IT HAPPENED UNEXPECTEDLY. But this time, my failing health brought me to the point of being between life and death.
It was early in 2005, and I had just attended a funeral service for a close friend who had been sick for several years. I remembered her as she had been before her illness. She had loved singing Russian lyrical songs. She also grew beautiful indoor flowers—she was a biologist and knew how to care for them. I thought I had witnessed her struggle quite calmly. But in hindsight, probably subconsciously, the chill of fear had crept into my thought.
On my way home from the service, I felt I was suffocating. I could neither inhale nor exhale fully. With great difficulty, I made it home from the metro station.
