Thousend times thanks!


To all the followers of the blog, to anyone who has been supportive of Frank or us in the last months and especially after his untimely death we want to say thanks from the bottom of our hearts. In the week after his passing we received so much warmth, stories, care and love, hardly describable. To us it was a very precious and valuable week and it was so good to have Frank at home where so many of his friends could visit him. And all the help, stories and info shared in that week led to a beautiful goodbye ceremony on a beautiful sunny autumn day. For those of you who could not attend, or those of you who wish to reread the funeral speeches, we publice them here (in dutch and english) with some pictures in grateful memory of, and tributed to Frank.We will miss him dearly, thanks for being with him and with us, one way or another,

On behalf of my family and his closest friends, Esther

Foto's Frank

zaterdag 14 mei 2011

A day at the races...

When I came for today's visit there was no Frank. As a matter of fact, there was hardly a person at the ward. I wend to the kitchen to find Franks mother and together we went out. The weather was nice, sunny and not to much wind so it was busy outside on the terasses and in the park around Kalorama. When we two walked out Frank just came in with Marleen, Walter and Mathieu, and Arvid joined us too. All of us were going to the physics area to do some exercises with a baloon. For three quarters of an hour we had fun tossing the baloon to Frank and he bumping it away to one of us. We had great fun!

In the end Frank indicated to go back to his room, just showing us more of Kalorama, but in the end we managed to get to his room. I had picked up a game of Munchkin at Moenen en Marieke, another longtime friend of Frank. To kill the time until the nurce would find the time to get Frank into his bed we started a game, with all the usual remarks and mocking that goes with it. It was a good thing that most people were outside! Otherwise they might have wondered why the five patients were in one room and had one visitor in a weelchair with them. When the nurse came she convinced Frank to stay in his weelchair until dinner time which he accepted. And the game continued.

Munchkin is a game where each player starts at level 1 and the first one to get up to level 10 wins. Each turn each player one by one draw a card. That card can give you an item (with positive of negative effects) or force you to a fight it. If you win then you go one level up. You can get help up to a maximum of one other player while all the others might help the attacker. Not too dificult a game, it needs some strategy to pick the right fights or help and some luck in drawing cards. The comments on the cards (and made by the players) gives this game its unique feeling. And Frank is a master in it.

At some point in time dinner came up and most of us had to go home. Frank was at level 8, the highest at the moment, and declared the true Victor of this game.

At that time his room mate came back and both of them where prepared to get some rest. Not a bad day. All in all Frank was in his weelchair for at least more than two hours (the walk in the garden not accounted for). It was not just sitting and looking around, no he was both physicaly and mentaly active all the time. Not a bad day indeed!

3 opmerkingen:

  1. Well, it was an interesting day, definitely. When I was pushing Frank in his wheelchair up and down the paths of Kalorama it took a while for me to figure out the best way to do that. WHen I commented out loud that I just had to use my excess 30kg of weight Frank commented "so you finally found a use for it!" Then during the ballgame he managed to hit me right there where... um, well, let's just say that I was very glad it was a big and very SOFT ball we were using, and that Frank's not that strong yet. Or it would have been very, ahem, interesting. And to cap it all the little so-and-so beats us all at Munchkin. WAAAAHH!!!!

    But it's as André says. He was active and engaged all the time we were there, and his wit and gaming skills have not suffered. He didn't look really pleased when the nurse told him "first dinner, then bed", but he accepted it. And he was once again much improved over last week, and he sat noticably straighter (still like a sack of potatoes but that's normal for Frank ;-)). Also, it was really nice to play ballgames with him and take an active part in his recovery - and it was a lot of fun in itself. Really a team-building event.

    And to finish the day Mathieu and I talked so much when driving me to the station that we took a few wrong turns and lost 10 minutes to find the right way again (I did catch the train though). It's becoming a tradition with us I fear, a few weeks back we talked so much that Mathieu went on autopilot and drove to his apartment in Wychen instead of Nijmegen...

    I can't wait to see where Frank will be next week (and where Mathieu drives me ;-))

    Walter

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  2. Deze reactie is verwijderd door de auteur.

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  3. Hallo Allemaal,
    Een paar dagen niet gelezen en dan al zoveel veranderingen en vooruitgang. Wat goed. En wat maakt het verwijderen van een buisje veel verschil.

    Gogogo!

    Jennifer

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