Life goes on/Tears in heaven

Since my last post, last year, a whole lot has happened in my life. Shortly after my girlfriend arrived I got the news that I should start looking for a new place to live. Reason was that my landlord got a letter of eviction from city counsel that he no longer could rent out the house to people that didn't work at his company. So my house-mates and I had to be gone by May 31st 2010. That letter came in on..... March 16 2010. I got a big apartment from housing co-operation in Veldhoven and signed the leasing contract, which is indefinably, on....May 3rd. I moved over on May 8 2010.

I just moved in into my new apartment, when I learned that my mother was seriously ill. She lost each time her functions to her arms and legs and fell down, but stayed contumelious all the time. The doctor sent her to hospital on June 3rd 2010. Only 3 days before her 69th birthday. Within a few hours we learned that my mother had lung cancer.The next day we learned that my mother had also a brain tumor. At first it looked like it was treatable but after 3 radiation treatments the doctors decided to stop, because my mother was to weakened already to continue. They told us that she would have a life expectancy of 2 weeks to 3 months maximum. After this message mom lived up and was transferred to kempenhof to the palientive ward where she died piece fully on September 4th 2010. Thanks to all the daimoku that was sent worldwide to her, this stay at Kempenhof was the best 6 weeks she had of her remaining life. She enjoyed it fully and totally free of pain. When she died , she died in the highest possible life condition. Even her funeral went exactly as she wanted it. The day of the funeral we had to take a small detour from the funeral home towards the church. Mom had told us that when the time was there to bring her to church, she wanted to drive past the airport. This, because she had never been there since the roads there where changed. This was what happened on the day of the funeral. Because of road reconstruction near the church, we couldn't drive the planned route and had to drive....past the airport! If she had planned it.

A few months after the funeral my father became seriously ill and had to go to hospital. Because of his former job, they found out that he had COPD alongside his heart condition and that he had an open abces between his blatter and colon. After 2 times committed to hospital by the end of 2010, he was recommitted by end of January 2011. It was decided to give him a temporary stoma, so that this so called fistula could heal. The surgery was scheduled for Friday February 25th 2011, but on the day before he got pain on his chest and was moved to the heart ward. At that time he also contracted Noro-virus. That Friday I learned That I had to count on it that I would loose my father as well if they couldn't operate on him. Or if the pneumonia on his right lung wouldn't cure in time. But, the doctors said, he will not die within a few days. It's more likely a matter of weeks if the pneumonia will not cure.
On Sunday morning February 27th 2011 at 03:50 hrs my phone rang. It was the hospital. I was already awake, since I woke up at 03:30 hrs and couldn't sleep anymore. The night nurse told me that my father died in his sleep between 03:30 an 03:45 hrs in the morning. Dad's funeral was on March 4th 2011. Exactly a half year after mom died.
It's strange, to loose one's parents in such a short time span, to empty one's elderly home and to handover the keys to the landlord. Still...I believe that my dad died out of grieve of the loss of mom. I know he loved her to death. Still he wanted to do so much, like restoring a old motorcycle back to working order. he started it already. Guess it's now my task to do so. At least, as far as I can. This I obliged to him. Somehow I know he started to restore this bike for me. I couldn't see him driving it. Such a heavy machine on his age and with his condition. But this machine give him a new purpose in life. A new goal. It wasn't suppose to be.

To all who chanted for my parents over the last year... Many thanks for sending daimoku. I know it helped them and it surely helped me.
Thank you all.

NMHRK, NMHRK, NMHRK.
André