Lutgart Simoens, who worked as a radio voice for the public broadcaster for more than 40 years, has died at the age of 92. The VRT reports this on Sunday evening. Simoens was nicknamed ‘the Angel of Flanders’.
–
Lutgart Simoens started her career in West Flanders – she was born in Ypres – but moved to Antwerp after her marriage. “Then the woman had to follow the man,” Simoens said about it. A 40-year career for the BRT started at Antwerp broadcaster. The radio celebrity is best known for radio programs such as “Vragen Staat Vrij” and “Platenpoets”.
–
‘Questions State Free’ was a request program that she presented for 23 years. But she was also the voice of ‘Toppers voor Tieners’, the first pop show on the BRT. In the 50s and 60s Simoens got all the big names for the microphone, such as Cliff Richards and Mick Jagger. Simoens continued to work, on the advice of her husband, even after they eventually had five children.
Friendship with Queen Fabiola
A notable highlight of her career was an interview with Queen Fabiola in 1984, which she had in the Platenpoets program. It would be the only interview the Queen ever gave. SImoens and the queen even became friends. “She was always genuinely interested in my family,” said Simoens. “When one of my children had a serious accident, she called me to ask how we were.”
–Photo: BELGA
Simoens was not spared by life in private. When she retired in 1993, her youngest grandchild died a year later. She then lost her husband to cancer in 1994, her second husband died of cancer in 2000. Two of her five children have also died of cancer. Simoens suffered from depression for a long time in the 1990s and was uninterested in life.
Angel of Flanders
Lutgart Simoens is known as “The Angel of Flanders”. She got this nickname thanks to her cooperation on the Dutch radio program “De Avondspits” between October 1978 and March 1979. Presenter Frits Spits used this nickname. Simoens gave light commentary daily in the broadcast. The nickname stuck in the press because Simoens was in fact as merciful as an angel when she heard the joys and sorrows of her listeners.
After her retirement, Simoens received the praise she deserved several times. Edegem proclaimed her an honorary citizen, she received a Flemish badge of honor in 2018 and in 2014 VRT listeners proclaimed her the best radio figure of the past decades. “I am very, very, very honored by that,” she said at the time. “Strange, because I quit 21 years ago.”
In recent years, Simoens has been less public. Last summer, she publicly advocated euthanasia. Not only with unbearable psychological suffering, but also with a so-called ‘completed life’. Simoens herself was not tired of life, she said. “But the law must be more flexible and the policymakers must do something about it,” she testified in Knack. “I’ve had everything in my life that I wanted. But if you know it’s finished, then I have to be able to decide for myself when it will end. I don’t think that’s a crime, not murder. It’s just human. It is showing compassion and that is how you give peace of mind to that person who is in that state at that moment. ”
Great hugger
At the start of the first lockdown this year, she told in an interview how difficult she had it with the isolation. “The psychological pressure is heavy,” she said. “I am completely cut off from the world. I only get my newspaper after three days, because it also has to be quarantined first. Having to call my children and grandchildren via Skype is not the same. I am a big hugger, I would love to hold them. ”
–Photo: RR
–Photo: RR
–
