A Breath of Heaven

by Reinhold Bilgeri

Erna von Gaderthurn, an attractive woman at the age of 41, decides to begin a new life after her father passes away. She turns her back on the restrictive influence of her domineering mother, whose pride in her noble rank she finds insufferable, and leaves her parent's Castle in South Tyrol to take on the position of schoolteacher in Blons, a hamlet in the Alps of Vorarlberg. Like many young women, she lost her husband in the final year of World War II.

Erna's appearance in the late summer of 1953 at the Alpine village on the foot of the Mont Calv creates a great commotion - her beautiful visage shaded by her broad hat, her silk dress suit, her crocheted gloves and her light step. The mountain men all turn their heads, while the women smell trouble in the air. The contrast could not be greater. Two worlds clash together, as Erna takes up her quarters in an Alpine farmhouse belonging to the Jenny Family. With few words, as is their nature, the mother and father of the family greet their noble guest: "How d'you do, the toilet's in the barn, and supper will be ready in two hours."

She soon hears of the deep conflict that has been raging for years between Eugenio and Baron von Kessel. Avalanches have repeatedly struck Blons from the slopes of the Montclav, which belong to the Baron's estate. Little Pia lost her parents in a huge wall of snow, and Eugenio, who took in the distraught girl, has been fighting for sufficient avalanche barriers for years. However the Baron is not interested, convinced that his slopes are well protected by the newly planted protective forest.

Suddenly, at the beginning of January, the thermometers drop, the nights turn freezing cold and snow begins falling. And just as Eugenio has predicted, the snow piles up into menacing towers above the hamlet of Blons. The snowflakes increase to the size of a child's hand, flying down from the heavens. The situation becomes more and more dramatic. The first avalanches have already blocked the valley roads, trapping the inhabitants where they are. No one can leave the valley. No one can come to help them. The farmers use mirrors to send each other Morse code messages, since the slightest noise might trigger a catastrophe. At two in the morning, the power goes out and the valley is completely cut off from the world. The worst avalanche in the history of the Alps begins at 7 pm on the 11th of January 1954. Between the 10th and the 12th of January over 300 avalanches are counted in the valley. Two thirds of the village is erased from the face of this Earth. The injured are given first aid in the school classroom. There are no stretchers to be found anywhere in the village.

An enormous avalanche buries Erna and Eugenio alive. Erna is able to free herself from her snowy grave, but Eugenio is trapped under the heavy rafters of the roof…. blood is flowing from his mouth. Erna stays with him in despair until help arrives, but Dr. Dobler cannot save him. When a US Army rescue helicopter finally lifts the heavy rafter off Eugenio towards the heavens, Eugenio is freed but bleeds to death in Erna's lap. Before he dies, Erna whispers her personal secret into his ear, and Eugenio dies smiling: "We're going to have a baby, the two of us." She cradles him like a baby in her lap. Erna Casagrande stays in Blons, with Pia and her son Eugenio. During the past months, the Allies have agreed to a new world order. Austria has a new constitution, the French troops leave, and Austria is a free country.