Hi Folks

Yesterday, I was able to go back to the museum. It was great. They were all waiting to welcome me, and it felt as if I had not been away. The museum is doing really well. They had an Indonesian style buffet meal, which tasted great. Today it was back to normal, with the reality of my situation badly sinking in..... No, I do not feel all too well about that, but try to keep going, anyway. After all I owe myself that!

Frank


I (Esther) take over the keyboard (on Frank's request) and blog a little additional info, Frank is tired and wants to lay down.
Yesterday indeed was a fantastic day. You must imagine what it is like when you return to the place which for Frank feels closest to home after being absent 3 month. When Frank came in, all the folks (aprox. 50) gave him a standing ovation which was very touching.

His collegues and other volunteers of the museum all came to greet him, one after another, and talk to him, expressing all kinds of encouraging and heartwarming words. Everyone I spoke made one thing clear and one thing only: Frank IS the liberation museum! It's very impressive to see and hear all that, it was a privilige for me to be there and share this moment with Frank and his collegues.

Although it is advised to Frank not to drink any alcoholic beverages, the first thing he ordered after being asked what he wanted to drink, was a nice glas of red wine. His boss (Wiel) said "we commit perjury, let's call it berry juice" (meineed plegen) on which Frank replied 'wijneed' which was of course a far better pun than Wiel ever could have thought of, we all laughed and loved this exquisit verbal performance skill from Frank.

The first thing Frank did when we came in is best described by: working. "Wiel, how many visitors has the museum had the last months, can I go to my PC I want to print out a bicycle route for one of the guys" etc. etc. It's good to see Frank so much in his element right there. It was a great moment to see him behind his desk again. His closest collegue Joop immediately told Frank that he is going to rearrange the library so it will become more easy for Frank to go in and out of the room and sit behind his computer.

After one and a half hour we drove off to the SMK again and very content with the visit Frank almost immediately fell asleep when his head reached the pillow.

It was a very good experience after a rather tough week for Frank. Wednesday he had the first evaluation with the treatment team and the conclusion Frank draw from it is, "I'm finished, it's not returning to normal any more so I'm useless". I told him he is anything but useless. The Liberation Museum wants him back, his friends want him back and his family loves him and wants him into their lives (by the way, seeing and feeling all the dedication from the museum and friends from Frank I dare say they love him too!). And I also assured him that nature has it's own course and NOBODY can predict outcome. The reason for his transfer back to Kalorama is that the treatment team feels that there must be a optimal balance between therapy and doing things he really enjoys (i.e. adding quality to life). So the planning is that he will return to Kalorama on the 12th of July to the rehab. dept. over there. There he will go to his own single room and the plan is to move a bookcase and his PC over there. Furthermore his Ipad wil finally arrive coming friday (pfiew at last....). And thanks to the generosity of many of you I received such an amount of money for Frank that I will spent the rest on a new flatscreen TV. Not that tiny prehistoric litlle ....tv again! I think he will be very pleased with that, considering his reaction this afternoon to my proposal.
Oh, and at last, I found his mobile recharger and recovered his PUK-code (with a little persuasion and sad sad story telling), so you can finally reach Frank also on his cellphone (0648853891).
Well, on closing up this blogentry, I'd say it's time for a new round of encouraging cards, phonecalls, emails anything. Frank needs it.
Thanks to you all, again and again, for reacting to my pleas, the blog, everything! Frank (and we) couldn't do without it.
love to you all, Esther