September 1st, 2010 
This is the third column about the Cas di Glas (House of Glass), an event that takes place from September 29 thru October 3 in the Renaissance Marketplace across from CILO City Lounge. It is a concept that, after its immense success in Holland, has been copied in various big cities in Europe. Its goal: to get a substantial amount of money for a good cause; on Aruba this will be the Koningin Wilhelmina Kankerfonds (KWF), the cancer foundation. But what is the Cas di Glas exactly and how does something like that come about? In the coming installments you will be able to follow the making of the Cas di Glas and we hope you will get as enthusiastic about this project as its team of organizers.
Actually, I was planning to tell you in this column about the cooperation that we are getting from the Netherlands. President of the Cas di Glas foundation, Peter Ballière, has been busy with that. He is currently in Belgium, but he will be back on Aruba in September. And I wanted to announce the KLM Martinair Kids’ Day, which will be held on Saturday, October 2nd. During that day, KLM stewardesses in their uniforms are coming to the Marketplace to help. I can already see them in my mind’s eye: building sand castles and jumping in the Jumping Castle. Cool, eh?
But then this mail came in. It is from one of our team members. I already knew about her mom’s illness, but the others of our committee did not, I presume. With a mail like this one, the fun preparations for the Cas di Glas are seen in a totally different light: in the bright light of everyday life, in which cancer has taken up a cruel space of its own.
A mail like this shows without the shadow of a doubt the necessity of breast cancer screening and testing. And I believe that everyone who reads it will be convinced that the goal for our Cas di Glas event, a mobile unit for breast cancer screening, is a splendid goal. And one that may save lives.
This is the mail which came in from our team member:
`I do not know whether I have told all of you that my mom is a cancer patient. It started with breast cancer and then it spread to her back and spinal column, in her bones. To make a long story short, I wish to let you know that her health has deteriorated since last week. My mother has had quite a lot of complications in the past year, but it seemed that she had conquered them. But judging from her latest lab tests it appears that the cancer cells have doubled. She needs another MRI scan and x-rays. She has high cholesterol (LDH, really bad) and thrombosis (her white blood cell count is just 18 instead of round the 160). Also very bad indeed; it may induce a stroke. And today she discovered light blue patches all over her body.
What I personally hate is that her doctor has not even been able to tell her why she is doing so badly all of a sudden. He just gave her the results of the tests and said: you can go home and wait until the hospital calls you up for new tests. Really nonchalant-like.
Thank God for the internet: we can google and read about everything, so that we get some information about what is happening.
Anyway, with this long story I want to let you guys know that I want to stay with my mom this afternoon and tomorrow during the entire day, so I won’t be able to come to work. In the weekend I shall also be with her; you will understand that I want to be with her as much as I can.’
There are no words for something like this – a steady stream of tears is running down my cheeks as I am writing this.
