To his great surprise, the sick Rien de Leeuw from Den Bosch was able to sleep at home again. After a long time in hospital, he was able to return on Thursday evening home. Because the elevator of his apartment, which had been broken for weeks, suddenly appeared to have been repaired. And so the wheelchair-dependent Rien can be with his beloved cat again. “Teddy is very happy.”
“The lift has been fixed. I am at home. They brought me in the ambulance and I am back in my wheelchair,” he says with relief. Rien suffers from a muscle disease, esophageal cancer and in recent weeks six pneumonias. He was forced to stay in the hospital longer because he could not get to his apartment due to the broken elevator.
The repair came completely unexpectedly. While he had been in contact with housing association Zayaz and the municipality of ‘s-Hertogenbosch this morning, the elevator in his apartment was suddenly repaired. “They apparently put a new circuit board in it, but I received no further explanation. Very strange. How is it possible?” says Rien in disbelief.
An extra surprise completed the homecoming: all clients of Fokus, the support group that Rien supports, received a chocolate letter. “I was giggling here. It was a chocolate letter of the S, for Sorry,” he says laughing.
“Nice to cuddle with Teddy.”
Rien can now finally enjoy small, precious moments that seemed impossible in recent weeks. “Cuddle with Teddy,” he says. His cat had not seen him for almost three months because Rien was always in the hospital.
For now it is a moment of pure happiness for Rien: elevator, cat and chocolate letter. “Suddenly it can be solved after all,” says Rien. And that feels like a small miracle to him after weeks of hospital visits and uncertainty.
