Remembering Yvonne: A Call to Action

Een zorgzame Kloek, a caring Mother Hen has left us way too soon!

Yvonne Breukers-Kegge was taken from us this past week.

Even though we knew she had been ill for over a year, it was a shock nonetheless. No one expected we would lose her at just 61 years young.

Yvonne was known to always care for others, whether it was cooking food at a party, volunteering at D4D (Dogs for Diabetics), volunteering at Wild Birds Unlimited, or in more recent years as the Volunteer Coordinator at the Lambtown Festival in Dixon, CA.

I probably forgot to mention some, but you all know, when Yvonne cared, she was happy, even though she consistently put others before her own health.

Diabetes traveled with Yvonne from a very young age - from Australia and New Zealand to Germany and Holland, around the world to Ghana, and finally to Louisiana, Washington State, and California as she moved with her family to all corners of the globe, wherever her Dad was being sent.

However, recently many obstacles came into her path. We knew she was fighting! The last year was the hardest. Trip after trip to the ER, they never got beyond the point of diagnosis. Not even after nine (9) trips to the Emergency Room, at which most times she was admitted for all kinds of procedures, yet never for any real treatment!

She would be released from one hospital and then the symptoms would reoccur and she’d be on her way to yet another ER, recommended to her by the previous hospital, because they could simply never locate the cause. Never!

Seriously, her passwords with all those healthcare organization platforms were: “fuckTh1$” or “FuckTh1s$h1t”... Does that say something about frustration or what?

Therefore, this call for help has several purposes:

One is to financially assist her family with all those hospital invoices.

The family includes Ravenna, her Dogs for Diabetics service animal that was always by her side.

If you ever met Yvonne, you know that beautiful golden retriever!

Ravenna will now have to retire too!

Secondly, for D4D, or as it is called nowadays: The Nat’l Institute for Canine Service and Training. They do amazing work. If you have ever seen Ravenna at her best, you know what it means to anyone suffering this horrible disease.

Also, this is a call for action to improve our country’s health care system and perhaps the world in general, to initiate better communications.

A patient after all, should not be treated in the ER as if it’s the first time, when it happens to be the 7th, 8th or 9th, within the same calendar year!

Yet Yvonne kept hoping… hoping that the next hospital would be able to pinpoint the cause of her suffering. But then, unexpectedly, she ran out of time…

So let’s do what we can, to assure this does not happen again, to others.

And to that same end, the family agreed for Yvonne to help others one more time: by means of an autopsy that will determine the real cause of death.

Yvonne, Mother Hen, ( Kloek in Dutch): Rest In Peace. You’ve done your fair share of caring! Thank you! From all of us.

You, who always cared for others, you certainly now deserve to take a break.

We, who stay behind, are missing your ever-pleasant outreach and caring approach already.

You were always there for us, so here’s our appreciation.

Thank you all, on behalf of Yvonne and her family.

And please no flowers for our flower girl, we have a garden full of those, in all her favorite colors. This was another one of Yvonne’s hobbies! Did I mention knitting?