My Four Seasons: Having an Illness, Doesn't Mean You Are Ill

By Danila Sigal Terranova

My Four Seasons is a testimony of life. A personal diary transformed into a profound but also fun lecture about how to face an illness with a positive mind; describing how the family and the friends play the most important role in recovery. Having an illness doesnt mean we are ill this is the most definite message this book leaves us with. Its a message of hope and pragmatism about how to cope with difficult moments in our life, which appear suddenly. Those typical moments when we ask ourselves: Why me? instead of: Now what? What constructive learning can we extract from every experience?

This is a book, which, those who dont like reading, actually read it in one shot, and those who do enjoy books may even read it more than once. Refreshing and meaningful, it will bring memories of what is a priority in life and the values that fade away in our hectic day-to-day, in the middle of traffic, during the competitive professional race, in the search for financial stability all valid elements in our earthly life, but which cannot be lived in isolation from our internal and spiritual world. Being happy is in our hands; its the attitude that makes the difference. We can choose to surrender to death, or we can choose to live. We can fall and stay there, or we can choose to get up!

To all those men and women who have the sad experience of going through an illness experience, know that we can heal ourselves, by regaining the balance and harmony among mind, body and spirit. Hopefully this story, together with so many other testimonies out there, will help diminish the suffering of all those who are just now starting their own journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Dec 15, 2008
• ISBN: 9781467056656

Danila Sigal Terranova

Danila Sigal, nacida en Caracas, Venezuela, la ms joven de cuatro hermanas, tiene una ascendencia mixta. Su madre, italiana y su padre, yugoslavo y sobreviviente del holocausto en la Segunda Guerra Mundial, le ensearon la importancia de valorar la unin familiar y le mostraron cmo las religiones s pueden converger hacia el amor y valores comunes. Habla varios idiomas, confirmando su pasin por la comunicacin y su inters y respeto por diferentes culturas e idiosincrasias. Estudi su primaria, secundaria y universidad en su pas natal (Venezuela), gradundose en Ciencias Administrativas Mencin Gerencia, con Post-Grado en Mercadeo. Gan premios en su infancia y adolescencia por sus excelentes habilidades numricas y escritas; habilidades que ha puesto en practica en su larga trayectoria de mas de 20 aos como ejecutiva en una reconocida empresa multinacional, al igual que en su vida cotidiana. Entre sus logros mas importantes de carrera corporativa se puede mencionar su liderazgo de la funcin de investigacin de mercados para America Latina por casi seis aos, donde jugo un papel clave en el establecimiento de la visin de la compaa en esa regin, donde adems lidero equipos multi-funcionales en el desarrollo de dos pilares estratgicos, como lo son el consumidor de escasos recursos puesto al centro de toda decisin, y la implementacin de branding acorde con los indicadores y fundamentales de negocio para cada categora de producto. Igualmente en USA, tuvo un rol similar, pero con alcance global, fortaleciendo para una de las marcas importantes de la empresa, el rol del consumidor como base de todo plan estratgico. Es considerada una lder carismtica e inspiracional, capaz de lograr resultados mediante la energizacin y motivacin de su organizacin, siempre balanceando un profundo conocimiento de negocio, con humildad y un toque personal, caractersticas que todo lder debe conservar. Escritora del libro Mis Cuatro Estaciones Tener Una Enfermedad No Significa Estar Enfermo, disponible en Ingles y Espaol. Tambin, principalmente de forma intuitiva y emprica, se ha convertido en cantautora y compositora, usando la msica como otro vehculo mas para plasmar sus aprendizajes y experiencias en su lucha contra el cncer. Diagnosticada en el ao 2002, ha vivenciado una larga travesa pasando por mltiples metstasis, cirugas, radiaciones y quimioterapia, y aun hoy, sigue en la batalla, firme con su contagiosa actitud positiva, ayudando a quienes atraviesan su propia lucha contra esta terrible enfermedad.

