Jan AP Kaczmarek stood on the altar with Aleksandra Twardowska in 2016. The beloved kept watch with her husband until the last momentwhich had a great impact on her. “He was a warrior to the end, trusting that he would recover and share his work with us… I watched over him until the end. He died surrounded by love. The value he believed in the most” – this is how she wrote about Kaczmarek in the media shortly after his death.
Jan AP Kaczmarek spent his last years at his wife's side. “The closure of people to our tragedy was something I still cannot understand”
In recent years, the composer and his beloved were focused on illness and its negative effects. Twardowska-Kaczmarek told about it all in an interview with “High Heels“. “My husband's illness has reduced me to a person who is a 24-hour-a-day caregiver. Who runs from specialist to specialist, and when one door closes, tries to break down another” – we read.
Who fights to survive day by day, because the disease generates costs that there is no way to cover. Walking such a path should at least command respect, at least understanding, and in the meantime I faced enormous ostracism, judging me through the prism of my famous husband, settling every request for help. This closing of people to our tragedy was something that I still cannot understand.
– she added the artist's wife. You can find photos of her with her husband in the gallery.
Jan AP Kaczmarek's wife on finding specialists and expenses
Finding specialists and effective treatments wasn’t easy. Neither was coping with a shrinking wallet. “Taking care of such a sick person means constant counting, not only of expenses – because the costs keep rising – but also meticulous collection of data and invoices, and as a result, more hours spent on humiliating explanations at the tax office” – said Twardowska-Kaczmarek. “I often feel like a prisoner without the right to leave. A convict with a list of tasks that are many times greater than he is,” she added. Interestingly, when the medication that saved the composer from collapse stopped working, his neurologist recommended a huge dose of coffee and energy drinks. “Energy drinks are everywhere. In the bathroom, if you had a crisis, in the bedroom, on the table, at armchair. Always discreetly laid out, so that you don't feel your illness and its predatory nature, so that it's normal…” – we read in “Wysokie Obcasy”.