DEAR ANJA
The scary black car came closer, slowly creeping up the street like a monster. It stopped in front of the house, where we just said goodbye to our dear young friend (45 years only), who 10 years after a long battle against cancer, had left us. Standing next to our car, we looked at this big nasty black car, why black, so penetrating, so gloomy, she had to leave her wonderful husband and son of 15 years.
All very understandable to the mind, but your heart said otherwise and it was with pain we had to see that, that black monster would take her away forever. This sweet creature, Anja came into our lives quite unexpectedly. We were the only witnesses to their marriage. They were both modern, young, true individualists, a nice modern different pair, both could have been our kids. We were deeply moved by this very special gesture, weddings of my own children we had missed or were painful, this gave us a wonderful feeling.
In the amazing old city hall of Brouwershaven, we were both there as the only witnesses of this commitment. Who would ever have guessed that that black monster, would separate them for good. A happy sunny day we spent with them, lunch in Veere, dining in Zierikzee, great weather, beautiful images. In the background the lake of Veere, it was a very happy day. They then already lived in an old farm in our village. Ruud, my husband’s ex-son in law with Anja. Ruud, playing in a heavy metal band, crazy about boats, a great sailor with the same hobbies as Willem, guitars and boats.
About 6 years later they bought an authentic old freighter, 26 meters long, which had to be totally restored, but they went to live in it anyway with their new-born son, Joeri. Those were years of hard toil and spending much money, but the result was more than worth it, it became a beautiful sailing sailfreighter.
Then suddenly Anja felt the first lump, everything was completely removed even the lymph nodes. Five fearful but peaceful years followed, sailing, enjoying, sailing in France and loving to live on the freighter in the water. Joeri liked life on the big boat, swimming, fishing and many friends in the harbor, a good life and both parents enjoyed their special kid.
There was a large drumkit in the boat, because Joeri is also filled with music and now plays as 15 year old in a band.
Suddenly, being on holiday, after 5 years a small lump on the other side. Then the deadly road began, without any mercy, in the most severe form of suffering, which lasted 5 years, a merciless struggle for all three which ended with the terrible black monster at the door. The farewell of their beloved wife and mother. We also witnessed all this senseless suffering and sadness, powerless, helpless.
We had to say goodbye to this lovely creature, Anja, who was only given such a short time with us. Dinkie
zaterdag 27 augustus 2011
AN ACCIDENT IN FEBRUARY 1975
After a serious accident to my right eye I lay flat in the Eye hospital Leyenburg in The Hague. I was not allowed to move, not even to go to the bathroom, everything had to be done lying down, until it was safe and not dangerous anymore. After five days I was finally allowed to sit in bed and the 6th day they took me to the X-ray department in a wheelchair. They wanted to make an x-ray of my eye socket to see whether it was broken. When arriving at the X-ray department there was a man who looked a little bit strange, like someone artificial, but with radiant bright blue eyes and a very friendly smile.
Scared and nervous I was waiting what would happen if it was broken, I didn’t know. “So”, the man with the beautiful blue eyes said “are you a bit nervous”. “Don’t be it is just an x-ray”. “Yes, I know, but what if my eye socket is broken?” “ don't worry about that, that is nothing, they can fix it”. Curiously I asked him, why are you here? Well. my child, I have fallen down from the 20th floor, a screen first protected me a bit, then I fell into the bushes. In a large bucket they took me to the hospital. I had almost broken everything one can break. I’ve been in various hospitals for the past five years and had up to 15 surgeries and you see, I am still here and almost all my limbs are plastic.
Stunned, I said: but you are still good looking. He looked at me and smiled." That is the nicest compliment I’ve had in 5 years, thank you." ‘
The ice was broken then and during our long wait we drank coffee and talked and laughed about all his new limbs. This is an event you will never forget and luckily my eye socket wasn’t broken and after seven days I went home to my kids cheerfully.
But I have never forgotten the man with the beautiful blue eyes hoping, he had a nice life after all, he deserved it, Dinkie.
