for Less government, and more to take care of each other since 2013, we are living in a welfare state, but in a participatiesamenleving. Half of the Dutch population also contributes as a volunteer: bingoënd with the aged, and the chickens feeding at the zoo. What drives these people? You’ll read about it in the section with The Volunteers.
for a Long time, in the Leeuwarder nieuwe begraafplaats, along with a small, stone-built morgue – the last stop-over of the deceased to his eternal resting place. However, by the renewed sliding glass doors of the house seems to be now in a different light. There is the clink of the cups. It seems that there are some tea lights, as Wapstra, fresh flowers on the tables, turn. The former mortuary is now eight years old, a tea-house, in the most lively area of the house.
Wapstra, began two years ago as a volunteer, and by that, she went to work at the bezoekersbalie of the intensive care unit of the MCL. After a few years, stopped to be a librarian in the Bibliobus, which for 25 years has worked, she missed the contact with people and that her work had brought in. “The Bibliobus, I drove from town to town, where I was with the same people encountered on his travels. You are a well-known, but it is also a bit of a strange thing. That makes for a very intimate conversation. People don’t trust you, all the time.”
Serious discussions on the intensive care
of Which the confidentiality is reflected in her volunteer work. The Details that they can about the disease, or the death of loved ones know, they can’t share, but she tells them that she is many wonderful, painful, and sometimes terrifying, things, added. The conversations in the hospital are generally more severe than in the case of the graveyard. Wapstra: “the intensive care unit with people coming in to visit with a family member, an emergency should be treated, or someone who has had a heart attack or serious accident you’ve had. As a result, worries about the loved one and the need for support more acute.”
“I have to try to make sense of people need to have a conversation with them.”
the hospital is called the Wapstra family and other visitors are welcome in the small reception area. She calls the nurse and asks if the patient is ready for visitors. In this case, the family directly. But it is also not to be found, and the patient, for example, like to be washed. Then Wapstra, the family, have a cup of tea or coffee and a listening ear. “But only if you are in need of. That you should be able to feel it; it’s not my place to give me to someone to do.”
In some cases, that requirement clearly does. So remember Wapstra is a young boy who came to visit with his grandmother. “It was about eight-years-old, and I had a guitar with him. When I spoke with him on his return from the visit early in the song, he grandmother had played it, he pulled the instrument from his back, and sang the same song again, for me. It was such a beautiful, touching moment.”
Regularly, make them aware that one of the patients died. Having trouble Wapstra it does not. “I feel like it’s beneficial,” she explained. “I may be a bit of a family can make.” Also, the nurses find that it is great that the volunteers are there. In the past, that wasn’t the case at all. It was in the nurses room, the door is open for a visit, and the people had to continue self-rescue. Have a place to sit down for a conversation or cup of consolation, were it not for.
in The former morgue, which Presents Wapstra was working as a volunteer for eight years in a tea-house, in the most lively area of the house. (Photo: private collection).
‘take the mind off after a visit to the grave’
the door of The tea house is open to the entrance of the cemetery in the direction of a wooded area of the cemetery. People who drink a cup of coffee, are not directly confronted with any of begrafenisstoeten. It is a library of books about death and grief. It is a tall stack of classical music and great jazz cd’s of Norah Jones, and Vivaldi. “Those are never on,” says Wapstra. “There are actually very a lot of talking.”
In comparison to the hospital to have the conversation here a little easier. They have the would prefer to the life of the cows and the calves. Wapstra: “the mind off after a visit to the grave.”
“this is something that is important is that you know what it’s like to have a person to waste.”
in Addition, it will serve hot drinks and biscuits, the forty volunteers from the tea-house is also a special day in the cemetery, such as all souls ‘ day, and WereldLichtjesDag. “With the funerals, we don’t have a lot to do. But in the ashes of a loved one, are going to announce. Most recently was with a man at a table, with a cup of coffee and an urn.”
A good partner for different kinds of people, according to Wapstra, the most important feature to have in the volunteer work that they do. “And perhaps it is also important to ensure that you have all the life experience you have. You know what it’s like to have someone to lose. Even though it’s not in there, it’s nice to hear that you could relate to the pain of others. That feels like one, too, and that gives you comfort.”
