20x crying with Heerschop

Today we are not just sitting with our cheek glued to the laptop to listen to the latest broadcast from Edwin, for Peter Heerschop's last column we really took a moment to sit down. Oh boys, that was crying. Not just for us, especially for Rick who almost drifted away. I present to you a selection of the best jokes and most beautiful sentences.

1. At a party in Hardenberg, the birthplace of Edwin Evers, Viggo assumed that you could still drag a woman by her hair into a cave and scratch a drawing of a sheep there.

2. Xander de Buisonjé came walking up, beautiful Xander. I still remember Viggo saying to me: ‘Hey Peet, we will be cleaning up Xander's crumbs.’

3. We decide to go to the bunker, an underground illegal pub beneath Evers' house that no one knows about, but which suddenly gets discovered by 130 people.

4. If I had to blow for an alcohol test that Monday morning, I would still have lost my driver's license for three months.

5. We have experienced a lot together: death, birth, problems, parties, tears of laughter, laughter after tears.

6. We are a team and I feel like an important part of it, even when I didn't appear on any poster for the umpteenth time.

7. Even when I missed the gift that everyone received at whatever anniversary it was.

8. Noor van Putten, sublime organizer of the Olympic Games. Congratulations by the way on your newborn child. So beautiful, exactly nine months after the Games in Korea. Where we have been together every day.

9. About Niels, if you look too long into his eyes in Blijdorp, he will drag you through the entire cafeteria.

10. I once heard Niels shout on a terrace in Rio: ‘Yeah guys, I just have a really high wine limit.’

11. I don't want to tarnish Niels' reputation, but I will say it anyway. Niels is much kinder than he sometimes realizes. Because look at him enjoying when the team is doing well, look at him glowing when he talks about his little boy, look at the tears when he thinks of his mother. That's Niels, that's a little boy.

12. Rick makes jokes about pocket fillers with enormous salaries. By that last one, he probably means people who earn even more than he does, so there aren't that many.

13. Rick is afraid of losing things, afraid of losing people. He has stories about everything. He can laugh very hard about a lot, but I mainly see his tears. With every column that ended with sad news, I saw his tears. With the unfairness of death or vulnerability. It's those tears that dilute his words.

14. Then Henk, the best newsreader with a voice that comes from so deep that he is regularly called upon to crush kidney stones somewhere.

15. Viggo the master predictor: half human, half crystal ball. He is my best friend. And that's all I need to say. That's everything in there. I can't even imagine without. People often say on the street: ‘Hey, there's Peter and Viggo.’ I consider it a compliment. I already find it strange that we won't be sitting in the studio at the next Games with Edwin's announcement: ‘Ah, there you have the gentlemen.’

16. The best nicknames for Evers are: the miracle of Hardenberg, the best remedy for a hangover, king of the morning, the voice, the boss, the man of six million, the nightingale, the people's binder, the ideal son-in-law, and the sultan of imitation.

17. Evers is mainly the man who made me feel important every Friday, at least when he didn't have one of his many days off.

18. He rolled out the red carpet and I could enter the theater. He made sure the audience was ready and looking forward to it.

19. I have been busy every day for 17 years.

20.  And it all started with Marianne, also known as ‘Dear Marianne’, also known as skater Marianne Timmer. Who came to the studio especially for this episode.

For those who want to read the 5000 A4 pages about Marianne, Peter has promised that they will be online soon. And we will hold him to that. Because a life without Evers AND without Peter Heerschop, that's too much for a person.