In summer 2021, Heidemarie Riede-Balcer moved into a room at the Villa Auguste hospice in Leipzig. Terminally ill people like her are usually guests there for two to three weeks before they die. But Heidemarie Riede-Balcer is still alive a good four months after her arrival. It would be an exaggeration to say that she is in great spirits; the petite 77-year-old is visibly marked by the leukaemia she has had for almost 25 years. But she now feels so stable again that she made an extraordinary decision in the week before the first Advent.
Heidemarie Riede-Balcer left the hospice and returned home. Walking upright. Because she wants to spend the Advent and Christmas period at home with her husband. "I know how ill I am, I'm not fooling myself," she says. "It's just an interlude at home. But I'd like to take advantage of that now."