Every day the RIVM shares the number of people that died within the past 24 hours from corona. More than one hundred people per day, in the Netherlands, lost the fight against this horrible virus. Every day I do realize that there is a life behind every number. Todays numbers include the life of my grandpa. The man who raised five children with the love of his life, my grandma. They were together for a lot of years and married for almost 65 years. They travelled all around the world and lived abroad, but always came home to their beloved Biddinghuizen. Pretty much everybody there knew the Revet family.
Their life with ups-and-downs, a lot of time spend in the hospital, losing their loved grandson Thijs and grandma getting dementia. They supported each other through it all and always stayed positive. Whenever I would ask my grandparents how they were doing, I got the same response: we are fine, because we are still together.
The love between themgave him a complicated choice. She had to go to a nursing home because the dementia made it impossible to take care of herself. He chose to come with her and said ‘’even if we have to go to Maastricht, I don’t care as long as I get to be with my wife.’’ Their last home was a bit closer to Biddinghuizen and the past two months they got to live together in Kraggenburg, a nursing home for Alzheimer patients, where they took really good care of them. My grandpa had to live with 10 elderly people and the love of his live, who he would do anything for. For two months they got to fall asleep next to each other, drink cups of tea and walk to the goats in the garden. While a lot of elderly people in our country are feeling super lonely, they got to be together. Just the way they dealt with every bump in the road.
One week ago, we got the news that grandpa had been hospitalized with corona. He spent his last week in quarantine, just like my grandma. The fight against the virus was unfair, but he had a lot of courage. Exactly one week after being hospitalized, he talked to his wife for the last time. Really weak and barely able to talk, his last words to her were simple, but so meaningful: I love you.
Their love story is over, but lives on in good memories, my grandma, five children, eleven grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Grandpa you can go to Thijs now and give him a big hug from all of us.
