Martine Tanghe has left us at the age of 67. For years, as a news anchor, she was also a familiar face for sports enthusiasts. Sports journalist Maarten Vangramberen experienced her closely for 15 years. He reminisces about the person he first sat next to “with trembling knees”, but whom he got to know as “a fantastic woman”.
I knew this could happen, but it’s still too early. In the end it hits you harder than you expected.
My first time in the news with Martine was in 2008. With shaky knees. After all, she was the icon of the news at the time, so I always started it with a scared heart.
I certainly didn’t want to read any mistakes and I certainly didn’t want her to be able to say afterwards, “That sentence structure didn’t make sense.”
But that feeling also quickly disappeared, because she was above all a very pleasant woman to sit next to. She worked hard, was very focused, but during the sport she was able to let that go.
Because, of all Journaalankers, Martine knew the most about the sport. She always followed the sports block with full interest and always had an opinion about it. It often happened that she asked a question or gave her opinion between two reports.
Love for the sport
That love for the sport may be surprising, but it can be explained because they used to have a café at her home. That’s where that love started. Initially for cycling, because that is typically Flemish.
But she was also very interested in basketball, also because it was played in her family. She followed the Belgian Cats, who became European champions, so closely.
She also only once asked for tickets for a sports game and that was for basketball. But in the end she followed all sports and had an opinion about everything.
I went to see her regularly. I brought a bottle and we talked about everything.
Martin Vangramberen
Stolen sentences
In the 15 years that I have known her closely, I have learned a lot from her. How she worded things, how she looked when she told news. It was stealing with the eyes every time.
Now and then I still use phrases that I just stole from her.
I also got to know her on a personal level. She lived not very far from me and I visited her regularly. I would bring a bottle and we would talk about everything.
Also about the news, because she found it difficult to let go of that in the beginning. But over time it worked.
In addition, like all grandparents, she was fond of her grandchildren and the animals in her garden.
After the classics I sent her another message: “Martine, it’s busy now, but I’ll be over as soon as possible.” But in the end I didn’t make it anymore. Such a shame.
Martin Vangramberen
2023-07-23 15:41:20
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