This is a photo of my parents right after their deaths, in Assen, the Netherlands, on 1 May 2024. My father Klaas Roemers was 90, my mother Fenny Roemers-Visser was 86.
They had a good life and a very happy marriage, but the last years were difficult. They were both sick and exhausted. Both had heart failure, my mother had a lot of pain. Both were in a really bad shape. They still lived in their own house but life was getting harder and harder, even with help. They did not want to go to a nursing home and neither wanted to live without the other – they wanted to step out of life together. They were afraid one would die naturally and the other would be left behind. They were very close, and did everything together, really everything – so it made sense they would leave this life together.
