He enriched our lives
Lambert was an remarkable person, a self-determined man full of zest for life and drive, creative ideas and surprising plans. Anyone who worked with him or moved around the houses, was politically active with him or traveled our globe, made plans together or passionately discussed God-and-the-world can confirm it.
When it becomes clear in late 2019 that an aggressive cancer won't give him much more time, he immediately feels freed from uncertainty and knows what to do. Instead of dealing with this life-threatening disease, he sets out before Christmas on one last grand tour around the world. For three quarters of a year he travels through Laos, Thailand, Indonesia and the USA, increasingly to places where there is still work to be done. At the beginning of February he organizes a big farewell party in Bali and is happy to have managed this before the travel restrictions imposed by Covid-19. Now he is sure to have found the right people to continue his projects.
After visiting his sister in Texas, he settles into his girlfriend Rosi's guest house on the California coast in the spring, puts his life to the test and takes stock. For the first time, he lives alone without any major projects, draws new life force from the tranquility and finds himself.
For the last time, Lambert travels to Bali for three months, where he has been able to put down roots despite all his unsteadiness. His great love is Ubud. He still dreams of giving impetus to this place, so that it gains new radiance with a traffic-calmed center.
The years he has spent here have changed him, given him serenity and confidence, and the certainty that everything will turn out well.
He says goodbye to the Ladybamboo. Here he lived together with his great love, his charming wife Reki, who unfortunately died much too early. He mourned her and memorialized her with a film. Together they looked after guests in Ubud for many years and introduced them to the culture of the country with cooking courses such as e-bike tours. Now, during his last visit, he meets another woman who is important and right for him, Tira Triyana.
Since then, he has left everything in reliable hands as far as it is possible in this pandemic time: The Ladybamboo family has received a stable basis so that the spirit of the facility can live on in the hands of trustworthy people and healing offers for guests can take center stage. Lambert was keen to see Ubud develop positively, and to use the crisis as an opportunity to fill this spiritual center of Bali with its original spirit again, to cleanse it and heal the wounds left by uncontrolled mass tourism.
A doer like him does not capitulate even to his own incurable disease. Knowing that there is no escape, he organizes his last phase of life exactly as he wants it. He makes dying itself - as he says - still a pleasure and is glad that he does not have to experience old age. Thanks to the support of Dessy, Elke, Bapak Jo and other friends, he can spend his last weeks the way he wants to. His life is rounded off. He has had his time, missed nothing and done everything he wanted. Although he doesn't expect anything more in the end, he is positively surprised by what else happens to him during this time. He is ready to go, to follow Reki in the expectation of reuniting with her.
Lambert was only a few days younger than me. It would have been nice if he could have given a pep talk at my grave. Now it is my turn to say goodbye to him, to thank him for the interesting time we spent together and to wish him confidence on his last great journey.
Renate Loose
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
