Broken pipe: Hans

Hans †

Today I heard the shocking news that fellow Dutch/Belgium pipe-smokers forum member Hans (nickname TweeTakt) had died.

Hans became a forum member at the beginning of 2011. He had smoked cigarettes for 30 years, got tired of them and decided to pick up the pipe. His nickname was TweeTakt (two-stroke) because of his love for the engine. In general Hans had a passion for engineering. In his younger years he participated in speedway racing and later he owned several (pretty old) motorcycles which he constantly tinkered with in his garage. Fortunately Hans was a man who made a living from his passion. In his daily life he was a BMW motorcycle mechanic. Further he also was very resourceful in fixing damaged and broken pipes. A couple of forum members had their smoking gear repaired by him with nice, shiny aluminium parts. Other hobbies of Hans were cars, his mobile home and his dog Keano.

Hans almost always smiled and had a great sense of humour. Being a modest man he never put himself on the fore on meetings. Instead he liked to relax, smoke his pipe and chat to whoever who was near him. I still vividly remember talking to him on one of the Heukelum meetings. The two of us sat outside for quite a while and talked deeply about him, his mother and taking responsibilities in life.

Sadly life was something that was not given to him any longer. After having survived stomach cancer Hans got bad news: liver cancer. And it already had spread throughout his entire body. In the end the decision was made for euthanasia to stop his suffering. He died at the relatively young age of 52.

I like to pay my respects to the close family and dear friends of Hans and wish them lots of strength.

Here are some pictures:

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Hans (3rd from the right) BBQ-ing at the Heukelum meeting

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Hans at the pipe-smokers meeting in Antwerpen

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The “TweeTakt special”. A Big Ben pipe with a metal shank made by Hans

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Hans (far right) at the Heukelum meeting

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Heukelum meeting group-picture with Hans on the far right

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Motorcycles of Hans

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Hans together with Elbert Gubbels at the BigBen factory

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Hans his almost self-made pipe cabinet

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A repair job

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Part of Hans his pipe collection

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Hans his self-made automatic pipe tamper

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Leerdam meeting group-picture with Hans 4th from the right

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Hans at the pipe-smokers meeting in Antwerpen