Dear family and friends,
Grief never ends…. but it changes.
It’s a passage, not a place to stay.
Grief is not a sign of weakness, nor a lack of faith….
It’s the price of love.
Our review of 2023 will start with the passing of my sweet mother-in-law Willy. She was like a mother to me. We called every day and I miss her dearly. She had a tough last 4 months of her life. In July she fell at home and broke her right hip. She had surgery and from hospital she went to a care hotel to get her back on her feet. She’s blind, so when she’s not home she’s not familiar with her surroundings. She came back home, and things calmed down a bit until September 27th, she fell again and broke her left hip. She had to wait 48 hours before surgery and it took too long before she was back on her ward. It turned out she’d pneumonia and a very low oxygen level. From there she deteriorated every day a bit more. Then the doctors discovered colon cancer. She was brought to a hospice on Monday October 9th, she passed away on October 14th. We miss her all. She was such a caring strong beautiful lady and involved with everyone in the family.
For the beloved ones we lost:
They will not be forgotten as they gave us so much to remember.
2023 was also for the Kleinjan kids’ health wise not the best year. A few of them had Covid, Hugo had glandular fever and got a serious flue a few months later, it took him a long time to recover from this.
On a happier note, Hugo and Noa both found partners they want to share their lives with. Noa fell in love with Mahdi, a nice guy from Tunisia. They were colleagues at the Hilton in Qatar. Noa found a new job at Hilton in Rotterdam and Mahdi is coming half of December to the Netherlands to be with Noa, but due to mistakes made at Dutch Immigration it took more time than expected. Noa’s been twice to Tunisia to meet Mahdi’s family. So far, the long-distance relationship is not ideal, but it’s working. In January she stayed a whole month with us in London to do a bartender’s course. She and, we enjoyed it a lot, not only her company but also all the cocktails she made.
Hugo fell in love with Anna, a lovely German girl from Mainz. They met in Luxembourg where they both did an internship, Anna at the European Commission and Hugo at the Parliament. She didn’t run away when Hugo was so ill, she stood by his side when oma Willy passed away, she’s a great support. She started a new job at the European Commission in Brussels. Hugo is finished his thesis of his second master and on more essay and then he’s ready, although with a bit of a delay because of his internship of 5 months at the European parliament in Luxembourg and his illness, but soon he’s looking for a job. His graduation will be in April.
In June I drove to Switzerland to help Hugo moving out of his apartment in St Gallen. He’s now also living in Zoeterwoude and a bit in Austria or he’s with Anna in Brussels.
Jack and Ailsa are still happy in Zoeterwoude, also with Noa and Hugo around them. Hugo loves their dog Zara, so it’s easy for them to hop over to us in London and let Hugo taking care of Zara for a few days. They’ve been three times together here and Jack came last year in November alone. It’s always fun to have them around. Jack’s still having piano lessons and together they have salsa dance lessons.
Robin and Armin spent a lot of training with their dog Daisy who’s 1 year old. She now also joins Armin to the base and stays a whole week with him when Robin needs to work in Innsbruck or Munich.
Their house they took over from Armins Grandma is lovely. As I write this down their house is being painted on the outside. They were lucky this summer with all the flooding in Austria and Slovenia that it just didn’t get into their house. There’re three steps to the front door, and this saved them from a flooded house.
Rob and I had an eventful year. I’ll sum it up, but you can always check our blog on our website to read the full stories. www.the-kleinjans.com
With our good friends from Lagos years, in February we went to the Wiener Kaffeesieder Ball in Vienna and then afterwards we went to our house in the mountains for some skiing. We celebrated Patrick’s 50th birthday in Baku Azerbaijan and we went to Iceland over Easter. We stayed a few weeks in our house over the summer. In May we celebrated Piet and Willy’s 65th wedding anniversary. In the summer we did a city trip to Canada, where we started with the Niagara Falls and met up with Maureen and Wayne, who live nearby in the US. We went to Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec. We also did some local city trips, we were at the Royal Edinburgh Tattoo, visited Gary and Shelley in Cornwall, Bill and Brenda in Warwickshire, Lindsey and John in Southend-On-Sea, we went to Brighton on a sunny day and Tony and Paula in Oxfordshire. In Croatia I went sailing with Robin and Armin and the rest of the crew was Sanneke, Joe and Lianne. One captain and five women, Armin survived it! It was amazing, next year again, I hope. Finally, the event of the year was without a doubt, the wedding of Patrick and Nastya in Zanzibar. Sanneke joined us as their wedding photographer, it was wonderful to have her around. Three days of partying. I was honoured to walk Junior/Patrick through the aisle. Rob was his best man. The whole entourage was amazing, the beach, the ocean, the hotel and to be with our friends from Lagos made it all so special, unforgettable.
Next year we’d stay more put, the only plan is to be in our house in the mountains.
We have a bigger deck now and a few trees have been chopped, this project (the deck) took more than a year to be accomplished.
It’s just an amazing place to be. In December Rob will fly with Piet to Austria, so he can be with us and the grandchildren and their partners.
I’d like to mention that we are so happy many of our friends have found our house in London. It’s fun to have friends over and explore the city together.
Rob is traveling every fortnight to Edinburgh to be with his finance team there.
Merry Christmas and for 2024 we wish you all a healthy, happy, and prosperous year.