As of Thursday night, Rob is off the feeding tube — finally! He is very happy to be free of it, and we both think it will help him tremendously in moving forward.

It all happened a bit unplanned. When he arrived home on Thursday night, while taking his jacket off it became loose. We called the nurses to ask what to do, and we were very happy that they said to just take it out. It was in the plan for next week anyway, but having a weekend home without that horrible thing made such a difference in his eating, sleeping, and his whole demeanour. Not being tied to something all of the time makes everything more comfortable and less stressful.

Rob was able to join into our Friday afternoon work conference call. It was really good for him to be able to connect to “Team Portalyx” again, and he really enjoyed his chat with Jan and Gerrit. No worries, we’re not going to push him back into work any time too soon… but he did enjoying being part of things again. I am soooooo appreciative of how much Gerrit and Jan have picked up on everything these last months, and I hope you know how much it means to both of us.

We had some nice visits with friends this weekend. Possibly it was a bit too much, but it was also really nice (we stayed up way too late). Anneloes made some amazing Goulash that Rob could not stop eating. Rob V. gave Rob a really nice massage and they really connected again  (and I got one too!). They have also both helped so much in keeping our animals fed and keeping Jansen happy all of these months. Jansen has 2 houses right now, and although a bit confusing for him sometimes, its great to know that he has lots of affection. True kindness and compassion are often hard to find, but we are so grateful for the friends who can express it, and share with us — thank you.

It’s such a joy being with Rob and watching him enjoy eating and being “normal” again. We savour every meal together. It takes me forever to go shopping because I am scrutinizing all the labels for the most high fat, high calorie, healthy food you can get. “Low fat” food only recently hit Holland, and I have to say, the timing could not have been worse. I love throwing a few extra spoonfuls of full fat cream or butter in his food, and really enjoy watching him eat lots of spices and all the things he missed for so many months. I probably send him back to Heliomare reeking of garlic, but the pleasure he gets from it all is great. He is even eating sambal (red pepper sauce) and had a Greek “rolpizza”. For the first time in many years Rob eats as much as I do, and is loving every bit of it. Bring on another plate of ham-n-eggs on toast with lots of cheddar cheese!

We also had a nice visit to the pub on Saturday. I’ll be honest, the first 2 weekends Rob wanted to go, but I did not. It really matters who is in the pub (what type of people), because our other visits were a bit disappointing.  This weekend it was really nice, and there were caring and compasionate friends around him.  Thanks guys [Jaap, Fritz, Isle, Gary, et al], it really does matter.

We had a funny story with the tax office trying to confiscate our auto last week. What made it even more funny is that we sold it last month and had already paid tax for it. I found it absolutely wonderful that friends of ours at the pub were ready to step in and buy our auto and sort it out if they did try to take it away. Luckily, it was not needed, but it’s great to know we have friends that were willing to help (thanks guys, Gary et al!). I have no idea what the photo in this advert is of — any ideas???

We had a nice Sunday with an unplanned visit from many of our neighbours. It was fun to sit around drinking coffee and eating apple pie (with lots of fresh cream of course!). Rob finds it a bit difficult in groups of people to process everything, but I think that is only natural after being so isolated for so long. Everyone has been great to offer their help and support to Rob (and me), and we want you all to know that it is very much appreciated. It’s been a very difficult time, and all of your kind offers to pitch in means the world to us. I think I can speak for both of our families in saying that they also appreciate knowing that we have some helping-hands nearby. Thank you — Joost & Marja, Barb & Sjef, John & Adrianna and Cobi.

And as ever, Jansen was a good buddy to Rob over the weekend. They are great together and it’s clear that they are happy to be with each other again.

For those of us old enough to remember, these were Rob’s words about the future “You aint seen nothing yet”.  Wow, a bit of BTO….