A couple that had met in kindergarten and were married for nearly five decades chose to die together in their 70s by method of euthanasia.
Dutch couple, Jan and Els, 70 and 71, died beside each other after being given lethal medication by two doctors, commonly known as duo-euthanasia in the Netherlands.
While the practice is legal, it's still rare; however, every year more Dutch couples are opting to end their lives this way.
In an interview with the BBC and three days before they voluntarily ended their lives, Jan and Els told the news outlet, "we tried sometimes [to live] in a pile of stones-a house, but it doesn't work," referring to their campervan that sits on a marina in Friesland.
The two had met in kindergarten, and it was happily ever after from that point on. They credited their mutual love of water, boats, and sailing for their longtime love.
As a young couple, Jan and Els lived on a houseboat and later bought a cargo boat, where they built a business transporting goods around the Netherlands' inland waterways.
They had one son, who grew up onboard alongside them, constantly traveling to interesting places throughout the region.
Els struggled with dementia and found it difficult to formulate her sentences. Jan had surgery on his back in 2003 following serious pain from years of heavy-duty labor, but his condition sadly never improved, according to the BBC.
When they began to consider euthanasia, Jan explained to his family that he didn't want to live too long with his physical limitations, and it was around that time that the couple joined NVVE, the Netherlands' "right to die" organization.
"If you take a lot of medicine, you live like a zombie," he said.
"So, with the pain I have and Els' illness, I think we have to stop this."
Following Els' dementia diagnosis, Jan recalls the fury she exuded-like a steaming bull-when she stormed out of the doctor's office.
It was when she learned her condition would probably never improve that she and Jan, along with their son, began to discuss duo-euthanasia.
In the Netherlands, euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal if someone makes a voluntary request, and their suffering-physical or psychological-is assessed by doctors as "unbearable" with no prospect of improvement. Every person who requests assisted dying is assessed by two doctors, with the second checking the evaluation made by the first, according to the BBC.
Of the thousands who died in the Netherlands by euthanasia in 2023, 336 of them had dementia.
Some doctors are unwilling to engage, as was the case with Jan and Els, in which they ultimately turned to a mobile euthanasia clinic, the Centre of Expertise on Euthanasia.
It supervised around 15% of assisted deaths last year in the Netherlands and, on average, grants about a third of the requests it receives, so long as medics are able to prove one partner isn't influencing the other.
"I've lived my life; I don't want pain anymore," Jan explained on behalf of him and his wife.
"The life we've lived, we're getting old for it. We think it has to be stopped."
"There is no other solution," said the couple, and while it hasn't been easy for their son, Jan and Els believe that "better times will come, better weather - but not for us."
Els van Leeningen and Jan Faber were administered lethal medication by doctors and died together on Monday, June 3, 2024.
