Raymond in Benidorm
Mood:  down

I learned to know this very special man for the first time about 10 years ago. He is for sure the most amazing person I have ever met. After reading this short biography you will have to agree with me.

He was born in Antwerp June 10 1943. At the age of 11 months his father died and he was token care of by his grand parents on mother's side. The first years of his life he spends with those lovely people who really toke care of him. He loved his Grand parents, and his 2 uncles, the younger brothers of his mother who lived still with him, in the parental home.
Raymond speaks with a special affection about his grandfather who was for him the most intelligent person ever. It was his interest in science what created in him the need to discover new horizons.

By the age of 10 his youngest uncle married and a month later his Grand father died. This affected him very much.

He went to a private school (Jesuits) and by the age of 14 he started to be different then other kids. While other children wanted to go to the movies he spends all his pocket money to learn to fly sail planes. He worked a school vacation by Supra a local lemonade bottling plant to pay for training at the "National Zweefvlieg Centrum" at St Hubert Belgium.
He excelled in this sport, by the age of 17 he started on his private Pilot License.
The same time he found an easy way to make some extra money by doing some comedy hypnosis shows, mostly for schools and private parties.
University and flying get on till his age of 23. He wanted to be an airline pilot and all his youth was spend on this.

Then at ones all his work, study and dreams were token away from him. He failed his medical for line pilot because of a shut in his earring produced by injections of "Streptomycin" when he was 6 years old.
For the next year he was feeling lost. His life dream had been destroyed and he didn't know what would come next. His life was a chaos. Luckily that he had a lovely lady on his side that supported and helped him where ever possible. It was this lady who gets him into racing cars, but after a bad accident it was also her who didn't want him racing anymore.
The next 5 years he spends working, reading and dreaming of travels and sailing.
By the age of 32 he had build his yacht and sailed the first time single handed around the world. When he came back in 1977 he could not endure the speed of modern life any more and sailed again to the South Pacific Islands where he felt happy during his first travel.
There he married in 1981 with Emma a lovely lady from Kiribati, where he has 2 children with.
They lived for 4 years at Kosrae. When they had to leave because of the end of a work contract, they went back to Kiribati.
There the next drama happened. Raymond cannot stand corruption, when he became conscious how the churches and the government ripped the already very poor people off, he began a crusade to change this.
Of course the government reacted, put him in jail and send him out of the country with out his wife and children who were at that moment 3 years 4 months old.
He ended up in Hong Kong, where he started to do hypnosis shows and worked for the movie industry while fighting to get his wife and kids out of Kiribati.
After 6 months trying he was hopeless to get them out in a legal way. He met in Hong Kong a group of ex Vietnam vets who were ready to help him to get them out by force.
A week after sending the details to his wife, he received news from Air Nauru that his wife would be on the next flight to Hong Kong. It looks to him like they intercepted the mail between him and Emma and that that were scared of an intervention by well trained armed people.
December 1985 they arrived in Antwerp, where he was celebrated as a hero by all his old friends.
For 2 years he did a business in Antwerp, but the cold wet climate was not livable for his wife and kids and they decided to go live in the south of Spain.
In 1988 they arrived in Benalmadena after a year looking out to do something they went to Benidorm.
For another year Raymond was looking out for an opportunity. He started to do hypnotherapy but this was not enough to survive. Then he got the idea to make videos from the artist whom they could sell to their audience.
This was doing well, and they lived quite happily.
In 1996 he started again to do hypnosis shows and after sending videos of his shows, his show was by a federation voted the 3rd best comedy hypnosis show in the world. I have seen his show many times and it is a very funny show.
The last years he was working only for Rockerfellas, till this year, Rockerfellas changed manager and this manager who was manager from another venue before, cannot face Raymond because he stole the video business from him. When the DVD's became popular he manipulated the artist to buy their DVD's from him (they could not do else he provided them with spots).
Because most of his hypnotherapy he does gratis just to help people, he needed his shows to make a living.
Luckily last year he prepared his daughter to do shows and get her to work in Pancho's. His son works still for the company where Rockerfellas belong to.
I know only one thing; Raymond loved Rockerfellas worked very hard to build the room up and now .........
When I asked him what he will do next he said: "The shows were my life, my kids are big and I don't want to live on their bill. The only thing I never did in my live is dying, so that's my next project"

Is this not sad for a person with such a full life that at an age of 62 he have said this , only because some Argentinean Who received many favors from Raymond cannot face him??..

Maria Kooiman VTM