Can you feel it?

I am back where I am considered by many very passionate: @work! The moment I saw my reflection in the door I just sensed it:’I missed this! Here at least I can think straight, act according to my beliefs and help where needed!’ Once I entered the teacher lounge I was back on track! In about three minutes my student teacher and I were planning! Turns out she is going to stay close a bit longer! And tomorow I meet up with a new one as well who is going to come and check me out and my pupils!

Seems I am alive and kicking and also thanks to the news of this morning! Many newsitems got my attention. Belgium is after all in a total political and economic turmoil. We, the people, try to stay focused and keep going on with what matters. The show must go on and most of us have a job to do. And I was rather relieved to go back into work. Looking forward to meeting up back with my co-workers, very focused Juniors and wild ‘Newborns’! But this morning there was one newsitem that made me even call out to P. ‘Marie-Rose got married to Frank!’, I screamed! For me this is the newsitem of the day! Why?

Well, Marie-Rose Morel and Frank Vanhecke that is out here in Flanders tabloid news. You can Google their names and then you will find enough background info on those two. When you do you will end up reading things about Belgiums most extreme political party, a woman with a mission, relationships that were very fragile and questioned by many, divorce, fights and about CANCER!

The day that Marie Rose got diagnosed with uterine cancer many must have felt sorry for her. The kind of cancer she turned out to have was/is one of the less treatable ones especially at her very young age. Rather considered fatal! Nothing much left to do about it. That day P & I talked about it during dinnertime that a very focused and headstrong woman as Marie-Rose must be going through hell. I also got shivers down my spine because this lady is just one year older than me! P his prognosis was doomlike!

But Marie-Rose did fight back! She did undergo the whole chemo and operations to get at least the time she did think she owed. Of couse the press followed her medical wise as well. And then one day Marie announced that she would write about her illness on her blog. Stallie had never before entered the website of Marie Rose Morrel. Her being a extreme right wing politician did make her a bit a less appealing person. Yes, many men will agree with her she has got style! Her eyes can make you dazzle but still...

So one evening I just surfed to her website and there I found her private blog. It was nicely done. As a website visitor you even got the choice if you wanted to read about her battle against cancer or not. I decided to dive into her story. What I did find was very touching, pure & a honest account of a sick to death woman who is holding on to everything she has got left in her life.

In the first place her two sons!! These kids mean the world to her. Pictures showed up in the newspapers and entertainment magazines of her fighting back the cancer. And then the unthinkable happened she was declared in remission! Against all odds! Marie Rose seemed to be back on her feet! Also during this time she did find out who her true friends were and she did openly admit that to her Frank, a partymember, is for sure the one true soulmate in her life! No surprises there!

Her political party seemed to have quite a hard time with some of the things Marie- Rose now just openly stated. In a way Marie-Rose seemed to be ready to just get it out in the open and she stayed very loyal to Frank in any political discussion. Privately she had to tackle many hurdles! But she managed to do it with dignity. The interviews I got to read in many publications never crossed a certain line or she never spit out openly her contempt to certain individuals who must be hurting her even more.

So when P then one night came home and told me that Marie-Rose her cancer had returned I suddenly met up with the very vulnerable doctor I live with. P is a very down to earth doc, very focused and many moments I seem to have impression that he treats illness and death so much different then I do. But I can assure you that then my very ‘dry’ and bussinesslike doctor showed his very human side.


Doctors do have feelings when dealing with sickness and death. They do question themselves and they are more then anyone aware of the facts of life. In most cases they just act when they meet up with a sick person, try to tackle the problem, set the right diagnosis and then start the treatment in the hope that it will be right one. They just don’t talk that much about it. In their case ‘action does speak so much louder then words’! Not all of them are like vampire-doc Carlisle Cullen but they do have got feelings! I have seen it, felt it and many others have told me! They act when they see a sick person! It is their job, nothing more,nothing less! ACTION! But they do have got feelings!

Action is also the word in Marie-Rose her life for the moment. She still tries to stay on top of things. One thing she posted the last few weeks were the bedtime stories she told her sons. Very touching! In her blog you can read that she still believes in all things that she stated in the beginning of her political carreer and that she only signed the statements of her political party she truely believed in. One of the points she did not follow her party was ‘euthanasia’.

In a way she is preparing her way out! One of the very touching things she did for her children is filling up envelopes with money and letters! She handed those over to Frank and instructed him to hand those over to her sons when they will be celebrating life! Holy communion, wedding, etc... Some people considered this odd! Well, I don’t!! If my dad would have done such a thing I would have been very happy. Because in a way Marie-Rose will be out there with her sons! And this at moments when you miss your parents the most when they are not there anymore to hug and hold on to! These kids will at least have a letter! A letter in which they can find back for sure the mother Marie-Rose is for them!

In the end Marie Rose is doing what many perhaps would forget to do when you are about to live this kind of rather suffering kind of life! Still taking care of those you love and don’t forget living yourself. Sucking out of it all it has got left! Marie Rose is still living! You can be sure the moment that Frank slipped around her finger that wedding bend on that cold Saturday morning in Brugges that she looked into they eyes of all the people she truely loves. Right there she embraced all she was given and wishes to keep safe! She seized the day! And I can't blame her!

The news stated that newly weds Marie-Rose & Frank will be travelling to Austria. Not for a honeymoon! No, for the last chapter of Marie Rose her life story. There she will be undergoing treatment that will have to make it all a bit more bearable. So this morning I pictured two people sitting in a plane holding on to each other heading for that last part of a journey that will for sure in the end bring pain & sadness for many. But she won't be alone to go the last steps of the way!

I did feel this morning something special in the air! Something strong, something that Marie-Rose must feel at times as well when she still tries to look up high and find the focus she needs to face whatever will come! Can you feel it?

P.S.: Frank & Marie-Rose did last Saturday for sure, not doubt about that and apparently the people who witnessed that act of love saw and felt it as well:

“Het was een zeer sereen moment, waar we enorm veel respect gezien hebben tussen mevrouw Morel en mijnheer Vanhecke. Ze zagen er gelukkig uit. Op het moment dat we het huwelijk voltrokken, zagen we echt liefde in het gezicht en een stuk blijdschap.”  
Brugse schepen Franky Demon