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AuthorHouse™

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© 2008 Danila Sigal Terranova. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 12/8/2008

ISBN: 978-1-4389-1990-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4389-1991-1 (hc)

Credits -

English Translation: By Laila Sigal ([e-mail])

Cover Design: By Mila Sigal and Esther Dalexandro

Web Page: danilasigal.com

CONTENTS

DEDICATION

PROLOGUE ONE

PROLOGUE TWO

CHAPTER 1

MY ESSENCE

CHAPTER 2

MY PILLARS

CHAPTER 3

THE FRIENDSHIP

CHAPTER 4

MY FAMILY NUCLEUS

CHAPTER 5

THE FINAL TRAIL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ATTACHMENTS

Letters to My Friends

ATTACHMENTS

Responses from My Friends

DEDICATION

To my dad ... Music, your inspiration; the word, your gift; to love us, your mission; to remember you, our will…

To my children… should life not allow me to be with you for long, may this be mommy’s written remembrance of how she was, how she thought, and what she felt… God bless you.

To Ramón… as testimony of our eternal love and my motivation to continue writing many more chapters of our life together…

To my readers, who as of this moment become, if they aren’t already, my closest friends with whom to share a piece of my personal diary. As you read it, I suggest that you listen to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and submerge yourselves into the same sentiment I felt when I wrote it.

• Prologue One

PROLOGUE ONE

God chooses what we go through.

We choose how we go through it.

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.

Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.

Helen Keller

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear—not absence of fear.

Mark Twain

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery.

Today is a gift, that’s why they call it the present.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Just a couple of months ago, while in a meeting in one of the Boards on which I serve in the US, I related, in my own words, the story of Danila, as an example of how to deal with adversity and obstacles in life with ultimate courage and character, everlasting optimism, tenacity and, above all, unquestionable resilience and determination to win.

It was then quite moving to me that, by coincidences of life, a few weeks later I received an e-mail from Danila asking if I would be willing to write a few lines about her and her book, to be used as foreword in the edition about to go to press.

I was deeply honored by her request, particularly since I am convinced she could have chosen as foreword any of the tens of eloquent and spontaneous letters she has received from family and friends along her journey, some of which she has included at the end of her book.

Having followed Danila’s journey, and having of course read her book, how could I decline such an invitation, even if I have never written for any book? Please understand that, after many years in P&G, I consider myself a pretty good business memo writer. But, business writing has nothing to do with story or book writing, even if it is only a few lines as foreword. Nevertheless, I gladly accepted and here I go.

Contrary to most of my colleagues at P&G, Danila does have a gift for writing. Her talent allows her to relate her profound story, her journey as she calls it, using simple, everyday language, yet so deep and full of emotions, both joyful and sad. Her use of the four seasons to set and describe the various characters in her life is so creative it makes you feel as if you were going along in the journey with her.

I have known Danila pretty much since she joined P&G, although at the beginning a bit at a distance. That is part of the P&G system. We, older and more senior folks, rely on the younger managers to be closer to the new talent entering the company. As years went by she developed into a well rounded and very capable manager with lots of potential for growth. And so, over the years, I got to know Danila a lot better and appreciate her as the great human being she is. I got even closer to the family as for example Ramon, her husband, to whom I have become a career coach and mentor in his development outside P&G. They do make a great couple and have a beautiful family.

Everyone who knows Danila will describe her as a very smart and intelligent lady, tenacious and determined to move forward, always ready to help others, always with a smile on her face. In sum, she is a super human being. So, how could someone so young and bright, with so many attributes and doing so much good to all those around her, all of a sudden be faced with such adversity and have to endure so much suffering? It is not fair! Any small portion of what she has gone through would be more than enough to send us into a spin of depression.

But, that is where the real Danila appears. The one perhaps not even she knew existed. The one that not only faces her illness with strength, courage, tenacity, optimism and determination to move forward, but moreover, and this is where she catches us off-guard as we are not expecting it, she actually turns her tough experience into a positive journey, draws lessons to help others under similar circumstances and even reminds all of us of how beautiful life is and how we should live every moment to the fullest. This entire reflection, she now puts in our hands in her book My Four Seasons… quite a story from quite a woman!

