Hans and Wendy had only been married for 5 years when their first daughter passed away. Wendy looks back and sometimes thinks, “She would have been 42 now.” When Maaike was born she looked ‘perfect’, says Wendy. After three months she got strange colic and Hans and his wife went to the pediatrician. What they then heard turned their whole world upside down. “This baby will never grow up normally. She won’t be able to hear, see, not react, not eat independently. Nothing at all. It’s just a plant,” they were told.
Hans is full and emotionally tells his story to Art. “That was totally unexpected,” he explains. “I thought: she’s taking a pill and she’s fine. I know I walked out of the hospital, completely amazed and sedated. I thought: my beautiful baby will never be able to walk,” explains Wendy.
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Maaike was the perfect baby from the outside, but it turned out that a crucial part of the brain was missing ‘so there was no contact’, explains Wendy. After Maaike had been in Radboudumc for three months – connected to all kinds of tubes – Hans and his wife decided to remove their daughter from there. “It was terrible what happened to her,” says Wendy. Hans was so angry that he ‘pulled all the tubes out of her head’. Despite the fact that he was not allowed to take her with him, the doctors decided to do this anyway. “It was terrible. Her head had tripled in size from all kinds of IVs.”
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Hans and Wendy knew that their daughter would not grow old, but still wanted to ‘take the best possible care of her as long as she lives’. Finally Maaike passed away after 2 years and 8 months. “Death was a redemption for her. She suffered from her existence,” explains Hans excitedly. For example, Maaike made ‘primordial sounds’, so that Hans and Wendy knew that she was not feeling well.
Despite the sad memories and her early death, Hans, his wife and all the children still have a photo together. “We have a photo in the bedroom that we are all sitting on the bed. Her photo is on the wall above that bed,” explains Wendy. “That’s the one photo that we’re all really in,” adds Hans. “I see that photo every day when I wake up,” Wendy concludes.
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In Rooijakkers across the Floor Hans talks proudly about his great love Wendy. They do everything together and are best buddies. Last year, for example, Hans had not exactly had the easiest year. The magician had a bulge in his coronary artery that nearly killed him. His wife Wendy was therefore his support during this difficult time.
Rooijakkers Over The Floor can be seen every Wednesday at 9.30 pm on RTL 4.
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