Day 29 | OCTOBER 09, 2021

Good Evening Friends,

Today is day 29, of our new and amazing life!

I am happy to say that today was a good day !

Today was a little different from last Saturday, I had no kids in my bed watching cartoons, since my sister Marianna and my brother in law Giuliano are staying with us. London is obsessed with spending time with them! So they played him and Julien this morning:)

I took advantage of their amazing help and I went down to have breakfast and did a little bit of work , and made my way to Richmond, to be with my beautiful wife .

I arrived at the hospital around 11:50a, and Charlie was out of her room, getting a CT scan, so I took advantage of her empty room and hung the beautiful pictures that our dear friends at @performanceSigns donated to Charlie.

Those pictures will be right in front of Charlie’s bed and I will rotate them often, there are over 30 pictures being printed, it is such a generous and wonderful gift! Thank you so much !

Charlie was moved with the lift to her recliner , and I pulled a chair next to her , and it felt like we had been transported to our favorite coffee shop. As we just started an incredible conversation, we started by talking about the pictures on the wall. She told me how much she loved it!

She couldn’t believe how generous this gift was! We talked about the moment behind each picture, it was such a fun experience to travel back in time and remember those moments, one picture that was not up on the wall, but that she saw is the one of me and her having breakfast in a hotel in Rome, with the Colosseum as the background, we talked about how much fun we had during that trip in 2018, the bike ride on a Sunday in Rome. I could see the spark in her eyes and the gentle smile, I asked her if she still wanted to travel, and she said absolutely yes!

We continued our conversation for almost 3 hours! It is a new record!

We also talked about the amount of love and support that we have been receiving from all of you! And In special her mom friends in Charlottesville, Charlie is so grateful.

She is becoming aware of how many people know of her story, today on her way to the CT scan, two staff members from the hospital recognized her. I told her , Charlie , you are a living miracle! Your story is known by a lot of people in this country and around the world! She is just now starting to realize how much love she is receiving.

We also talked about trivial day to day subjects, like what what dishes has my mom cooked for us

But we also talked about incredible deep and emotional topics, like her accident and her state of mind when she thought that she was going to die. I will give you a short version of what she told me, because what she told me is just beyond believable and very intense .

Charlie told me that shortly after she extinguished the fire out of her body, she felt the most intense pain, she ever experienced, she said her entire body felt like it was continuing to be in fire at that moment, she thought that her life was ending, the pain was just too much , she felt real fear, she was scared and sorrow overcame her mind as she started to think of the boys and me , the pain was so intense that her body was getting ready to give up and die, at that very moment the EMT arrived, and she soon realized that she had to fight because help was there ! And she did not want to die!

The amount of details she told me about the feeling of dying, it is just too intense to put into words. But I can tell you that I cried as she described to me what her body and mind was going through in that very moment of intense fear and sorrow.

I asked her if she felt God's presence at that time or at any other time , she said that she felt God's presence right at the time she saw the EMTs . She said, the way she felt God in that moment, was by an incredible desire to live and strength to withstand the pain. She didn’t remember the helicopter flight into VCU or her first days at the Hospital.

I am so grateful, for God’s miracle of saving Charlie Anne’s life! I can’t imagine what my family life would be if she didn’t make it!

The fact that 29 days later, we are sitting across from each other and talking about her accident as a past memory, is just remarkable!

Charlie is so incredible and her story will have such an impact on so many people's lives.

Her desire to live and her faith in God is what kept her alive right after the accident, but the fact she is able to remember her human reaction when facing death, is absolutely breathtaking.

During this conversation I revealed to Charlie that I have been doing a voice journal just for her, where every night I record my journal to her, it is different from what I post here, because it is me telling Charlie about my day and our interactions. It is very personal and more intimate.

She smiled and said thank you!

She also told me that a lot of times she has no idea if it is day or night in here, to know that you have a voice journal for me once I get home is very exciting! And then she asked me , will that be a book ? I was taken by surprise, but I asked her back, do you want me to write a book? And she said, yes! You must!

I told her that she is the living miracle, not me .

So nobody will want to hear from me, I can’t write remember? They will want to hear from you ! She just smiled and looked at me with her beautiful blue eyes.

After a few hours of incredible and deep conversation, Charlie asked to have her hair washed, and her wonderful nurse India did a great job washing her hair again today! She loved it so much! She even asked to have her hair braided .

After that, Charlie was lifted back into her bed, and she went straight to sleep, she was tired. Seating up on the recliner requires a lot of effort on her diaphragm and lungs, she was sleeping as I left for the evening.

I am just so grateful for today’s visit, I can comfortably say that it was one of the best ones!

The fact that we chatted for almost 3 hours, it is just incredible! I am so grateful! Thank you God for this amazing gift!

Thank you for your kindness and generosity.

May God Bless You.

André