Written by Chris DeFlamingh
My dad was born Adolf Jakobus DeFlamingh on 23 December 1928 and passed away on April 7th, 1995 at the age of 66 (I had just turned 24 at the end of that month 29 April 1995). He was buried on 12 April 1995.
My mom was born Christina Jacoba Hitchcock in Tanzania on 18 February 1940 and passed away at the age of 79, on 28 April 2019 and I turned 48 just the following day. My mom was buried on 9 May 2019.
It was my calling to be here on earth to look after my parents should they become ill, frail or reach their “golden years” to be there until God called them home to His kingdom to be in the safety of His care.
I love my parents and I will never stop loving them as if they were still living here on earth and I being by their side but instead, they are now by my side and guarding me while they are up in Heaven, in the Kingdom of God.
One day out of the blue I told my mom “you know that I love you, hey” and she was taken back for a second as she didn’t expect me to ever say something like that.
She realised what I had told her, her face lit up like a diamond sparkling like a clean dish that had just been washed spotlessly clean. She couldn’t believe her ears and I felt great and very proud that I had told her as I had never ever told her that before; about a month later she had gone to be with the Lord.
So I will always feel some form of guilt that I never expressed anything like that to my mom & dad more often.
As I commemorate the passing of my mom on this day 28 April 2020, it is with great sadness but also with some kind of inspiration that I was called by God to take on this task and that was so clear to me from a very young age.
To stand by my parents no matter what. It’s with great pride and satisfaction that I could fulfil that task in Gods glory & stood by my mom until it was her time to leave this earthly place and be with the Lord as my mom was a very devoted Christian and stood by her beliefs and many nights she would read out loud and held bible study before we went to bed.
If I could go back and face the same tasks again, (some people would call it challenges), I would do it all over again without a doubt. For me it was an honour. So today I celebrate my mom’s life as opposed to mourning her passing.
Rest in peace mom & dad until we meet again ….