“If only there were only Enzos in the world.” It’s one of the comments after the dead of the beloved twenty-something from Sint Pancras. Enzo Spilker was crazy about people, his work in the flower greenhouse and his grandmother’s garden. This weekend the terrible thing happened: he got, exactly at the wrong time, an epileptic seizure† “I found him face down in the water.”
That’s what 80-year-old grandmother Ellen tells in the garden of her picturesque house in North Scharwoude† Her grandson showed up at the door with great enthusiasm on Saturday afternoon.
“Since my husband Jaap passed away, he comes to stay every weekend, by bike from Sint Pancras. Then we go gardening and walk with the dog. Oh, he was crazy with my dog too.” Enzo had a very nice day: he visited various greenhouses during Kijk in de Kas day. “He was even allowed to have a chat about his work somewhere,” said grandma proudly.
After a nice chat, Enzo dives into his grandmother’s large garden. Their favorite place, completely refurbished together. It is full of colorful flowers, a fig tree, plant hangers, a pico bello garden shed and at the very back a greenhouse with a ditch behind it.
“I hadn’t heard him in a while and thought, how strange, what is he doing? I walked back and there he was.” Her grandson lies forward in the ditch, with his head submerged. “I’ve been a nurse and saw it was wrong. He was just dead.”
Epileptic seizure
In a panic, Grandma Ellen visits all the neighbors, but because of a village festival, no one is home. “I called my daughter and said, ‘It’s not going well here at all.” In no time the street is full of emergency services. CPR alone may no longer help.
“He must have had an epileptic seizure,” says his mother Marjolein about the death of her son. He had been dealing with that since 2013, but was still taking medication and had not had an attack for two years.
“He really wanted to know everything and was very diligent in his work”
“But if he got one, they were of the most violent kind: that he loses consciousness fairly quickly, makes spastic movements and can no longer speak, for example.” Grandma and Enzo had an agreement that he was not allowed to garden by the water, but he must have been surprised by it. Grandma: “How he lay there, I can’t get that image out of my head.”
The epilepsy made it a bit more difficult for Enzo to learn and after HAVO opts for practical training (1 day of school, 4 days of work) in horticulture. “And that was really a bull’s eye,” said his mother, who emotionally tells about how sweet and always positive he was. “Very smart too. He had a high IQ.”
Alstroemerias
When the family (mother, but also father Idze, Enzo’s twin brother Jero and sister Viënna) moves from Haarlem to Sint Pancras two years ago, Enzo can get to work among the colorful alstroemerias at flower grower Tesselaar in Heerhugowaard.
The death of ‘a friendly and open colleague’ has hit like a bomb. “He really wanted to know everything and was very diligent in his work,” says his supervisor Marc, still stunned by the phone call he received yesterday.
He points to where Enzo and other colleagues ensured harvesting, but also developed new varieties. He was a so-called breeder. “Sometimes I really had to tell him to stop working. He always wanted to finish everything right.”
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Another colleague and peer tells that he really enjoyed it when Enzo came up with a history fact. “Typical Enzo. And he always wanted to help. Always up for a chat. Always cheerful.” The flowers for Enzo’s funeral on Saturday are of course provided by his work. “He had flowers in his heart. It is a great loss for our company,” concludes Marc.
Enzo passed
In addition to his work, Enzo still went to school one day a week – he thought that was an outing. By bike and train to the Agricultural and Horticultural Education in Rijsburg. Today his classmates will hear if they passed the certificate implement crop protection and spray license† Mother Marjolein now calls his teacher herself.
“He passed,” she says. “The teacher said that Enzo had thanked him for his efforts. That is typical of Enzo. He always stayed at school until the door was locked. He loved it so much. The school is devastated by the news of his death.”
“If the whole world were made up of Enzos, it would be a different world. But unfortunately it wasn’t allowed to be.”
Back to Grandma Ellen’s garden in Noord-Scharwoude. She shows one flower after another. “He took such good care of these. And he also planted these. And look, he made these pendants with plants together with his father. I’m really not going to move to an apartment yet. I hope I can turn 81 here. “
But she still can’t believe that her grandson will never again be at the door with a bunch of alstroemerias. At the place where he died, she has placed sunflowers he brought with him. “If the whole world were made up of Enzos, it would be a different world. But unfortunately it wasn’t allowed to be.”
There are now sunflowers on the place where Enzo died
Dog Suus and Enzo’s favorite flowers, which he always took for grandma
Grandma keeps in touch with her daughter about the funeral card, the dog looks outside
Enzo with his twin brother and sister
Grandma Ellen in the garden
Colleagues of Enzo speak of a ‘sad day’