about 7 years and my husband had a great sense of humour, so a joke here and there was the norm.
Emilie split up with her husband and started telling me about her feelings for a man we both knew who was married, so I gave her the advice a friend would give her. One day, she mentioned the man again and I suddenly realized she was talking about my husband!
I said to her: ”Are you talking about my husband?”
Emilie said: ”Maybe.”
I answered: ”What do you mean maybe, it’s either yes or no!”
Emilie reluctantly: ”Yes.”
She went on to say that my husband would be such a great father for her kids!!!!
My world crumbled and even though in my mind I understood her feelings – because she was lonely and my husband was a great guy always playing with her kids – I felt so betrayed! The more I looked at the situation, the more I realized that she had been jealous of what I had, especially of my relationship with my husband.
I wrote her a letter saying that I could no longer be friends with her and wished her the best in her life.
Luckily my husband had no interest in her, so we continued with our lives.
Once in a while I would see Emilie and we would just pass each other in silence.
I started working with a spiritual healer on forgiving my past lives; including the lives I had with Emilie. I also started reading “A Course in Miracles” and books by Gary Renard. I dedicated myself on practicing forgiveness and saw how much work I needed to do!
Seven years passed
and my older son had gone to study in England and now it was time for my younger son to find a university too. My husband and I split up and were on friendly terms; so I decided to go to England with my younger son.I hadn’t felt right about my situation with Emilie, so one day I wrote her an Email saying that the past was the past and I felt now that nothing had ever happened. I truly felt this way, and I added that maybe the next time we would see each other in Peru we could go for a coffee and talk.
Six months later my younger son and I planned a trip to Peru and I contacted Emilie, telling her when I would be there. She now lived in another city; about an 8 hour bus ride away. After three days of being in Peru my younger son complained of stomach cramps. We thought he had eaten something so I gave him a homeopathic remedy and he went to be. When one goes to Peru from a European country, it’s common to have an upset stomach because the food isn’t as hygienic in certain places. My son had told me that he had eaten in a couple of places we used to go to, even though I had warned him to be careful because he wasn’t used to it anymore.
The next morning he still had the pain and I gave him one more remedy and said that if it wasn’t better in one hour we would go to the doctor. He fell asleep again, and I was in the kitchen when the door-bell rang.
I opened the door and there was Emilie with her now 9 year old daughter. They had taken the 8 hour night bus to come and see me, taking a risk because we might not have been at the house!!!
I invited her in for a coffee and we talked about old times and caught up on our lives. At one point I realized it was really as if nothing had ever happened!
Suddenly, my son’s friend came running into the kitchen saying something was wrong with my son. We ran upstairs and saw that he was very pale and in pain.
Emilie is a nurse and told me to go to a specific clinic where a mutual doctor friend of ours worked. In Peru it’s very important what clinic you go to, as there can be good ones as much as there can be terrible ones. She said good-bye because she was going to meet some friends and then take the next night bus back home. Her sons were at home, and I realized then that she had only come for that specific day hoping to see me!
I got to the clinic with my son and the doctors couldn’t find out what the problem was. He didn’t show the signs for appendicitis in the ultra sound and the doctors were saying different things; all the while my son was in terrible pain.
I started arguing with the doctors telling them that with the pain he had it almost certainly had to be appendicitis and told them to give him a pain killer. I started panicking because I knew that if it really was appendicitis it could burst and then it would become dangerous and life-threatening.
At that moment I turned around and saw Emilie
walking towards me with our doctor friend whom I had looked for, but couldn’t find. He approached us, took a look at my son and said: “Don’t worry, Alessa, I’m taking over now.” He told the other doctors that he was taking my son to his ultra sound room. We were there for what seemed a long time, then he said: “We need to operate straight away. I’m going to call a friend of mine who is a surgeon and the best one in this city.”My son was operated on and the surgeon told me that his appendix had burst and that he had suffered from peritonitis. It was all OK now and my son would be alright.
As I had been arguing earlier with the doctors and saw Emilie walk in with our doctor friend, it felt like an angel was walking toward me with the help that we needed. I’m convinced that Emilie saved my son’s life. My son’s appendix was towards the back which was why the doctors couldn’t see that it had burst. He also didn’t show the typical signs except for the pain. The doctors’ lack of reaction put my son in a life-threatening position.
If hadn’t forgiven Emilie and written her an email she wouldn’t have taken the night bus to my city and arrived on the exact morning that my son was having the pains. And she would not have walked into the clinic with the doctor who saved my son’s life!