Resilience

A few weeks ago, I wrote a short piece here about resilience and coping. About solidarity. About dealing with disaster and adversity.

As the government cannot solve everything, a major information campaign is set to launch shortly: Think Ahead. It’s about what you can do yourself in times of crisis. How you can help others. How you can prepare for situations such as a power cut, a flood or a large-scale cyberattack on the banking system.

Of course, you can’t prepare for everything.

You can certainly stock up on enough water. Write down some phone numbers. Keep a bit of cash at home. To name but a few things. And as mayor, I wholeheartedly encourage you to do so. And to talk to one another about it, too.

But I also know this: we cannot prepare ourselves for things that affect us on a deeply personal level, such as serious illness amongst those closest to us. It happens, and then you just get through it as best you can. With ups and downs, sometimes with hope, sometimes with despair.

But always with the support and help of lovely family, neighbours, friends and colleagues. We couldn’t manage without them. Anyone who’s ever been in that situation will recognise this.

I’m experiencing that now too: the warmth, the support, the help that springs into action straight away when something terrible happens.

I don’t usually trouble you with my personal concerns. But as I’ve been away for a while, I feel it’s right to share this with you in this instance. My wife recently suffered a severe brain haemorrhage. Our world was turned upside down and is no longer the same. We do not yet know how things will turn out; after all, nobody can see into the future.

What we do know is this: in difficult times, people are there for one another. And that does us a world of good.

Ton Heerts