maandag 31 december 2007

I.M.Frans

I could not write about this for a long time.

In november one of my best friends Frans died on the age of 47. After a long time being ill he decided to stop. A big decision. The biggest in live. We were friends for more than 30 years. Together with his partner and 7 more friends we were with him the last hours of his live. These were very intense, memorable hours with laughing, crying, music, wine, beautifull words. It was a great experience, strange to say. I rather have Frans back, in healty state, but that was not possible anymore. Every friend brought a personal item that remebered to Frans that day.
I brought a Jacques Brel record with the song "the Moribond" in which Brel sings "c'est dur de mourir au printemps". In this song he says goodby before dieing. "it's hard to die in the spring of your live"

Frans was a wise man. I learned a lot from him. He was always looking for the reason in live. We had good discussions. Untill the last moment he spoke with us about live. He studied many religions and non-religions from catholic, Jehova-withness, atheïst..etc.
He came to the conclusion that the most important in live is LOVE.
I loved you Frans. I still do. Thanks for being you friend.

serious request campaign


In the Netherlands the week before X-mas three dj's from the station 3FM raised money for the Red Cross-water for the world- campaign.
They did this with a marathon-broadcast under the name "serious request". People could do a donation by giving money for a musical request. The three dj's let themself lock up for 6 day in a glass house in the middle of The Hague without any food. Only water and some juices. They were playing all the requests. People from all over the country donated lots of money.. 25, 50 100 etc. euro for their request.But also many companys donated money.After 6 days they raised 5 milion euro ( 6,25 milion dollar). This is a lot of money for our small country with 17 million inhabitants ( try to think how much that should be in USA)
The glass house was also to be seen on the TV. So you could see the three dj's day and night.

Sitting in front of the TV I made this sketch of this 3 heroes and mailed to them. They were so busy so there was not a reaction yet. I hope they will in time.