Memory Wall

In September 2017 my father was diagnosed with the most aggressive type of brain tumour: glioblastoma multiforme.

This type of tumour is so aggressive that it can be fatal within weeks if untreated. With treatment and a positive prognosis you may have a year to live. To this date it has been non-curable. 

My father decided to go for the treatment. He had brain surgery in October and finished his chemo therapy in December. After that he was bed ridden, slept 20 hours a day and struggled to walk. He didn’t leave the house, have enough energy for visitors or for phone calls for longer than 10min. 

In the short visits & conversations had with him, I found out that apart from his health & medical treatment, there were two main aspects which made him especially sad:

1. Not having a special moment in his life anymore. No reason to dress up, no event to attend, nothing to look forward to.  Also not having the energy to ever be at one. The exact same applied to his hardworking partner (my stepmom) Nicole. She became a fulltime carer my dad 24/7. She was too afraid to leave him alone.

We created events my Dad & Nicole could dress up for and came along as our “Skype Superstars”. The events always included superstar “Dad On Skype” plus glamorous, elegant and dazzling themes. 

2. It also made him especially sad to feel and lonely and isolated. He wanted to talk to people but simply couldn’t due to exhaustion. In the short conversations we had, I noticed that it made him especially happy that people were asking about him. He worried that one day he’d go and no one knew or cared. It made him happy when I mentioned that people asked about him.   

All we could do for my dad & his partner Nicole was to show them that they were not alone. No money in the world could have change my fathers condition at the time, however our events definitely gave him & Nicole very happy moments in life.

Sadly my father has passed away on the 14th of August 2019 at 7am. He is missed beyond measure. We will always love him.