Stad vol ballonnen: Een jaar van rouw | 
pick4/5⭐
I love her description of carrying a lost loved one with you like a helium filled balloon tied to your wrist, always floating with you. This is the first description I've come across that makes it a light feeling, other than a stone in you stomach or anything like that. This is how it feels to deal with the grief: always there, but light. It goes where you go, but not necessarily as a bad, heavy weight. It can be beautifully light as well ❤️
As you can probably tell by many of my posts, I don't read a lot of Dutch books. Even though I am Dutch, I prefer reading in English. But this, I had to pick up. It's about the way the widow of the deceased beloved mayor of Amsterdam (Eberhard van der Laan) deals with the grief and goes on to raise their children. It very real. Sadly, I'm way to familiar with grief and this collection of columns portrays it beautifully! Halfway through now.
pickA year ago the mayor of the city where I live, died of cancer. He left behind a wife and three young children. In his last interview he asked us to take care of our city. To make sure it would stay the tolerant, open and kind place he knew it to be (his words). In this book his wife tells of her first year without him, raising their kids in the city he loved so much. Deeply touching. #Dutch