MIRACLES EXIST – THE SECOND MIRACLE (herhaling september 2007
After a serious accident to my right eye I lay flat in the Eye hospital Leyenburg in The Hague. I was not allowed to move, not even to go to the bathroom, everything had to be done lying down, until it was safe and not dangerous anymore. After five days I was finally allowed to sit in bed and the 6th day they took me to the X-ray department in a wheelchair. They wanted to make an x-ray of my eye socket to see whether it was broken. When arriving at the X-ray department there was a man who looked a little bit strange, like someone artificial, but with radiant bright blue eyes and a very friendly smile.
Scared and nervous I was waiting what would happen if it was broken, I didn’t know. “So”, the man with the beautiful blue eyes said “are you a bit nervous”. “Don’t be it is just an x-ray”. “Yes, I know, but what if my eye socket is broken?” “ don't worry about that, that is nothing, they can fix it”. Curiously I asked him, why are you here? Well. my child, I have fallen down from the 20th floor, a screen first protected me a bit, then I fell into the bushes. In a large bucket they took me to the hospital. I had almost broken everything one can break. I’ve been in various hospitals for the past five years and had up to 15 surgeries and you see, I am still here and almost all my limbs are plastic.
Stunned, I said: but you are still good looking. He looked at me and smiled." That is the nicest compliment I’ve had in 5 years, thank you." ‘
The ice was broken then and during our long wait we drank coffee and talked and laughed about all his new limbs. This is an event you will never forget and luckily my eye socket wasn’t broken and after seven days I went home to my kids cheerfully.
But I have never forgotten the man with the beautiful blue eyes hoping, he had a nice life after all, he deserved it, Dinkie.
MIRACLES EXIST – THE SECOND MIRACLE (herhaling september 2007
zondag 7 augustus 2011
Babysitting, Eva and David
BABYSITTING
We have three daughters in law, none of these three were the type to held their mother in law close to their bossom and say,I will always be kind to her, who is expecting this will soon be disillusioned. It is more like: don’t bother me and I will not bother you. In Brussels they would be envious to reach this kind of understanding.
Very great was my surprise, when I was asked to take care of my youngest son’s daughter, my third grandchild who lives in the same village as we do. I felt honored that they had so much faith in me (stupid, stupid). It had to be permanent for at least a couple of years. Though, I was very pleased and happy that that beautiful baby was mine alone one day weekly, I was also afraid for the responsibility of such a small human being, who would be completely depending from us, but also overjoyed in a way, again taking care of a baby now on this age in my life, to start again, was something I never had expected.
We bought a little cot, mattress, trolley, etc., which was fun but also expensive. Other things were purchased, such as a drinking cup, diapers and much more. My life started again. And then there she was for the first time, the sweat was pouring down on me at the first diaper change, the first bottle, the burp, etc. Everything had to be on time, also the sleeping, this especially was difficult for me, every 6 minutes I went to check if she was okay. On one of her shows Oprah had talked about SIDS and this had made me anxious. After 1½ years my blood pressure was so high, that the doctor suggested, to look after her only half days, which I didn’t do at first, I rather took pills. We managed to do it for almost 3 years, then she went to the crèche (day nursery) in the mornings until one o’clock and at half past 1 we were there every week, thrilled to take here home. I loved the time I spend with her, together with Willem, it was our baby on that day and we hugged her a lot. We couldn’t get enough of our dear little Eva. We bought her lots of things, it was great to be able to spoil her. We played with dolls, kitchens, a doll house, it was wonderful. We enjoyed the company of this little girl very much. She had trouble sleeping, just like her father used to. So in the afternoon around 2 p.m. we went for a drive in the car with the baby on my lap and sure enough after 15 minutes she fell asleep and we went somewhere quiet near the water watching sailboats. When my arm went to sleep, Willem took her over carefully and so she slept for 2 hours in a row. When she became too old for this and didn’t sleep anymore in the afternoons, we went to all the playgrounds on the island, to all garden centers, to the beaches and also to the children’s carnival, a big hall with inflatable equipment, slides and other inflatables. After these outings we ate pancakes and drank something. We always had a delightful time. In those 14 years we spent many hours running, climbing and panting on our bare feet after Eva. In the evenings we were broken and drained, but still we enjoyed it enormously having her and eating ice cream with her. In all those years she never cried once when being with us. She never had a tiny accident nothing at all.
