Daniëlle lost her son Yannick (20): ‘He was my buddy’

When Daniëlle walked to work in 2020 for a night shift, Yannick called her back. He told her that he had to forward two more songs: “I asked him what to do with that.” That is for when I die. ” I looked at him and he said, “I’m never going to grow old.” I thought that was very special afterwards. “

In fact, Yannick never was wrong. Yes, he had had Corona a few times, but until the summer of 2022 he was in perfect health. Then he came home in the evening: “His legs were set up,” Daniëlle recalls. “From that moment on I knew it wasn’t right.”

Yannick went to the doctor and on to the hospital for an investigation. “It is really cancer, we just don’t know what kind,” they were told. It was vacation time, the suitcases were packed. “But instead of on vacation we went to the hospital. It was very unreal. “

Daniëlle stops. Her son kept strongly at the outside world, but she got to see his vulnerable side. “I woke him up on July 12 because I had been diagnosed with. I told him he had leukemia and had to go to the hospital rushed. “Mama, I’m really dying from this,” he said. That also gave me the feeling that he was really very sick. “

In the beginning, Yannick had 80 percent survival chance. But the form of blood cancer he had turned out to be immune to therapy: “I was torn apart. I tried to give him hope. It was a specialized hospital, they tried everything. But if it doesn’t work, what then? “

Then again, Ferm: “Although he was so sick, we took everything out of it.” Yannick was crazy about cars: “He was already as a child. A month before he fell ill, he bought his dream car: a BMW. That was his child, are everything. “

The employees of the garage where he had bought his car took him to the racing circuit in Spa, in Belgium: “He was allowed to stay there all day. Then they let BMWs drive here, with which he was allowed to ride laps. ”

Yannick had a large group of friends around him, which he had a lot when he was sick, Daniëlle remembers: “There was nothing too much for them. When he was sick and he was through it, I just had to call and they drove to the hospital to give him distraction. They were at his death and held his box and picked out his clothes. “

Until the end, Yannick opposed his death. “That was intense. He just went on. Not complaining, but wearing was his motto. When he was home here just before his death, I asked him if he would rather not be put to sleep. But he fought until the end and in the end the doctor said: “I make the decision for you.” And 45 minutes later he died. “

His farewell was like Yannick wanted. Upon arrival, the sound of the BMW M8 sounded. And of course the songs he had already passed on to his mother in 2020: Brothers in Arms Van Dire Straits and New Year’s Day from U2. His club of friends wore the coffin, equipped with a large BMW logo. Daniëlle led the funeral. “I also took it myself and changed it. So much has happened to him, it feels very good that I did that. “

And then life went on. Daniëlles youngest son Jay-Jay, now 17, has had a difficult time. “Because his buddy was gone and he couldn’t handle that. I didn’t want to be a depressive mother, I wanted to show him that we had to go through. And that is the reason I am now at home. Because I just started working and I passed myself by. “

Daniëlle did the training for nurse, but was forced to pause it for a while. To help fellow sufferers, she wrote a book about her experiences with Yannick’s illness acute lymphatic leukemia.

On March 3 it was two years ago that Yannick died. A difficult time for Daniëlle. His death has changed her. “I now enjoy the little things more. What I used to take for granted, I now see something very beautiful. ” In addition, she realizes that she lives with a pain that will always remain: “That is my love that I can no longer lose. I don’t think you’ll get over it when you lose your child. “