Small pilgrimage for a child who has died in an accident

I often come across
those damaged places on my walkwith a cross, with a stone, with flowers 
Children and young people often killed on the road
Maybe I should write a longer column about that
About death lurking along the road

For an unknown child who has died in an accident

The best percussionists  in the world, I ask
Beat the drum
Make all windows vibrate

The  best trumpet players in the world, I ask
Blow the lowest notes
And if there is a God with compassion and mercy, I ask
Suffer with us

There’s a child under a truck
Crashed
A seven-year-old boy
Going to school alone with his sister for the first time
Less than a second, no one saw
Not a guardian angel anywhere

Now there are flowers
Now candles are burning
Now there are cards

A child is dead
A grandchild
Every dead child is one too many
Anywhere

The best percussionists in the world
The best trumpet players in the world
I ask you to pay tribute to this child in memoriam.

Forever, this place will be a guilty place.

A seven-year-old boy was killed under an accelerating truck at the Vuurplaat tram stop.At 09:00 it looked black with people. What had happened? A robbery, terrorist act? The air is full of menace. The tram did not stop here for hours on the orders of the police. Later in the morning I heard about the event, the black event. In the afternoon the tram stopped again. Life seemed to go on again. I got out, bought sunflowers and put them with the flowers that were already there, the lights and the cards.

I…..m often asked how do you process? Among other things: laying flowers, being quiet, talking to people who were also there, and writing. Tomorrow I have to speak to 750 palliative care workers in Flanders about the elderly and loss. If this child  your grandchild is…… what can I say. I will take this with me from Rotterdam to Turnhout and start my lecture with this story and this in memoriam.

Marinus van den Berg