It's hot and humid and I can't sleep. Tomorrow This afternoon, The Netherlands will meet Brazil in the quarter finals of the World Cup, and I fully expect them to lose; which is a shame as I've managed to accumulate quite a nice little collection of Oranje icons over the last few weeks that now, sadly, will have to go unused.

Day 30: A song you ( Read more... )

We gathered in the RC church of St. John the Baptist in Hoofddorp yesterday morning for Joost's memorial service and funeral. There had been a wake the night before, that I hadn't been able to attend -sometimes I curse myself for not having gotten another car after my VW got stolen, when it means I can't get anywhere in the countryside at night- ( Read more... )

In among the bills for this week, the news I'd been dreading: Joost passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 18th. He was 45 years old.

It was love that had given him the strength to withstand his illness for the last 10 years, and at the last, it was love that gave him the strength also to let go.

Christmas has been cancelled at Dad's care home, because of an outbreak of norovirus disease. I was going to go round there Christmas Day, but I've only just recovered from the flu' (except for a cough and a runny nose), so I don't know if I still should ( Read more... )

I received the news yesterday that Joost has gone into decline. He suffers from severe epileptic fits almost every day, and the chemo has been stopped. All care now will be strictly palliative.

At a meeting at my father's care home this afternoon, convened to lay the residents' and their families' fears to rest, I was pleased to hear that the home will do everything in its power to rehome the people in their care, and for that reason are willing not only to work with the families and mediate with other care homes in the area, whether they ( Read more... )

Joost came through the surgery okay, and has already left the ICU. They're still monitoring him for possible blood clots/hemorrhages/etc. but are reasonably optimistic that he'll get through the next couple of days without further incident.

Got a call from my sister this morning; Mick's friends had all left her in the lurch and she desperately needed someone to help her move, but at such short notice and at a time when most people are on holiday, who was she going to get? Well, me and the brother of one of her colleagues, is who. So I've spent the day lugging beds and boxes and bits ( Read more... )

...though I did think, for a long moment, that I was a goner ( Read more... )

It's been a long and at times distressing few months, but it looks like my friend Joost has finally turned a corner. After having been rushed to hospital with recurring bouts of meningitis twice in the last 8 weeks, he seemed to have made a full enough recovery to be sent home (much to his doctors' surprise, I may add: there was even talk of not ( Read more... )