IN MEMORIAM
CHRIS VAN DER NEUT - 7 March 1955 - 8 May 2018
Co-founder of this website
Dear Friends of
Pierre’s Photo Impressions of the Western Front,
On 8 May 2018, the co-founder of this website, my dear wife, Chris has left us, after she suffered intensively during the last month under her illness, her distress by fluid behind the lungs and her last 10 days in the hospital, where she received all the intensive treatments she feared in advance. We may not forget that Chris has been suffering since 8 March 2013: a period of five years of breast cancer, several chemo-cures, a broken leg in the hospital, heart failures, and the year 2017 ever waiting at home for a new hip. And with that new hip, Chris' story ends only two months later with very severe respiratory problems and heart failure, which were fatal.
When I fell ill in 2004 and threatened to languish behind the geraniums, it was Chris who saved me from that. During a trip to the Vosges to recover a bit from my illness, we accidentally visited the trenches on the Lingekopf. Of course I shared with her, my always patiently listening ear, my knowledge about that site. At this Lingekopf site it was Chris who inspired me to start a photo website on the Western Front. Many regular visitors here already know that this inspiring moment from Chris has been a luminous idea for me, which generated an unexpected stream of correspondence. Her luminous idea has unexpectedly also brought us many new friends.
To make this website, we travelled almost all sites of the Western Front of the First World War for 14 years. "My always loyal and patient driver", Chris, drove me over all roads and accompanied me on walks through fields, on hills and mountains in search of the remains of the Western Front of the Great War. When we visited the front, she always respectfully wore a "poppy" on her jacket, a poppy in memory of the fallen soldiers on the former battlefields. I ,- and I now know from many reactions,- and also the large group of worldwide followers of our website are deeply grateful to her inspiring idea. Please, don’t forget Chris van der Neut, without whom this website would not exist.