As I said, I am proud to know Danila and honored to have been given the opportunity to write these few lines, even if in the end it still reads as a business note.

Jorge P Montoya

Former President – Procter & Gamble, Latin America

Member Board of Directors – Gap Inc. and The Kroger Co.

• Prologue Two

PROLOGUE TWO

With great pleasure I accepted Danila Sigal’s invitation to write the prologue of her book: My Four Seasons. It’s her personal diary where she shares her origins and endeavors with her family and friends, but which she then had to complete with the description of her life’s most difficult moments, expressed in a profound catharsis.

I met Danila Sigal in the year 2006 and shared with her and her inseparable sisters many hours of intense reflections about her experience with the illness that surprisingly appeared.

The Four Seasons isn’t only limited to being an immortal musical masterpiece from Vivaldi, but rather, upon suggestion from the author, now accompanies the reading of this book to make the whole experience an indescribable harmonious sensation that extends beyond the senses.

With the sensibility of a poet, Danila uses incredible metaphors to relate the four seasons with the personality and profile of the people important to her surrounding. She associates them with summer, winter and spring, but reserves autumn to identify herself.

The author describes with masterful beauty and effervescent style the anecdotes of her life, a journey into which the reader will submerge as a trip companion, almost present in the event itself… experience which, by the way, presents her high level of spiritual consciousness and Christian faith.

The overflowing joy of the first three chapters is followed by the description of her unexpected cancer diagnosis and the ordeal endured throughout the medical procedures that are offered as treatment for this serious disease. She faced with great courage all the torment she had to live, always with the spontaneous positive attitude that has characterized her since being a child. As such, within the typical dramatics that surround all illnesses, she lives her daily life as if nothing were happening.

Between situations of profound sadness, wisely entwined with a colloquial sparkle, this book represents an invaluable treasure. Having an illness doesn’t mean you are ill; this is how Danila directs us to understand that diseases are our friends; that they bring us closer to the source of our creation and explains that despite their presence, we can discover a purpose for our existence.

Danila, you conquered the code to simplicity and unconditional love in your life, that is the basis to achieve inner peace. You are happy with everything and despite everything. It’s in that setting that God is guiding your thoughts and all the moments of your life. Because of this, He is present in each page of My Four Seasons, to fill with joy those who have the fortune of reading and sharing this extraordinary story.

Oswaldo Carmona, PhD.

Professor, School of Medicine – Universidad Central de Venezuela

• Chapter 1: My Essence

CHAPTER 1

MY ESSENCE

One day, on March 25th, 1925 and on July 18th, 1918, two very special people were born. Two people who were destined to meet each other to begin a great love story.

On a summer day in 1938 a horrible war breaks out. That war that many of us had heard so much about and of which only a few fortunate ones survived to tell their story today. My father was one of those survivors. A prodigious child who at the age of four gave his first violin concert, accompanied by the philharmonic orchestra of Belgrade, in front of an audience of almost 300 people who euphorically applauded this little gifted child. An upright little blonde, blue-eyed boy, innocent and unaware of his talent, but who adored classical music since the day he was born. He studied at a renowned conservatory, perfecting himself in violin and piano, holding a dream that some day he would travel all over Europe to offer others that musical passion.

Yet, in the fullness of his life, when dreams just begin to take form in your imagination, at the age of twenty, he was abruptly torn apart from his family and mother, forced to a concentration camp. In parallel, his mother Sofika Fischbein and ten more members of his family were taken far away to the worst concentration camp of all and from where they never came back…Auschwitz. My father had been at several camps, escaped whenever he could… he tells the story that once, from such exhaustion after running so much, he hid himself in a barn under the hay and there he fell asleep. It was that kind of profound sleep where your mind forgets, for a few hours, the horror being lived, yet it lasted so little. The German guards arrived and with sharp-pointed rakes began removing the hay in search of anyone who could have been insane enough to even think of hiding there. As told by my father, this was only one of the many examples where he miraculously saved himself from getting caught. He was really lucky that those rakes never touched the exact spot where he plunged himself into.