But now at 76 years, with also her lovely little brother present,it is, although I find it very enteraining, sometimes a little too much for us. I start dreading the babysitting when I am not feeling good or we are a little bit sick and tired. That obligation each week is making it diffucult, because the parents are counting on us, but we try to do it as long as we can and I hope we can manage to do it for one or to years more. I love these grandchildren so much, that I also must learn to let go. Now after almost 14 years the nanny time is over and I hope to enjoy the delightful company of these two children for a long long time in a different way.
I think that now the time has come that we can say, when asked to babysit: yes, now we are feeling fine and we can take care of them this evening or that afternoon. We will always be there for these two. But still we are having the bigger David and Eva every tuesday after school, but when they just drop by we love it the most.
Dinky
We have three daughters in law, none of these three were the type to held their mother in law close to their bossom and say,I will always be kind to her, who is expecting this will soon be disillusioned. It is more like: don’t bother me and I will not bother you. In Brussels they would be envious to reach this kind of understanding.
Very great was my surprise, when I was asked to take care of my youngest son’s daughter, my third grandchild who lives in the same village as we do. I felt honored that they had so much faith in me (stupid, stupid). It had to be permanent for at least a couple of years. Though, I was very pleased and happy that that beautiful baby was mine alone one day weekly, I was also afraid for the responsibility of such a small human being, who would be completely depending from us, but also overjoyed in a way, again taking care of a baby now on this age in my life, to start again, was something I never had expected.
We bought a little cot, mattress, trolley, etc., which was fun but also expensive. Other things were purchased, such as a drinking cup, diapers and much more. My life started again. And then there she was for the first time, the sweat was pouring down on me at the first diaper change, the first bottle, the burp, etc. Everything had to be on time, also the sleeping, this especially was difficult for me, every 6 minutes I went to check if she was okay. On one of her shows Oprah had talked about SIDS and this had made me anxious. After 1½ years my blood pressure was so high, that the doctor suggested, to look after her only half days, which I didn’t do at first, I rather took pills. We managed to do it for almost 3 years, then she went to the crèche (day nursery) in the mornings until one o’clock and at half past 1 we were there every week, thrilled to take here home. I loved the time I spend with her, together with Willem, it was our baby on that day and we hugged her a lot. We couldn’t get enough of our dear little Eva. We bought her lots of things, it was great to be able to spoil her. We played with dolls, kitchens, a doll house, it was wonderful. We enjoyed the company of this little girl very much. She had trouble sleeping, just like her father used to. So in the afternoon around 2 p.m. we went for a drive in the car with the baby on my lap and sure enough after 15 minutes she fell asleep and we went somewhere quiet near the water watching sailboats. When my arm went to sleep, Willem took her over carefully and so she slept for 2 hours in a row. When she became too old for this and didn’t sleep anymore in the afternoons, we went to all the playgrounds on the island, to all garden centers, to the beaches and also to the children’s carnival, a big hall with inflatable equipment, slides and other inflatables. After these outings we ate pancakes and drank something. We always had a delightful time. In those 14 years we spent many hours running, climbing and panting on our bare feet after Eva. In the evenings we were broken and drained, but still we enjoyed it enormously having her and eating ice cream with her. In all those years she never cried once when being with us. She never had a tiny accident nothing at all.
But now at 76 years, with also her lovely little brother present,it is, although I find it very enteraining, sometimes a little too much for us. I start dreading the babysitting when I am not feeling good or we are a little bit sick and tired. That obligation each week is making it diffucult, because the parents are counting on us, but we try to do it as long as we can and I hope we can manage to do it for one or to years more. I love these grandchildren so much, that I also must learn to let go. Now after almost 14 years the nanny time is over and I hope to enjoy the delightful company of these two children for a long long time in a different way.
I think that now the time has come that we can say, when asked to babysit: yes, now we are feeling fine and we can take care of them this evening or that afternoon. We will always be there for these two. But still we are having the bigger David and Eva every tuesday after school, but when they just drop by we love it the most.
Dinky
Abonneren op:
Posts (Atom)