Dear Editor,
An elderly gentleman was lying on his bed. He had become unwell shortly before.
Some alarmed friends had helped him and put him on his bed. He could not stand up, he couldn’t walk, he even could not speak. They had asked him questions, he knew what to answer them, but he could get not one word over his lips. Not in any language.
He thought by himself, “Is this perhaps what they call a ‘tia’? Or is it a ‘hypo’?”
They gave him something to drink and something to eat, and he took it. He heard that in the other room they were calling the 911 or the ambulance department, explaining how to find the house of the elderly man and before he could realize what was going on, he heard the siren of the ambulance in his neighborhood. And suddenly they stood there in his bedroom: three heavy-built, full-equipped astronauts, carrying all kind of stuff, as if they just landed from Mars.
Very professionally they checked the old man, measuring everything that could be measured, shaking hands with him to see his reactions and asking him to sit up. The patient was feeling better already. A piece of bread with strawberry jam concluded the ceremony. After some greetings, back and forth, the three astronauts happily disappeared back into space, after doing a wonderful job.
Not much later, the patient was able to join his friends in the sitting room, with a thankful heart.
Gerard van Veen
