Sixteen months later, in 2008, Sigrid died at the age of 27. What followed was sadness, and at the same time an urge to do. “Your child should not die earlier than you,” says Strijbosch. “If you share sweet and sorrows with someone for so long, and that loses … then my uncle always says: then the S isjeu From life off. “
Jaap and Christa started Sigrids Garden in 2009: a living room for people with cancer and their loved ones. “Sigrid had pronounced that she had missed contact with fellow sufferers,” says Strijbosch. “She was the reason the house was coming.”
It started small, warm, close, but it grew. In Emmen, and later also in Coevorden. More visitors, more volunteers, more votes. “And that made it difficult for Jaap,” says Strijbosch. “It was his child. And suddenly others wanted to find something about it.”
“Jaap was not the easiest to work with,” Straghosch acknowledges. “He was exactly, had a clear vision. And if it didn’t bother with that, it clashed.” But he now understands better than ever. “With everything I know about him now, I got more respect.”