Actor Danny Timmermans lost his father as a teenager in a tragic boat accident: ‘I heard it was his last breath’ (Lear)

The story of Danny Timmermans is so amazing when you learn that the actor is after forty years Live on the water again† He lives with his wife Machilde and their children in a houseboat on the Albert Canal. Timmermans inherited his love of water from his father. He experienced life in Belgium as “swimming rounds in a very narrow aquarium” and wanted to get out into the wider world. The Timmermans were sailing in a schooner. At first, the actor – then a young teenager – and his sister went with their father, and his mother stayed at home. When the school year started again, Danny’s sister decided to go home to school, while he continued to travel with his father.

When the Timmermans was 14 years old, disaster struck. He, his father, and his cousin left Tenerife for a new destination. “One kilometer from Fuerteventura we were attacked by a massive wave of nothingness,” says the actor. The wave hit the boat and both Danny and his father were thrown into the water. The actor was again lifted into the boat by the water, and his father was not. “My father was still at sea and I heard him shout: Undo the boats!” But the boats disappeared and the buoys arrived too late. “My father’s cry told me everything: I didn’t see him at that moment, but I heard it was his last breath. That it was over.”

The Timmermans managed to save himself, and his nephew survived, too. “On the floor, my cousin called my mother, but I remember my insistence on telling her: I thought she should hear those devastating words from me.” De Lirenard says that he is not at all angry with his father, but only grateful. “He gave me the greatest and most beautiful gift I could receive: he showed me what real life is, and he gave me a taste of true freedom.”

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