A life captured in song

Roel and The Appletree

I’ve had the immense honour to capture Roel’s life in song for the initiative started by Fit-ART, an organisation that connects elders with art as a means to (re)vitalise and bring confidence. This blog gives an insider’s perspective on how this experience turned into a song, while pictures from the final performance give you some idea of our friendship. The song can be found in the video below.

Fit-ART selected me among the few to be allowed onto their program. They organized a day in which the songwriters were told what was expected of them and got a short guest-lecture about how to talk to elderly people. After that morning, the people came in and we were tasked to ‘organically’ find someone who would fit us individually. For some people this was easy, but for me this format of meeting folks didn’t quite work at first. Luckily, I ended up talking in length with Roel. Even when the hosts asked for attention, we had trouble cutting our conversation short. A good match, in short!

Discovering Roel’s Story

We had a walk through the fields and Roel told me about his past. Of how he grew up in an orthodox protestant family where he was taught that for everything you could do there was a predetermined way to do it: He just had to refer to the bible. This didn’t sit entirely well with Roel even as a kid, because his curiosity was like a blazing fire; he always wanted to know what was on the other side of the wall. Figuratively and literally. His yard was surrounded by a concrete wall, so there was no way to see through any holes or cracks. There was, however, an apple tree that had grown at a convenient angle towards the wall. This tree gently carried little Roel over the wall, where he could pursue his heart and discover the world. Unfortunately his father was already on the other side; ready to lift him over and back into the garden.

This tale about the apple tree is Roel’s very first memory and I find it is incredibly rich in metaphors. Later, by sheer coincidence while he was scanning photographs, he found a picture in which he was only just visible in the very background; climbing into that apple tree! I had no choice; that apple tree had to be the first thing I mentioned in my song, as it is the first thing Roel remembers.

Fast forward a couple of decades and we find Roel walking along pilgrim tracks. Wait a moment, I hear you think, wasn’t he raised as a protestant and aren’t pilgrimages catholic ventures? You would be correct. Even though Roel is still of protestant belief (not orthodox, mind you), his curiosity has driven him to do something most people of his faith wouldn’t want to try; to travel the world as a pilgrim. Roel wanted to know why so many people had gone before him. What moves them to pray to a saint. In short; Why on earth would anyone want to be Catholic? Whether he got an answer to that question, I do not know, but I do know that he learnt a lot on his trips. He got to know places and people. He learnt about their cultures and their food. He met them in all shapes and sizes, from visual artists to business owners. Roel was able to tell me that a pilgrimage automatically became more about the people and the experiences rather than the number of kilometres he would walk every day.

Traveling across Europe by foot is not something I ever see myself doing and therefor my admiration for Roel only grew as he told me of the vast distances he had covered and showed me a booklet filled with stamps from the places he had visited. I got to know Roel as a kind hearted man whose curiosity can not be sated (nor can he be stopped in his attempts) and whose mind is wondrously open, even towards things that contradicted his own beliefs and motivations. There wasn’t a single moment in his presence in which I felt judged in any way. His story along with his personality and his preference for Celtic Folk were distilled and poured into the shape of the song I wrote for him; The Appletree. I performed the song as part of a theatre show where the other songwriters performed their songs for their ‘match’ as well. Afterwards my fiancée and I had dinner at Roel’s place with his family. A dinner which was preceded by some good whiskey. I have no doubt that we will meet again. We will have to, because he’s still got our umbrella at his place.

Thank you for this experience Fit-ART and thank you Roel for the times well spent.