The tragedy of a Hungarian widower: raising his son alone while being sick himself

Losing your wife, the mother of your son, is an incredibly difficult tragedy to handle on its own, but raising your son alone while being sick is even harder. László lost his wife to leukaemia, and now he needs to spend 6 months in hospital due to being sick himself. He and his 3-year-old son are left alone and in need of help.

Femina visited László and his son, Nimród, to learn about their story. Even in this difficult situation, Laci keeps on smiling and joking about his heavy breathing, saying his Covid-19 test has just come back negative. Their kitchen does not give the impression of that of a single-parent family. There is a picture of his late wife on the wall, old but loving messages on the fridge, together with photos of the whole family. A happy mother smiling back. 

Katalin had waited 14 years to become a mother.

Doctors told them they would never be able to have kids. Nimród was only 4 months old when she was diagnosed with leukaemia. She did not live to see his son turn 2.

“She had been in the hospital for 10 months during which time she spent 8 days at home,” Laci starts telling their story. He raised their son alone while visiting his wife regularly. Laci lost his job and got into the public work program while getting a sterilised room ready for Katalin who had just received a bone-marrow transplant. The whole community of their village helped them, even by raising money for the family. 

“This was not even the hardest part. But to forbid a mother to hug his child for 100 days! Can you imagine that?!”

he said.

I do not think anyone can.

During these trying times, another tragedy hit the father. His parents passed away while they were fighting for Katalin’s life. Unfortunately, his mother could not see the day of his grandson’s birth. To make matters worse, Laci faced further problems. He has to carry the weight of the loans taken out by his late parents on the old house where he grew up.

They had to keep fighting for Katalin who did not feel the strength to go through another set of treatments, so she decided to spend her last days with her loving husband and son.

“He certainly felt something was not right, that his mother was sick. He was very quiet and hugged her so tenderly, like he was trying to help in this way,” said Laci about his son.

Father and son were left all alone. Laci successfully applied for a job and started to work while Nimród was sent to kindergarten. It was tough, but they believed life was not going to get even harder. They were wrong. One day, after feeling sick for several weeks, Laci suddenly collapsed in his kitchen. Tests run on him showed he had an aneurism and an autoimmune disease.