For this article I’m going to give you the back story of my dad’s road bike, which is a Koga Miyata Gent’s Luxe S from the year I was born: 1979.
This article is going to be special. Not only because it’s about the bicycle that started my love for cycling, but also because of a pivotal moment in my life.
You see, last year my mother passed away and since my father has been deceased for 25 years it meant I was going to inherit his bicycle.
I started riding my father’s bike after he’d passed away battling cancer. And I rode it for 7 years. So the bike is obviously near and dear to my heart.
The last few months I’ve been cleaning out my parental home for the new owners. And boy, there’s a lot of memories in undertaking such a process.
The home is sort of a time-capsule of my youth, because everything basically stayed from the moment my dad died in the mid nineties. And that includes the bicycle.
So I wanted to capture and share the moment where I would be taking the bike down from where it hung in the garage for as long as I can remember.
Being in that house where I grew up in, and everything that has happened the last couple of years, makes it difficult to feel anything else but a sense of loss in the moment. But knowing that basically everyone at a certain moment in time will have similar stories of loss and grief helps putting things in perspective.
And that’s part of the reason I wanted to share this with you. There’s nothing wrong about being sad on occasion if it serves as a pressure relief from the things that are going on in your life.
I wanted to experience this moment. Wanted to do this myself. As difficult as it was. I wanted to experience the grief by myself. Not feeling rushed. Knowing that I took the time I needed, so this moment could serve me later on.
Some of you might argue that putting it on tape is sort of exhibitionistic. Obviously my opinion differs. I’ve heard a lot of times that what has happened is a part of life. But at the same time I felt awkwardness with other people when displaying emotion.
I’m definitely not the type of guy who keeps looking in the rear view mirror. But such an experience as losing a loved one takes a bit more time so to speak. So give yourself and others the time and space necessary to put things in perspective when such a thing happens, which is a lot easier said than done.
So that wraps up this article. It’s kind of strange to say that I hoped you enjoyed the video as I do when I end every other video. But instead I hope that it helps a bit when you’re in a similar situation. And I hope I can welcome you again for the next video. Bye for now.