In February
1982, my parents sent my brother O. and me to visit the neighbours. Mommy was
expecting a baby and the little fella was born on Friday the 19th
around 5 PM. Hereunder I´ll dedicate a few lines to him. Not that I´m not fond
of my other brother O. and I wouldn´t like him to be jealous, but he´ll understand.
L. was
almost 8 Lbs when he was born, heavier than me or O. but eventually he grew up
and never had any overweight.
Probably
the cutest picture of him is from summer 1984 when we drove for the holidays to
north-west France (probably Normandy) and the guy holds a baguette equal to his
size at that time.
Seven years
later, logical for an Aquarius, he was very fond of fishing and he
tried his luck on camping sites in Sweden and Norway. This was a notorious
holiday trip because on a German “Autobahn” the car had a flat tire due to the
overstuffed caravan.
Between
1991 and 1992, we both became rock and heavy metal fans, with AC/DC, Iron
Maiden and Metallica among our favourite bands. My brother must´ve had all
Metallica albums on tape and/or CD. Obviously our nephews from the border town
Aalten were influencers, as well as school mates.
One
of his talents at young age; the ability to speak the Dutch language with
accents from Amsterdam, The Hague and especially Rotterdam, where he rose to “child
actors fame” after a photoshoot for and advertisement, to make publicity for
the company our daddy was working for at that time.
In 1994 our
“Amistad fraternal” was completely different. L. was growing up and got into
his puberty which meant that at that time he didn´t need his big brother to
bother him. Puberty is bloody nasty, at least it was for me, there are a lot of
issues and you sometimes interpret things the wrong way and then you lock
yourself up in your room with loud RATM (me in 1992) at full volume. Eventually
it passes. The rock and metal path we used to walk together splitted; my
brother discovered punk and hardcore (Bad Religion, NOFX, Black Flag, stuff
like that) while I was more into Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, general grunge,
thrash metal and old seventies bands (Black Sabbath, Deep Purple etc.)
Somewhere around 1998, my old
school buddy M. invited by brother to play in his (sort of) punk band Nijntje
Heerst (for non Dutch people, Nijntje is that cute little rabbit drawn by Dick
Bruna, called Miffy in the rest of the world). They had some gigs and made a
demo album, then the band broke up and they all went their separate ways.
Around the
start of the new millennium we often went together to discotheques or other
events. We had a splendid night in a bar in Doetinchem where the owner put a
Creedence CD on and once at the Radstake, this cute blonde girl walked to me
and asked me: Hey, who is that cool dude on the dancefloor? Well darling, he´s my
brother.
Eventually
they wound up together for a couple of months, in that period we went a few
times to the P8, a dark and bit alternative discobar in Terborg.
Sometimes
there were punk concerts at Elbekurkie (adaptation of Albuquerque in New
Mexico?), a meeting centre for young people in a small village that belongs to
Winterswijk. Since my brother had friends in that village we used to go there
every once in a while.
Then I left
the Netherlands to go and live in Valencia, Spain. In the summer of 2003, L.
came to visit me although unfortunately I had to work during the day. In less
than a week he learned Spanish, not using any books, but by heart,
grammatically incorrect but Spanish people could have a conversation with him.
Only a year
later, I left Valencia and moved to Barcelona. The first year was a bit hectic
but in 2005, thanks to my Russian friend A., I could move to a house of a
friendly landlady. I invited my brother to come in the Christmas period and so he
did. We had a couple of cervezas in a typical tapas bar on the Madrid avenue
and he improved his Spanish.
Christmas
2007 was sad because our granny passed away. Dad phoned me and said, just book
a ticket to Germany and I´ll pick you up there.
After greeting
the family at my grandparents house, being suddenly back in my country and not
having any plans, what should I do?
L. was playing
in a hardcore band called Strike First. He had a show at the Goudvishal in
Arnhem and I could come. I made a video there and he uploaded it on Youtube.
3 days later,
after granny´s funeral, we both visited the carbide shooting event, organized
by O. and his buddies, a “happening” with a lot of beer and we got the idea to
go back to Arnhem to visit friends of my hermanito there. It was a great new
year; lots of booze and the girls, Marie and Jeanne where there too. January 1st
I woke up with a little hangover and we drove back to Barchem, our home town.
In May 2009
our niece A. had her wedding and we attended. I came with one of my
excolleagues in his lorry from Barcelona via the French A9 and A6, through
Luxembourg and Cologne to the Netherlands. My parents took me to visit my
granddad, who enjoyed a glass of liquor in his retirement home. It was my last
visit to him as he left us in February 2010.
L. posted a
picture of him with his sunglasses on his FB. Curious enough, my brother does
have a resemblance to his granddad, most curious was though that the funeral
was arranged on February 19; for L. a day of mixed emotions, for the rest of
the family too.
L. had
created an account on Soundcloud and organized his birthday party in Enschede,
themed “Stiekem” (sneaky or secretly). The windows were decorated with
newspapers and he revealed that he liked techno music. I was a bit overwhelmed
by this “sudden” change in his music style, but it turns out that he is a great
composer and he is now even a DJ on gigs.
About 6
years ago L. found a nice girl, M. and they are still together. She is also
talented and hardworking, so hope she´ll stay with him for years to come.
My last
visit to my hermanito was in May 2016, we had the 40th wedding
anniversary party of my parents and I stayed afterwards for a couple of days in
Enschede. This Monday the guy turns 36. Happy birthday hermano!! Though we´re
separated by the ocean, we´ll always be HFL.
