Tineke Schouten reclaims her life after losing her husband: “But he is everywhere”

“Hans had been ill for a long time and had many things wrong with him,” Tinke recalls of her recent time with her husband. “His heart was weak and he had already undergone five bypass operations four years ago. He also suffered from asthma and diabetes. In the last two years of his life, he lost his leg and was confined to a wheelchair. For a while, he had a weak heart.” He always had to have someone near him to help him.

Tiniki found it difficult to leave her husband alone, which in turn caused stress. “Imagine if something had happened while I was away,” she says. “In the meantime, I was on stage and tried to be with him as much as possible. It was a mystery. The fears were always there.”

Teneke was there when he took his last breath on September 6. “Of course I miss him, but I am especially grateful to him. He is almost eighty, and his health is very fragile. We have had a good time together for years.”

For forty-five years, Hans was Tenneke's “rock.” The comedian rarely cries for him, because her mother taught her that crying is a “waste of time.” “Life is too short to be sad. She didn't do it herself when my father died. I do it now too. I rarely cry, except at times when it suddenly gets very quiet. Or when I wake up alone in the morning in the morning.” A cold, dark house . Or especially when I enjoy something intensely.”

Tiniki says she feels her husband “everywhere.” “In my house, on stage and at the cemetery in Larin where I go every time.” Tineke says Hans is in a “beautiful place.” “It feels like meditation. (…) I take care of the flowers, then it becomes elegant and we get back together again for a while.”

Meanwhile, Tiniki is still busy at work. She's so busy that she can't actually go to dates with friends. “That's not happening at all. My week is full. It's okay, I'm still too young to sit behind a geranium.”