Loulé, Algarve, Portugal
December 21, 2023
One of the greatest gifts one person can bestow on another is the gift of presence, and that is something that brings us all together here today. Our dear Peter had the uncanny ability to reach out and be there for others without even trying too hard. His quiet strength, open mind and generosity of spirit and time was what endeared him to all of us.
One of the last conversations I had with him was about belonging and his search for a greater purpose in life. It was not about work or building a business. He wanted to leave a different legacy, to be remembered for the difference he made in each and every person’s life he touched, whether big or small. Whether it was opening the paderia at 7:00am every morning, sitting down with his glass of red wine after work, or going up the mountains to join the hunters retreat and observe the dynamics of the community, he gave people what he cherished most from others, time and presence. The last thing he would have wanted was to be remembered with tears and sadness. Keep his memory alive in the same way he celebrated life with each of us, with laughter, jokes, a shoulder to lean on, and a glass or two of red wine and a slice of grilled salmon.
If there is anyone here from the hunter’s group that Don Adelino introduced him to, trust me when i tell you that he felt so at home with you the past weeks, and loved to end the day with the cooked rabbit, the company of the hunting dogs and stray cats that climbed uninvited on his lap! You made him feel that he belonged, and that was a priceless commodity in his world.
Material wealth was of little consequence to Peter, but enduring friendships and meaningful conversations were. He dropped everything at 6:30 for his daily call with his sister Dorothee, never failed to greet good morning and good night to those who mattered most to him. Even if he didn’t know the names of everyone, he always had a smile and a kind word to spare, because that is what anchored him.
Peter could have chosen anywhere in the world to live in and settle down, build a business and lead that bohemian life that was at the core of his being. Although he left a large part of his soul in Ghana and cherished the memories he had of Holland and Belgium, it was Loule where his heart and soul found safe harbour. He needed the element of water in his life, be it river or ocean, and he would not trade this for anything in the world anymore. How many Saturday mornings did he spend at the beach? If it was too cold to swim, he went for long meditative walks, so sort things out in his head, and lately he had taking long hikes up the hills as well, in the pursuit of giving his true life purpose a name, his lotsbestemming as it is called in dutch.
With his wry and wicked sense of humor that I adored, I am truly convinced that Peter will haunt us all if we don’t send him off with copious amounts of wine, laughter and dancing. The Loule summer bailes were definitely his groove, when he could his get salsa moves out again, even if his dance partner ended up being 70+ years old! So next time there is a baile in the praça, think of Peter with a smile, and if you dance the tango, he will smile down on you.
We will put his body to rest, but never bid farewell to his memory, because he belonged with and among us. I leave you now with the words of the Irish philosopher John O’Donohue:
For Belonging
May you listen to your longing to be free.
May the frames of your belonging be generous enough for your dreams.
May you arise each day with a voice of blessing whispering in your heart.
May you find a harmony between your soul and your life.
May the sanctuary of your soul never become haunted.
May you know the eternal longing that lives at the heart of time.
May there be kindness in your gaze when you look within.
May you never place walls between the light and yourself.
May you allow the wild beauty of the invisible world to gather you, mind you, and embrace you in belonging.
Good night, sleep well and sweet dream my dearest. Embrace the light.
Requiescat In Pace
Pieter Rudolph Julius Romijn
March 2, 1969 – December 14, 2023
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