For the first time since her youth, 61-year-old Arna van Zandvoort from Nuland will not be attending this carnival. Last year she was still unsuspectingly hustling, but since September she has known that she has a brain tumor. After four major operations, her radiation treatment will begin in the week of Carnival. “A year ago I thought I would just be there again at the carnival,” she says.
Watching the parade, partying with a large group of friends and singing along to carnival hits. This is what Arna’s carnival looked like for years. The born and bred Nulandse is a carnival celebrant through and through. “My parents already took me to the pub in the pram,” she says with a laugh. “I haven’t missed a single carnival since then.”
As a child, Arna built floats to participate in the parade and attended all the carnival activities in the village. As she grew older, Nulandse could be found in the café from the Thursday before carnival until Tuesday. “I can’t explain what I love about carnival so much. The party is just so much fun and I always participate in something crazy.”
But for the first time in her life, Arna is staying at home this year. In September she was told that she has a brain tumor. “This year my carnival consists of radiation treatment and resting on the couch at home. I would like to try to go to the children’s parade for a while, because my grandchildren are participating. But the question remains whether that will work.”
“I never thought my carnival would look like this.”
Arna had had complaints for years, but did not know what caused them all that time. “My vision was blurred, I was constantly tired and at one point I could hardly walk anymore because of the pain. I felt something was wrong, but doctors said it was all in my head,” she says, crying. “They were thinking about the transition and burnout.”
Only five months ago Arna was told that she had a tumor the size of a golf ball. Two weeks after that diagnosis, she had the first of four operations to remove most of the tumor. “There is now only a small piece left in my brain, but doctors cannot remove that with surgery. That is too dangerous,” she explains. Next week, during carnival, her course of 30 radiation treatments will begin. “I never thought a year ago that my carnival would look like this.”
“Carnival is the outing of the year for me.”
The carnival lover is very disappointed that she cannot be there. “This week is always the party of the year for me. We went to carnival every year with a large group of friends from the village. I will miss that very much this year,” she says. “I am not consciously choosing to stay at home this year. I attend every year and really wanted to go again, but due to the illness I just can’t do it.”
Normally Arna and her husband decorate her house every year in the blue and yellow colors of the Woaterrijk, but they did not do that this year either. “That really is a tradition in the village. Almost everyone participates in this, but when I decorate my house, I am confronted with too much carnival. That’s difficult.”
Yet she remains positive and hopes that she will be among the carnival revelers in her village again next year. Although she does not expect that carnival will ever be the same again. Because during her first operation she suffered a cerebral infarction. “As a result, I cannot tolerate stimuli such as loud music. But then I’ll buy a pair of earplugs,” she says with a laugh.