Drunense Duinen

Last Saturday, we went to Drunense Duinnen in The Netherlands for a walk with our family. It's a place where my husband spent his childhood with his father and his not so little brother now. It's a national park located about 30 minutes drive from where our family lives, somewhere between Waalwijk and den Bosch. I also like to return here as it's a peaceful place and even though there might be many people around you, they somehow spread around and you end up not seeing them at all.

A couple of weeks ago I shared here that my mother-in-law was placed in a hospice because she couldn't live on her own anymore. After several years of fighting cancer, she passed away last Monday and found peace. Like my husband said in his speech during the funeral, with her reputation she certainly has a window seat in heaven overlooking all of us.

On Sunday, his brother informed us that it's coming to an end. My husband drove to The Netherlands and spent the last night at his mom's bed. It was very difficult for both of them watching their mom dying, but they wanted to be at her side. Her lungs were giving up and she sounded like what my husband described as a coffee machine. Morphine wasn't helping anymore, so she got sleeping pills to ease her pain. In her condition it was not certain that she would wake up again, but she opened her eyes in the morning, saw her sons and left her body.

It was a beautiful funeral. The church was full, people spoke to us with so much love and we could see that the community loved her. It was even streamed on Youtube with almost 2000 views now. It might sound strange to mention it, but it is so special for us to see how many people loved her. She volunteered all around the town her entire life, and we expected many people, but honestly not sooooo many.

After the funeral, we decided to spend some time as a family, and this is why we went for a walk.