‘Don’t talk but polish’, Kees Veldboer always said. And that was exactly what Arjan Verhoeven (39) and dozens of other volunteers did yesterday. Brushing, scrubbing, until all seven wishing ambulances shone like never before. The yellow vehicles would accompany Kees, the founder of the Ambulance Wish Foundation, on his last ride, from the foundation’s office to the Laurenskerk in Rotterdam.
Kees himself is said to be in one of the wish ambulances. A volunteer has been working all week to rebuild the ambulance so that the coffin could go in today.
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Arjan Verhoeven from Alblasserdam gets goosebumps again when he thinks about today. The day of the funeral started with a guard of honor, about 200 volunteers, all with their blue shirts on. For Keith. For their hero.
“It was really an emotional bang to stand there,” says Arjan. “We’ll keep it up, we thought. But everyone was crying there.”
Check out the images below, which Arjan made of the day:
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Eternally grateful
Arjan has been working for the foundation for about eight years now, but Kees was also (and above all) his friend. “I became a volunteer when I was not doing so well, I was going through a rough time. I had applied to wash cars on Saturday, but Kees was convinced I could do more, so he taught me to drive. And then he called me: ‘Come, Arjan, I have another wish for you.’ He really pulled me out of misery. I am eternally grateful to him.”
All volunteers rode with Kees in a yellow-colored procession, on the A15, through the center of Rotterdam (Kees was a real Rotterdammer), to the church. A large, yellow-colored string of cars. “Very crazy, I was very sad, but I also enjoyed the ride. Because I thought: Kees would have liked this.”
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Due to the corona measures, not all volunteers were unable to join the church: the funeral was for family and friends. “But we all watched live streams outside, in the church parking lot,” says Arjan. “I was in the ambulance with three nurses. We really had to hold each other. Especially when his daughter started speaking. When she said that word ‘daddy’. Well. Wipe me up.”
It was crazy to be at church. Kees had been there exactly two hours before his death, to arrange some things for the big anniversary party for the 15th anniversary of the foundation. That would take place in the church, next year, for all the volunteers.
Arjan: “He was there, in that church, for us. To arrange something beautiful for us. A week after his visit to the church, we are there for him. To give him a nice goodbye.”
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Arjan can’t believe it. “Gosh,” he says, more to himself than to RTL Nieuws. “That Kees, hey… Damn it.”
“What the man did… He has fulfilled the wishes of 16,000 people with the foundation. Add to this the relatives of those people who took comfort from it. His influence was, or is, magnificent.”
And with it the hole he leaves behind. Kees will never call Arjan again: ‘Come, Arjan, I have another wish for you’. But Arjan just keeps going. In a month’s time there will be another wish on his agenda, a man who would like to watch Formula 1 from his caravan at his favorite campsite. Arjan will be there, with his ambulance and colleague. Because: don’t talk but polish.
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