Angela de Jong is under fire because of her statements about the deceased weatherman Piet Paulusma. She thinks it’s a shame that he kept his illness a secret.
Piet Paulusma passed away unexpectedly yesterday, at the age of 65. The weatherman had been suffering from cancer for some time, but did not want to publicize it. He has deteriorated rapidly in the last few days. While he presented the weather on television on Thursday and on the radio on Friday, he breathed his last on Sunday.
Angela about Piet
It is actually quite a shame that Piet kept a secret that he was terminally ill, says Angela de Jong. She points out to NPO Radio 1 that the weatherman was once in De Wereld Draait Door and beamed at the recognition he received.
Angela: “He did not announce that he was now ill and that is his right, but at the same time… The Netherlands is always at its best and at its best when people are sick. He also took that away from himself in that way and I think that is very unfortunate for him.”
fierce criticism
These statements come to Angela with an incredible amount of criticism. “May someone please know how he is dealing with his illness and impending death?” says former NPO 1 boss Ton F. van Dijk.
Angela’s former AD colleague Nynke de Jong: “No person is the same, no disease course is the same. Do you want an evening-filling tribute by Cornald Maas in Full Halls? Fine. Are you going to sit on top of a mountain waiting for the end? Also fine. You can think of all kinds of things, but you better call your mother-in-law.”
Claudia de Breij: “I think it’s just so chic of him. Not that the alternative isn’t good, but this one is nice too. Being yourself with dignity until the end can be done in many ways and I find Paulusma’s touchingly strong.”
Too foundling
GeenStijl star Bart Nijman: “Finally a celebrity who doesn’t go on tour with his terminal illness, it’s not good again. The fact that people are ‘kind’ to the sick – luckily so to say – certainly does not create an obligation to expose yourself to the whole of the Netherlands with your deadly cancer?”
Columnist Luuk Koelman: “Gosh, then you really didn’t understand anything. Piet Paulusma has not deprived himself of anything. He has given himself something: peace and quiet in the little time he had left. Not everyone is a Jan Rot.”
And investigative journalist Kim van Keken: “Ever since Angela de Jonge really started to believe that she knows what the ‘ordinary’ man or woman thinks on the couch, things have already gone wrong.”
horribly cackling
Marcel Peereboom Voller, who was the Angela de Jong of De Telegraaf for many years, says: “A horrible cackling.”
Historian Nadia Bouras: “Angela can’t believe not everyone is attention-sick like her.”
LINDA.nl columnist Rianne Meijer: “It might be a good idea NOT to review the way people choose to die.”
Telegraaf person Pim Sedee: “Insane opinion this.”
Journalist Wouter Holsappel: “You can’t even die peacefully in this country without Angela de Jong’s opinion.”
And medical journalist Aliëtte Jonkers: “Fortunately, Piet can no longer hear this completely irrelevant comment about a completely personal choice.”
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The fragment in question: