2023-10-23 16:00:00
She might have sunk into depression, into disarray… But that’s not knowing her well. Frédérique Kersten is strength incarnate, the joy of living, a smile that accompanies each of her sentences. Life has not given her any gifts but she holds on to it, to this life. And to prove it to her, the 49-year-old Ferrusienne chose to bounce back. She was a bank manager and insurance broker. She was also an alderman. If she left politics, she also had to give up her job. The reason ? A fall down the stairs four years ago now. It was November 4, 2019. “I had whiplashshe explains today. I was bedridden for two months, I was severely traumatized.” Elbows, knees, ribs, cheekbones… Multiple tears and breaks, and especially the affected brain. “From one day to the next, I was no longer able to express myself properly. I also had major coordination problems.” And she adds: “I had to rewire my brain”. Heavy support (which currently totals 969 medical appointments and 33,000 kilometers of travel) which allowed him to recover but not completely.
Today ? Fredo has learned to live once more, to speak, to walk, to think… But the difficulties are there, particularly linked to interference and double tasks. Today “this accident prevents me from mentally calculating, from doing several things at once. I have attention problems, I forget things I have done, I jump from one thing to another, I I became messy…” And when fatigue sets in, she can no longer find certain words. Besides, she sleeps 15 hours a night. “I have to sleep a lot to have a normal life. If I have a family activity planned, I have to rest first. My life is slow…”
A big victory: she was able to get her driving license back following 34 months. “Before that, I worked with social taxis, volunteers, my family. My 83-year-old mother helps me a lot.” To cope, she implemented stratagems. Thus, she became Miss Post-it. His mobile phone is also full of applications that help him move forward, not to forget. Read a book ? Impossible because she no longer remembers what she has just read. “I no longer have a short-term memory.”
Learn to move forward once more
Until recently, Frédérique Kersten was still undergoing rehabilitation at the hospital, twice a week; it went to just one time. “I have to keep what I have gained because I can still lose what I have gained.” Going back to work ? After long months in revalidation, it was a hope. Except that it was clear that she might no longer have a position of responsibility. “My therapists suggested I do something hands-on.” However, before the accident, she was rather intellectual… So, one thing led to another, the Ferrusienne was contacted by a secondary school which offered her the opportunity to join a new option that was opening up there: cycle mechanics. “The school was looking for people to join it. I might go there to strengthen the number of students enrolled.” As a subsidized student, and not as a free student. “I made an adult contract like all students who are adults.” With the particularity that Frédérique Kersten only follows practical courses as she already has her secondary education diploma. “It’s been 30 years since I went out with the CESSshe smiled. I continued with an evening course in business management/accounting.” Why bike mechanics? To learn to walk once more, Fredo Kersten started cycling. “At the beginning, I fell a lot, I had to persevere. That’s how I met my lover. I was looking for someone to accompany me, he helped me a lot.” So the bike, yes.
“I’m alive, I’m lucky”
And here Fredo Kersten is back at school, in secondary education… following having attended classes at Vierset-Barse primary school for three months last year. “Here, I only go to school three days a week and I don’t have eight hours straight. I have study hours while the others have theoretical classes.” Hours she spends in her car resting. The other students ? They are between 15 and a half and 17 and a half years old. “I’m old enough to be their mother. They call me ‘grown-up Fredo’.” Did his integration go well? “I asked to be able to explain it to them myself.” But the first questions first came from the teachers. “They are my age, they are confused by my approach.” Fredo asks to be treated like any other student, “Let me be addressed informally. I don’t want any favors.” She just asked for the sheets at the start of class, so she wouldn’t have to write, just listen. For the rest… “I asked to follow all the rules. In the dining hall, I must ask permission to leave the table.” With the other students? “They have difficulty addressing me as informal terms, there is a certain respect. They imagine that I might be their mother or their aunt. But I am there by will and they by obligation.”
Bicycle mechanic is a profession in shortage. Does she plan to repair the bikes once her three years of training are over? “Training is above all my way of working towards reintegration. This will help me continue my fight to maintain my skills through manual work.”
So there, the Ferrusian doesn’t ask too many questions. She is moving forward. “I’m going there, I’m not planning. I have no mood. I’m already alive, I’m lucky. Today, I have above all a duty: that of respecting life . I have to prove to my mom, to my nephews and nieces that in life, we have to fight. But it’s a fight once morest myself.” Fredo might have given up, but she was well supervised. “If with my story, I can help to go further… In Esneux, every week, I see people much worse than me.”
Fredo Kersten is looking for something to fit out the mechanical cycle workshop. “We are poorly equipped.” Want to help with donations of tools and bikes? [email protected]
1698107911
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