“For Robbe, who is not there today.” The call from Rani Deriemaeker (28) to commemorate her deceased twin brother Robbe at Graspop has not fallen on deaf ears. Their favorite band dedicated their favorite song to him and the audience sang along word for word. “We have felt so much love here, that was great.”
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Benjamin Praet and Marc Klifman
Today at 18:38–
The call from Rani Deriemaeker (28) from Zwevezele has been shared en masse in recent days. Normally, the West Flemish would this weekend at Graspop as usual side by side with her twin brother Robbe. But in March, Rani had to say goodbye to him unexpectedly because her brother took his own life. To honor him, she called on the audience to sing his favorite song from the band Alestorm on Sunday afternoon.
When the Scottish band came on the main stage, it turned out that they had also received the call well. “I had emailed Alestorm and my call got a lot of media attention, but there was no reply. I was surprised that they suddenly played the song and dedicated it to him, but it was fantastic,” she says. because Zombies ate my pirate ship was indeed not in the planned setlist. The group even indicated that they hadn’t played it for a while,” says Rani.
© Geert Van de Velde
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Robbe’s sister was in the front row with their mother during the performance. “For Robbe, who is not with us today,” the group said when they started working on his favorite song. The audience sang along word for word, while the crowd surfers hung over their heads. “Then you can’t hold back your tears”, says Rani. “Because the emptiness and lack are still very great. It’s like I’ve lost half of myself. We try not to make ourselves feel guilty, but it’s not easy. We have felt so much love here at Graspop. That felt good.”
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Rani says she didn’t see it coming that her brother wanted to take his own life. “I knew things weren’t going so well for my brother. He went to live alone just before corona, but became depressed. My brother was someone who liked to have a beer, who liked to be in company. I’m not going to say it’s just because of corona, but he did become depressed. Since corona, he has also seen fewer people. I was still at his house a week before his death, and he seemed cheerful again. He also made plans for this summer, which made it hard to understand. My brother really was someone with his heart in the right place. He would have done anything for anyone. We were very close. With my call I want to let him know above that I love him incredibly.”
–© Geert Van de Velde
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* If you have questions about suicide, you can contact the Suicide Line on the toll-free number 1813 and on the website http://www.zelfmoord1813.be.
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