Hello everyone,
Unfortunately, Fabian is currently feeling worse again, which is why he can't write to you himself. He sends his best wishes this way and looks forward to hearing from you again.
To keep the website up and running, Fabi has asked us to fill it with a little life. We, Tanis & Berit, have been friends with Fabian for 15 years now. We were able to see him again this summer for the first time in a long time, give him a big hug and spend some time together.
Maybe you had the chance to write to Fabi again this summer or even meet him in person and had similar experiences?
30.04.2025, 17:00: “Hello, what's new”
A small message with a big impact.
Our reactions to Fabian's first WhatsApp message after several years without any contact range from pure joy and slight disbelief to great doubts about its authenticity. Has someone hacked into his cell phone?
However, it soon turns out that the above message actually comes from Fabian. We are happy to admit it: We've shed more than a few tears of joy.
As Fabi himself reported in one of his previous blog posts in May, his health improved suddenly and rapidly at the beginning of the year - for reasons that are not yet clear. As a result of this newfound energy, Fabian created this website, on which he describes his experiences with ME/CFS, campaigns for greater visibility of ME/CFS and sets up a calendar of visits.
After just a few WhatsApp messages with Fabian, we've already decided that we're going to Mannheim as soon as possible. The closer we get to the day of the visit in August, the more we look forward to it, but the more questions we have. What will it be like when we see Fabi again? How much interaction will be possible? How should we behave? What should we not do? The last time we saw him was during the coronavirus pandemic via video call, where very little interaction was possible and everything quickly became too much.
On the way up the stairs to the apartment, we are both still feeling insecure and nervous. When the time came and we finally saw Fabi again after a very long time, the first and very simple question we asked him was: “Can we give you a hug?”. (Spoiler: Yes, we were allowed to!)
Fabian also takes away our biggest insecurity/worry straight away: all the shared memories, the unmistakable humor and his idiosyncrasies (of course...as a guest, the first thing you get from him is a gift ;)); nothing has changed. We can even speak to him in full sentences, ask him questions and answer questions from him, it's much more possible than the last time we spoke.
We were also able to attend a lunch with the family and Fabian wanted to take a few photos with us to say goodbye, which made us really happy - all of this would have been unthinkable in recent years.
Despite the unimaginably hard time and this simply - forgive me - shitty illness, we take it with us: Fabi is still Fabi and that is just wonderful to see.
Have you had similarly hopeful experiences with Fabian or with ME/CFS sufferers in general? Would you like to support the project for more visibility for ME/CFS in any way? Get in touch!
See you very soon, hopefully again from Fabian himself 🙏
English 
Deutsch
Leave a Reply