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How they help each other
Some still know him, the ancient custom of the women of the Dutch fishermen. When the man was lost at sea, the wife, tears from one of his shirts, sewed a large bow on his sleeve.
This bow wore her on significant occasions to show that her lover is always in her heart. Even if he would never return to her ...
This touching tradition has now revived Princess Mabel (44): At the coronation of Willem-Alexander (46) she wore a black dress with a white looped sleeve, sewn from a piece of her nine-year-old wedding gown.
Although Mabel has not lost her lover at sea, she also senses that he will never return to her, never play with his daughters Luana (8) and Zaria (7) again.
After a ski accident in February 2012, Prince Friso (44) is in the wake coma at the London Wellington Clinic. For his mother, ex-Queen Beatrix (75), this is the worst stroke of her life.
They speak up courage
And now day by day the hope disappears that another miracle will happen. Friso will not be healthy anymore. And so the doctors advised Mabel and Beatrix to prepare for the worst. An advice that breaks both hearts. Now every visit to Friso is also a moving farewell. Maybe there will be no meeting again ...
The suffering of the vegetative patients - we talked to Prof. Dr. med. Thomas Münte (53), Director of the Department of Neurology of the University Medical Center Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck: "Generally, it is the case with patients with coma in the wake coma: they are not responsive and their perception is severely limited. Typically, nerve fiber tracts that run in the direction of the cerebrum are damaged. The patients are fed artificially, often they are also artificially ventilated. Amazing improvements are often seen in the first few months, but the chances of recovery decrease considerably with time in the coma. If, for example, a patient has severe pneumonia after years, this can be the end of it. "
It is known that Friso has suffered very serious damage. Now, Mabel and Beatrix can do nothing but award each other strength and courage. Courage for a new day, strength for a visit to Friso. And again and again Mabel wears a bow. Like the women who lost their men to the sea. Loose love in a sea of tears.
