Text: Editors VU Magazine | Image: Own image | 9 February 2023
„I saw two girls waving at me and recognized them from the first Movement Sciences meeting. Mariëlle and Monica had already found each other; I joined them coming from Groningen.
The club expanded with several 'Brabo's', Marieke, Noël, Sonja and Brynnin, Melvin and Roelof joined as well. We partied together, went to Ajax and watched sports during intervals in my attic room on Uiterwaardenstraat. Mariëlle babysat my fish Dennis (Bergkamp) during summer vacations when I went to work at my side job.
We (almost) all completed our education and spread out across the Netherlands. Contact with the others soon faded. But Mariëlle and I stayed in touch. Through a long phone call or by buzzer every now and then. Fun conversations, but also serious stuff. To provide a bit of support, or just to share our story.
Later, visits to the far North became weekends in Germany with the entire family. Coffee in Osdorp or a day at Zandvoort in the beach cabin, or a camping weekend. We attended each other's weddings and visited each other after giving birth to our sons. In recent years we both saw Sara, in presence of each other.
Thanks to WhatsApp, contact is now much easier. After 30 years, we still see each other every year. We always pick up the thread in no time. No matter how great the physical distance, in our hearts we are always close."
