Gerton Govers from Tilburg is terminally ill. No one knows how long Linda’s 51-year-old husband and father of four children has left. But Gerton wants to make good use of his time. That is why he starts working in his city as a citizen councilor of ONS Tilburg, his wife’s party. To show that you don’t have to write off people who are terminally ill.
Gerton has known for a year that he has a tumor in his leg, which has spread to the lungs. The news came a day before his youngest son turned one: “The weirdest birthday ever.”
“Two hundred people a year get this disease.”
It turned out to be a rare type of cancer. “A species that cannot be cured or removed,” Gerton explains. “There are two hundred people a year who get this disease. And because it is such a rare form, there is little money for research.”
When you talk to Gerton, you don’t have the idea that there is someone sitting opposite you who is seriously ill, because you can’t see anything about him. Running alone is no longer possible. “It does bother me and I also have pain from time to time,” he says. Because the metastases are growing relatively slowly, he is not yet receiving chemotherapy. He describes his quality of life as ‘still relatively okay’.
Mentally it’s a different story. The first three months after the diagnosis he lived in total panic. From one day to the next he had to quit his job as an English teacher at a secondary vocational education: “That was no longer possible. I got depression. But with the necessary help, things are now better. Cancer is such a big word…”
Then, suddenly, Gerton breaks off his story: “Hey, I want to make it a positive story, I don’t want to be too dramatic.”
“I want to leave a beautiful city for my children.”
He wants to do something good in the time he has left and that is why he becomes a citizen councilor for ONS Tilburg, the party of his wife Linda Oerlemans. Education, culture, nature and the environment: Gerton will speak on behalf of his party on these themes. He wants to contribute to the city. And leave a beautiful city for his children.
Gerton is also still involved in his school. He invigilates exams and is an examiner. But standing in front of the classroom is no longer possible: “I can’t deliver the quality I want because I don’t have the energy.”
In this way he wants to show that he can still do something, even though he is terminally ill: “In this society we find it quite difficult to deal with someone who has something. People sometimes find it very uncomfortable. They avoid you. Or they act very dramatic. Then make a blunt joke: better that than beating around the bush.”
“A swimming diploma is now a milestone, a party.”
He lives day by day and is with his children aged one and a half, four, six and seven years old as much as possible. “The eldest recently got her swimming diploma. In the past, something like this may have been a small thing, but now it is a milestone, a celebration. You are much more conscious about it, because you are happy that you were there.”
The children also receive help to deal with Gerton’s illness: “They are different types, they react in their own way. One is very open and talks about it with everyone. The other is more closed and occasionally crawls onto your lap. Those are…”
Gerton falls silent. Just swallow. “I would have given them a different future,” he says softly.
Fortunately, there is Linda, his wife. She was there for a moment at the beginning of the conversation. “We’re going for healing!”, she shouted before she left. “She is a very big optimist and I am less so by nature,” laughs Gerton.
Gerton’s wife Linda was once nominated for Brabander of the Year
