Hans Michael Graham Petersen

Born 26th of March 1999 – Died 1st of January 2017

Hans woke up on the morning of New years Eve 2016 not feeling particularly well. As he was hosting a New Year’s Party at home in the evening, he chose not to inform us.
In the afternoon he got a lot worse, high temperature, headache and vomiting. We called the emergency services 17:35 where we were told it was the flu.
In the early morning, a rash was beginning to appear on his skin and we called again 05:14 and he was admitted to hospital 06:37. They suspected he had meningitis and transferred him to intensive care at 07:28.
In intensive care he had his first heart-failure at 11:22 New Years day. They fought for him for 14 minutes getting the heart to beat on it’s own again for a couple of hours before the next heart failure happening at 14:00. This time it took 21 minutes to get the heart back, and then only for 20 minutes until the 3rd heart-failure. From that point on circulation and respiration were managed. He was transferred to and arrived at the main Copenhagen Hospital (Rigshospitalet) at 15:38 where they stopped treatment and declared him dead at 15.58.

We held a secular service for him in Lyngby on the 14th of January 2017. I made a speech highlighting Hans’ sense of fair play and his ability to connect with and relate to people around him. This was born out by the presence of over 200 of his friends mainly from school and football. We invited everyone to write a last message to Hans on the coffin before it was carried out to the hearse and driven for cremation.
His 2 brothers and 8 other best friends were pall-bearers.

In Denmark ashes can legally only be either interned or scattered over the ocean. So let’s just say, that if I could get away with it, I would take his ashes and scatter it different places that meant a lot to him.
We have had silver hearts pendants made for the closest family, with the inner heart being hollow and containing a bit of his ashes.
Some of the ashes will be brought to Yorkshire to be close to his granddad and some we will bring with us to Australia for the trip he had planned but never made.

We occasionally talk to his friends who all still find it hard to live with the fact that he is gone. We understand that and can only add, that it is absolutely unbearable for us. There is not a day we do not cry for our loss, not a day we do not desperately miss his love.