At the beginning of last week I heard that my good friend Rijkhart Theissen had died suddenly.Rijkhart was the lighter at the Kulturhuset in Jarna in Sweden where I have ofter been on tour. Returning to Jarna was always like a homecoming; the stage always well prepared, the coffee always warm and Rijkhart's endless patience to get things perfect - ' just making sure that you can do your job properly'
After much soul searching i finally took a flight up to Stockholm on Tuesday morning and was met at Arlanda by Johannes O who had bought an old BMW with the proceeds out of the Symphony tour we did together last Autumn. We drove down to Jarna and after lunch and reunions with old friends Johannes showed me what he had made on stage for the ceremony that would take place there later. Jakob, Johannes, Nuno, and I then walked across the snow to the VidarKlinik where Rijkhart was so we could help ,with bringing the coffin back to the Kulturhuset and on the way over we exchanged the memories that we had of him. Rijkhart understood what it meant to make use of electricity to make light and what it meant for the lighter. We brought Rijkhart back to his stage and where, surrounded by four candles, the ceremony of music , eurythmy, dance and poetry began.(Kristina read an English poem of which I must ask her the title). Anders Kumlander told Rijkhart's life story and all the time Johannes' and Rijkhart's subtly changing colours were on the backdrop. After everyone had taken their leave of him we brought him out to the waiting car and then the four of us returned to the stage to blow the candles out.
Rijkhart spoke very little of his private life but later in the evening I got to know some of his lovely children and his ex-wife none of which I had met before . It had been a long day and so I went early to bed - Johannes had of course arranged a place for me to stay.
Early the next morning Johannes picked me up to bring me to the Station complete with coffee and Croissant , no mean feat in the middle of nowhere in Sweden,and I started my journey back to Dornach. Somehow I manged to get from Sweden to Switzerland in one piece but spent the rest of the week in bed with the flu.
Now its Sunday evening and it seems like i am well enough to go back to work tomorrow