On one of those many days that never seemed to come to an end, my dad who by then was in Italy in an internee camp, received a telegram from Yugoslavia. The Muslim Chief, a great friend of his grandfather the Rabbi, was notifying him that his mother had died in the gas chamber in Auschwitz. He felt so powerless, and his tears wouldn’t stop as he read the telegram. Still today, when he remembers that moment, his blue eyes gloom with tears and pain. That’s how, day after day, each one of my father’s relatives died in concentration camps leaving him entirely alone in this world. Even his great friends in Yugoslavia disappeared leaving no trace. One of them was called David who was violently torn apart from his wife and children. Life takes surprising twists, my dear. I’ll tell you how, in spite of the suffering, a divine light is always present.

Simultaneously, while my father moved from one town to another across the Yugoslavian-Italian border, an Italian girl, who they say was the most beautiful of Naples (at the time elected Miss Mediterranean), found herself hiding in the underground bunkers as she left the University that day, when the horrible sirens began ringing the bombings alert. This young girl, of jet-black hair and big coffee-brown eyes, was my mother. Slim and light as a feather, she could see herself being dragged along by the crowds that descended to the shelters at fast-paced steps to save themselves from the bombs. She tells me that even rats you would find there. Days could go by without coming out of those shelters, with no food, nor a way to advise her family where she was. My grandmother, Nobil Donna Eleonora spent too many distressed moments during those days looking for her children, who were never all complete at home. Why do they call her Nobil Donna Eleonora? Well, because my grandmother was the descendant of King Charles D’Anjou’s Dynasty. Always surrounded by a staff of servants, luxury, and abundance, she would say: Under the circumstances of war, we realize we’re all equal. There’s no money’s worth, nor properties, nor goods to be bought. In war, we are all human beings, and in difficulty, we all help and keep each other company.

There are so many memories that my mother holds of the times when she had to go with my grandmother to the morgues looking for my missing uncles… always fearing they might find one of them laying there cold, dead. The war lasted seven years… seven years of learning that can be summarized in the following words used by my grandmother: Faith will move mountains. No matter how difficult a situation may seem, God always comes into action to help us out. All these experiences that seem so terrible don’t have another purpose but to teach us something. I learned from the war that there is no obstacle that will stop us from dreaming, and that we must never abandon these dreams. We must fight till the end for our lives, fulfill a mission, love each other, and be happy no matter what the circumstances are. Even in her old age years (she lived till the age of 106 years old), my grandma always walked the talk! I remember once during a vacation in Italy with her, when we were preparing ourselves to go to Sorrento, my mom wore a blouse all the way up to her neck, and my grandma tells her: What? You’re going to wear that winter garment to go out? (Ma come? ti vai a mettere quella vestimenta d’inverno per uscire?). She was horrified to see her so covered up and asked her to immediately go and change into something more low-cut in the neck that would show "sua belleza! (her beauty!). Imagine this almost 100-year old lady, in those days, telling her 60-something year old daughter to get modern. Well, that’s what my grandma was always like… an endless tale of positivism, of a playful spirit, liveliness, and generosity.

One day, when the war came to an end, my grandfather (my mom’s father) who was a doctor and a very strict father especially with the only female among his children, told her: Milena, I don’t think you will ever get married… because there will never be a man good enough for you. I would only allow you to marry if it were with this gentleman, who I usually see walking by the plaza, upright, elegant looking, with rosy cheeks, wearing a hat and carrying an umbrella, he looks like a Lord. Maybe with someone like him I would let you get married. My mom would think… wow, what chances do I have… now I’m really bound to becoming an old maid. Well, who could have ever imagined… one day, my mom who at the time had casts all over her body after a car accident, was at a get-together where she met a foreigner who fell in love with her at first sight. Yes,