Sophia is 26 today

 

Today it is 26 years ago that Sophia was born.

A beautiful child that came into this world with a head full of dark hair en big dark eyes that were wide open. The hair did not stay dark but the eyes stayed wide open, literally and figuratively.

This 7th day of December has been a day full of joy for twenty two times. A day of celebration, gifts, a table full of friends, laughter.
For the fifth time now it is a day of sadness, despair, pain, uncertainty and also fear.
What happened to Sophia? Will the day come that we find out?
Where is Sophia? Will the day come that we will find her? That the hole that her disappearance has cut in our life will go away?
We don’t know.

But the hope remains, with many.
Yesterday I came back, again, from the country that took Sophia away from us and still has not revealed where she is.
We continue searching her. Too many things have still not been done.
Giving up on Sophia is absolutely no option.

Seven times around the earth,
If need be on hands and feet,
Seven times to greet that special one,
Who is standing there laughing, waiting,
Seven times around the earth.

Seven times across the sea,
Barely clothed, what would it matter,
If I could only bring that person back.
Seven times across the sea-
Seven times, to stand together again.

                                                                                                             after Ida Gerhardt (1905 – 1997)

Marije Slijkerman
Gerard, Max en Jan Koetsier