“I can't take a glass of water to my mouth, but I can do what many do not dare to dream.” The struggle for “normal” of a 36 -year -old woman, suffering from severe disability

Carmen Vasilescu (36 years old) lives with a form of severe cerebral paralysis, but says she refuses to be defined by her body limitations. Last days, in Bookfest, she launched her autobiographical book that is called “and if it is true that it is not possible? Between body and soul.” Carmen Vasilescu gave an interview for the Hotnews audience in which she explained what it means to claim your life, no matter how hard it is to do.

• “I wrote with my nose and mouth, but especially with the soul,” the woman tells about the process of writing the book.

Carmen Vasilescu works in PR, and despite her daily challenges, she has built a life in which not only works, but inspires. At the Bookfest 2025 International Book Fair, Carmen Vasilescu launched the autobiographical volume “And if it is true that it is not possible? Between body and soul”, a book on how you can overcome your condition when you refuse to lose your dignity and hope.

“I wrote with my nose and mouth, but especially with the soul,” she says about the process of writing, which lasted over two and a half years. The book is an honest testimony about life with disability, but also about the beauty of remaining man between people, in a world in which, often, prejudices are harder to overcome than physical obstacles.

What does “normal” mean

Carmen doesn't talk about victimization. Does not require compassion. Ask only a reliable space in which people look beyond appearances. “Normality does not mean to be like the others, but to be yourself,” she says, and the book becomes a plea for the courage to assume, even (or especially) when you are different.

The launch of the volume took place May 31, at 5:00 pm, at the Humanitas Publishing House stand, in the presence of Lidia Bodea, Alexandru Stermin and Marcel Bartic.

HotNews.ro spoke to Carmen Vasilescu about what it means to claim your life, no matter how hard your destiny was written and how it was to put everything in a book.

“I think the hardest thing was to talk about my feelings.”

The question in the title of the book is not a marketing artifice, but the essence of a life experienced against the diagnosis, says the author. For Carmen, writing was not only a therapeutic exercise, but an act of courage.

“The soul and the mind spoke the same language, and when this happens, I only have to listen to them,” she says about how the idea of ​​the book was born in a dialogue with a loved one, in a moment of revealing silence. It only took a suggestion and Carmen knew she had to turn it into something real. “And how good I did that!“she says. She also says she also wrote the book in the idea that many lived what she lived, but they didn't have the courage to talk about it, closing in them.

Carmen claims she doesn't want to be the model of anyone, but she's the kind of man who forces you to ask you questions about what you really mean. He is looking for applause, he does not speak in clichés and he never uses the word “heroism”. It looks back with vulnerability and a lucidity that does not allow you to pity it. “I think the hardest thing was to talk about my feelings,” admits. “There were many moments in which I thought I was wrong to love.”

About the diagnosis he speaks technically only when he needs to. Spastic tetraparesis, she explains, “is a form of cerebral paralysis caused by a lesion that has as a result the total or partial loss of the use of limbs and trunk, affecting the nervous and sensory centers.

To me, it was a problem with the first ones, so I can't coordinate the movements of the limbs. ”

Jumped with the parachute and did scuba diving

But beyond the definition, what remains is the way Carmen refuses to let her body keep her soul closed.

“I probably managed to look in the eyes of those who saw my soul, not the carapace,” she says. It was a silent struggle with itself, a permanent negotiation between acceptance and ambition. “In me it was always a struggle with my own person, in which I did not want to leave the negative thoughts. Every time I went through such moments, I remind myself how beautiful it is to live.”

This is how he came to fly with the paragliding, jump with the parachute, to scuba diving, to ski. Not for the show, but for freedom.

“I feel that freedom that the body prevents me live,” he says. “But you see, it's a paradox: I can't eat alone or take a glass of water to my mouth, but I can do what many dare to dream.”

An ordinary day? There is no such thing in her universe. “Every day I start with a smile on the lips, because I can add one more in this beautiful journey to Earth and try to enjoy it as much as it can be different from the previous one, without allowing the routine to be installed,” he says.

The word “normal” makes no sense unless it is resigned. “Normality means being yourself, without looking for someone to sow or understand you. Have your own opinions and not be afraid that you may be viewed differently.”

He discovered journalism and musical PR at an event with Romanian artists in Craiova. It was love at first sight. “I realized that I really like this field and that I have to do something in this regard. It is so pleasant to feel useful, but at the same time and to be aware of everything that happens in this beautiful world, that I would never give up this passion.”

What is disability

When he talks about people with disabilities, Carmen does not adjust his voice, nor add filters.

“Disability is nothing but a friend we need to understand best and not try to remove him as the most fierce enemy. And even if we were to look like this, it is said that the enemies must be kept close, no? Live Your Life! It's just one and we don't have to upset it,” she says.

It also has a clear vision of how the Romanian society could become more empathetic. “What good would it be if we never care about what the world says and does … Empathy comes from within a fulfilled soul and not that of one who is not satisfied, who does not have his own achievements. When the soul forgets to love, it only remains to see its own darkness in others.”

About the launch of the book that took place in Bookfest says he has the feeling of a new beginning. “I have great emotions because I really want this book to reach not only in front of as many readers, but to be understood as I wrote it, with the soul. Yes, it is also a celebration of a fight with myself, but also the beginning of a new long road, which I started with great hope and trust!” Says Carmen.

If someone would browse his book at random, Carmen does not have a favorite page. Not because he does not believe in “key passages”, but because he wants the reader to become part of the story. “I would like him to tell me what his favorite page is and why.”

And if, until the end, however, a teaching would come off, it is not a moralizing one. It's a silent but powerful encouragement.

“Every person, with or without disabilities, has difficult moments in life, which he feels he cannot overcome, so?

Dreams? Has. Many. Some already planned. “I have a lot of dreams that I would like to fulfill, but to give you an example, I will tell you that next month I go on vacation in Nice, and there I want to experience the parasailing. It is a very long list of my dreams, but I propose to discover it, once they come reality.”

And if it's true that there is no “can't”? If there is only fear? Then, Carmen Vasilescu wrote a book. He opened a door, and the rest depends on us.