July 2018.

I met Robert around 1990, when we both worked at a bank. A bank? Yes, a bank, but I admit he wasn’t exactly the typical banker. Maybe that’s why we immediately felt a connection. Or was it just because he was a such a nice person?

Some years later his desk came opposite Cor's. In between was a stereo set and music all day. I don't know how the banking business was going, but I do know that the best they ever did in the bank was right there: they started a band. I will always be grateful for that to both of them. I came by one evening, sang "A whole lot of love", and I could stay. Band is too strong a word: Cor just started drumming, I took up a primitive 2nd guitar, Theo got a bassguitar for the first time in his life, Jenny (Cor’s sister) completed the band with her voice, and Robert told everyone exactly what to do. Robert also proposed the name, AxelC Band (ex L/C, the department where all of the guys were working in and quitting at that time), but as you will have understood it was in fact the Robert van Rossen Band.

We (Bertus and Marian) became close friends, not only with Robert, but also with Renate and the boys, Merlijn and Matthis. Robert started writing his own songs, a lot of the with Marcel. Inventive music, beautiful words, always very personal. It tells us a lot about his doubts and the questions he was struggling with. Tell me why, tell me why, why. A searching soul, and he went searching. I remember seeing him in Beekbergen, IJburg, Voorthuizen, Hoog Soeren, Deventer. Sounds strange for the Status Quo fan he was since his teens, but in real life status quo does not exist, how much you and all loved ones would like things to remain as they are.

Five years ago Robert came to visit us to tell about his plan for a 7 months journey. He intended to travel around the Mediterranean, taking a lot of byways to reach his brother Richard in Saudi Arabia. But first he was going on a retreat for a week in Portugal. Next message we got: "plans have changed, I fell in love and she loves me too". Although the plan was: there’s no plan, I think it’s a brilliant change of plan. He went sharing his life with Unmani and travelled around the world with her. Did he find answers or didn’t questions bother anymore? I don’t know, but I really believe he was happy.

Last summer they were in Holland again for a couple of months. We did some gigs together, a remarkable AxelC reunion in Cor’s cafe Florabar at Bovenkarspel. And to crown it all there was the extraordinary wedding of Robert and Unmani on the most beautiful summer day of the year.

I lost a special friend. I owe him a lot. His musicality, his interest in other people, his thoughts. Thank you, Robert.

(N.B.: a couple of months after Robert, Cor was killed in an accident, also 54 years old. As if sorrow and grief can be added or multiplied.)