Family, friends and colleagues gather in Aalst for farewell to Danny Verbiest: « Got many opportunities from him » (Aalst)

The funeral ceremony is publicly accessible. The police, who used five extra agents to steer everything in the right direction, called on to be on time. Jeroen Bruyndonckx (32) and Marlies Scheers (28) took that into account. They dropped from Niel in Antwerp to pay a final honor to Danny Verbiest, whom they describe as « a childhood idol ». “We brought a Samson hug. When we used to come home from school, we watched every day Samson and Gert. « 

Verbiest died Tuesday at the age of 79. He became known to the general public as TEM and creator of Samson, the iconic figure of Studio 100. His family did not ask flowers or wreaths on his funeral. Gifts for the inheritance that the man leaves: Villa Samson, where hospital patients of all ages come by for free to spend time with their pet.

Read too. « I am stressed for what the doctor will say, but because of this visit it is not just boker and seepage »: visiting Villa Samson

Walter De Donder, a colleague of the first hour, was there at the farewell. The mayor Samson and Gert looks back on an intense collaboration with Verbiest. « I will continue to remember Danny as the man who strictly ensured that we used the right language. We sometimes did that – with intention. Then he could really get excited about it. But afterwards he also saw the humor of it. I got a lot of opportunities from him, so I look back with a lot of gratitude. »