Laverhof in Schijndel

I usually don't write personal posts, but sharing helps people handle various situations in their lives, so let's try it. Laverhof is a complex that includes a few departments including a hospice.

My mother-in-law has cancer for over 4 years. She's been fighting it, but it kept slowly spreading to various organs. She had very good moments when we thought that she would win this battle, but she also had very bad moments when we had to take her to the hospital where she spent a few weeks in total. She has been so brave, but at some point the disease took its toll. She was having terrible headaches and the doctors found a tumour in her head that started bleeding. She had a seizure and from that point wasn't able to live on her own. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail out of respect to her.

We were looking for a solution because she couldn't go back home to her 85 years old husband anymore as he wouldn't be able to take care of her. My brother-in-law lives close by and helped her with everything she needed during those 4 years, but he couldn't take 24 hours care on himself either. We live 700 km away, and this was out of question. She got medical indication that she only has a couple of months left, so the obvious choice was a hospice. This has been a hard time on our family, but it had to be done.

She was moved directly from the hospital to the hospice last week. We spent there a few days with her too. She was weak and in pain, but as usually very brave. She kept having so many visitors, that we had to make a schedule so that she can get some rest too. She is getting great medical care and we can spend quality time with her instead of worrying if she is in pain or need some medication as there are professionals for this. Right now, we are there just to be with her, talk about our time spent together and make memories.

When we arrived to the hospice we instantly felt at ease. Of course, it's one of the places where you don't want to be, but when there is no other choice you want to have some peaceful place where you spend your last days...

The complex has a large beautiful park with huge trees. We took my mother-in-law in wheelchair to explore the grounds and she liked it too. We didn't know what to expect and it's been a stressful time for all of us, so seeing the park made us all feel calmer.

One part of the grounds is reserved for tiny houses. At first, I didn't know if these were some deluxe rooms for patients, so I asked one of the personnel, and she told me that these are regular rentals, but people living there are required to volunteer in Laverhof to compensate for low rental prices. Each of them had such cute personalized backyards.

There is also a pavilion where you can go with kids to play some boardgames or draw pictures.

They have their own huge bee hotel. I have one at home too, but it's likely 20 times smaller 😊

There is a large garden with plenty of flowers, herbs and vegetables. It is open to everyone and patients can help there or pick up something if they want to. Hospice only has 8 rooms, but there is a huge revalidation centre with patients that are mobile, so I find this great as working with soil helps healing.

It was around lunchtime and the sun was so high that it was impossible to take photos with good light...

This is the revalidation centre...

Look at that tree! I think it would easily reach 5th or 6th floor...

Each of the hospice room has a small front garden. We used it a lot when the personnel came to help my mother-in-law and we didn't want to be in the way...

And this is the view from the table where we had our lunch. It feels like a holiday location...

There is a chapel with regular services and patients can inform the personnel when they want to attend, so that they help them and bring them here. My mother-in-law wanted to join the Sunday mass and they brought her with her bed.

This is the place where I spent hours and hours reading my book. I wanted to give my husband and his brother some time alone with their mother, so I spent most of the time in the garden.

You can see a lot of details to make the stay as bearable as possible...

Each room has some privacy shrubs blocking the view from the parking slot. The one in front of her room is not that big yet though.

We spent some time with her neighbours too, and although we know that this is the last stage of their lives they would not let us see that. They were chatty and smiling, but of course we saw them at their good moments. Often the doors to the rooms were closed which was a sign that the person was having hard time and needed to rest.

We are back home and trying to live our lives as they don't stop when it's difficult. We flinch every time the phone rings as we know that soon it will be the call that we expect, but don't want to receive. This period taught us a lot, but the most important that we learned is to enjoy the moments with our loved ones as we never know when it might be over for either of us.

I know that this is not a kind of post that people want to see, but I think that it's all right to share the situations we are in...

Thank you for reading and until next time!