Writing helps Puyallup man heal after wife’s death

On Dec. 14, 1999, Fred Van Weyenbergh, who was living in Belgium at the time, was having trouble sleeping, so he logged on to his favorite online poker website.

Little did he know, that night he would meet the love of his life.

That night, he came in contact with Sandy, who was living in Puyallup. The two started chatting on the website before they exchanged emails, which led to exchanging phone numbers.

Did Van Weyenbergh ever think he would meet his soul mate playing online poker one night? Of course not, he says.

“It was all by accident,” he said.

Two months later, Sandy flew to Belgium to stay with Fred. Two months after that, he came to the U.S. to visit her. She eventually moved to Belgium on Sept. 14, 2000, and the couple got married. They lived in Belgium for 13 years until they moved to Puyallup.

Shortly after they moved back to Puyallup, Sandy was diagnosed with lung cancer. On April 18, 2015, Sandy passed away from lung cancer and complications from an aneurism.

“I started posting memories of Sandy and I on my Facebook page,” the 65-year-old Van Weyenbergh said. “I got reactions from people saying, ‘You should write a book,’ and I thought maybe I should.”

Van Weyenbergh posted nearly 20 memories on his Facebook page before deciding to write his book. How did he capture all of the wonderful memories of his wife? He says he started with folders of the emails that each of them had printed out and saved from the beginning of the courtship. He then began writing his book.

“I was hoping (the book) would sell like a train, but (it) didn’t,” he said. “I don’t really care if it sells thousands or millions, as long as those that read it enjoy it. Writing it was healing, it felt good reading all of that stuff again. It brought everything back. People say you shouldn’t live in the past, but it felt good to relive those memories.”

His book, “From an Online Poker Game to a True Love Story,” was self published on April 26 after going through an extensive editing process.

The book tells the story of how the couple met, details experiences they had during their first visits back and forth until Sandy moved, their move to Grimbergen, near Brussels, and their final move back to the U.S.

In addition, the story takes readers to a number of European places, particularly Belgium’s main Flemish cities — Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp — and Paris, France.

To purchase Van Weyenbergh’s book, visit http://meadowsmountain.website/index.html.

This story was originally published June 29, 2016 at 2:07 PM with the headline "Writing helps Puyallup man heal after wife’s death."