Friends and family of 18-year-old Adinda are in deep mourning. The Haarlemmer died last Sunday in a water scooter accident in Zijkanaal C, on the border between Velsen-Zuid and Spaarndam. Her friends still have a hard time comprehending it. “A few weeks ago we also went on a water scooter with her boyfriend and mine,” says her friend Roxanna.
“Adinda was a beautiful girl and very smart,” Roxanna describes, standing in front of her late friend’s house. The two lived in the same street, but Adinda was looking for a student room in Leiden. She was going to study there in September. “Her boyfriend thought that was a shame, because it’s so far away. But Adinda liked challenges.”
According to Demi, Hester and Pip, three other friends of Adinda, many people can learn from her way of life. “Do what you want, don’t let anyone else tell you anything and live every day. We enjoyed her, with a friend like that you are never alone.”
Exchange
One of the challenges Roxanna mentions is that Adinda went to America for a few months at the end of last year, as an exchange student. “She went all alone, without a friend and without a family. I would never dare, but she did. That was Adinda”, Roxanna continues emotionally.
There she lived with Eileen and her husband Greg, in Oklahoma City, where the news of her accident also hit her hard. “Adinda was a joy to have in our home and we loved her,” Eileen said. “She was very intelligent and loved animals. Her tragic death is a great loss.”
Pink smoke and heart balloons
Things went horribly wrong last Sunday when Adinda and her boyfriend got into a watercraft accident. That hit her hard. Her friend Jasmijn was in Spain when she heard about the accident with her boyfriend. “I didn’t know what happened to me, I couldn’t breathe anymore,” she says emotionally. “We packed up all our stuff within half an hour and drove straight home.”
A memorial service was held at the site of the accident last Tuesday, so Adinda’s friends and family could come together. “Actually, I didn’t realize it until I was there on Tuesday,” says Zita, an old friend of Adinda who was also present at the commemoration. “That was so beautiful, all the people who care about Adinda were together. This is a very big loss. I am really devastated.”
We will miss her terribly and she will remain in our hearts forever.
Roxanna says that about a hundred people attended the memorial at the accident site. That memorial was for Adinda and her boyfriend, who was seriously injured in the accident and is still in hospital.
“We went there with a whole procession of scooters and cars. She would have liked that very much, I think”. She describes the service as beautiful and emotional. “Even people who didn’t know her well cried. Her parents also told me that they took a lot of comfort out of it.”
Letter ‘A’ in the sky
“She was still so full in life and had so many plans,” says Eva, another friend. “Hopefully she’ll give a signal from above.” During the commemoration, the letter ‘A’ could already be seen in the air. “I thought that was so special, I will never forget that,” says Jasmijn.
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Adinda’s group of friends is very close and also comes together a lot in this difficult time. “Eva, Roxanna and I have made a memorial for her, with photos and candles,” says Jasmijn. “We have a lot of support for each other.”
According to the American Eileen, Adinda was adventurous, but responsible. Roxanna agrees and that is why she is also disturbed by the reactions to the accident on social media. “People say that the watercraft there always go too fast and that something had to go wrong. But she didn’t go fast at all. People are shouting something, but they don’t know anything about it.”
The police say that the watercraft probably hit a dukdalf. That is a heavy pole in the water to tie boats to. No further investigation is underway into the cause of the accident.