According to Nicolai, a farewell house, where relatives can spend the days, is different from the large auditoriums in which people sometimes say goodbye. “At auditoriums and funeral homes you often have to keep it a bit more general if you run such a funeral home. I just chose here that it can really be a living room. More and more people are consciously choosing in all kinds of areas and I also think in the area of death, that more and more people think that we have to do what suits us. And I hope that I address a category of people who say: ‘yes this is nice, this is where we want to be’.”
Relatives receive a key to the house and can enter the house whenever they want. So they don’t have to be gone within fifteen minutes, but can stay in the house for several days. You can’t sleep, but you can cook.
Even before the doors officially open today and Nicolai can show the outside world what the Zwaluwstee looks like, a lot of work is still being done. A number of walls have just been stickered, cloths have been hung and the mop is still being taken through the building. Nicolai likes it. It was her big dream to start this, but a good location was essential for the entrepreneur.
She likes the fact that this location is surrounded by greenery. “Suppose you are inside here and you have arranged everything for a funeral, then you also want to be able to say: ‘The head is full. We would like to go outside for a while’. Then you will also be in the Sterrebos.”
All in all, Nicolai hopes that, despite the sad situation, they can look back on the last part of someone’s life with a good feeling. “If you can spend it here and feel like home, I really hope to bring that.”