The Nightmare Cure (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

On the afternoon of January 16th, 1960, a 75-year-old man named Julian Opet carried a bag of groceries into his apartment in Toulon, which is a city in France.

He set the bag down on the counter, and then he looked around at the small kitchen with a twinge of sadness because he knew he would never see it again after tonight.

Then, like always, he pulled out a cutting board and a knife, and he began chopping vegetables for dinner.

And as he was doing that, he heard his 77-year-old wife, Marie, call out to him from the bedroom.

So he went to see what she needed, and he found her sitting up in bed but propped up with some pillows, which was exactly how he had left her.

So two years earlier, Marie had gotten very sick with a mysterious illness, and she had been totally paralyzed ever since.

Now, she could talk, and she could move her eyes, and sometimes she could even shift her shoulders around with quite a bit of effort, but that was about it.

And so ever since this paralyzation happened, ever since this mystery illness set in, Julian had become her full-time caretaker, which was exhausting and somewhat depressing.

And to make matters worse, at least from Julian's perspective, over time, his wife had really only gotten more bitter and more demanding.

So taking care of her had basically taken over every waking moment of Julian's life, both physically and mentally.

And so now as he, you know, with a sigh, walked over and reached the bed that his wife was in, Marie told Julian that he needed to change her diaper because she had gone to the bathroom while he was gone, and he hadn't been there to, to help her with the bedpan.

Now, Julian could tell that sort of in this, this statement was quite a bit of resentment, that she was annoyed that, that he had left her alone while he went to the store.

But he didn't argue.

He just nodded and started pulling back the sheets.

And as Julian did this, he actually felt a, a wave of calm come over him because he knew this would be the last time.

Julian had known for a while now that he simply could not keep living like this.

It just was not gonna fly for him.

He couldn't do it.

But he also knew that Marie's quality of life, which was already quite poor, would be even worse without him, which is why he'd made up his mind to end it all tonight, not only for himself, but also for Marie.

Later that night, after Julian had cleaned up his wife and then also made dinner and fed them both and then cleaned up after dinner, he sat in the bed next to Marie, reading her a book like he did every night.

And when he noticed that she was beginning to drift off, he put the book aside, and he gently adjusted the pillows so his wife could lie flat and sleep comfortably.

Then after that, he switched off the lamp, and then he got out of bed, and he left the room.

He went to a closet, and he pulled out a rope, and then he took the rope to the bathroom, and he spent a few minutes setting it up.

After it was set up, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen and went back into the bedroom where his wife was.

And for a few minutes, he just stood there, you know, with this knife in hand, staring at his, his wife as she slept.