90-YEAR-OLD MAN TRAVELS 10.5 MILES BY BIKE EVERY DAY TO VISIT HIS WIFE IN HOSPICE

Love has no boundaries. Especially when it comes to the people you've been living with. Peter Burckhardt, a 90-year-old man from the Netherlands, epitomises this idea. He drives 17km every day to see his 63-year-old wife, who now lives in a hospice in Apeldoorn.

On very inclement days, he takes a taxi or has his children drive him, and most of the time he rides his bike through the city alone. It may take a little longer if the wind is too strong, but it takes an hour to get there and an hour to bike home. In the colder months, Burkhardt stays warm in a blue ski suit with padding on top and a white hat to keep her head comfortable. “I enjoyed skiing. The cold doesn't bother me, and I can wear a raincoat in the rain,” he told the Dutch publication De Stentor. 

“So I will always go to her wife. Burkhardt is memorising this route because he has been visiting his wife's hospice for the past seven years. “You have to accept the situation as it is. I  want to be with her every day. i can't miss her I did it for a while in her car. But even then she alternated it with her bike.” 

Although he wanted to drive, Burckhardt's license was not approved and he did not have a car for a while. But nothing can stop this elder's love. Things have changed since my wife moved to a nursing home, but I still ride my trusty tricycle. "I'm walking a lot less now, but my cycling is still going well," she says. 

Burckhardt says his wife doesn't know what it takes to keep in touch with her on a daily basis. “She was completely out of her experience,” she says. But when I came back, I noticed that sometimes she hugged me very kindly. Since he doesn't think this route is dangerous (though improving some of the bike routes would be appreciated), he has encouraged his kids to keep visiting her mom every day. “I think they keep each other alive with this. I hope my father inspires others,” said his son Wouter. 

Burckhardt's selflessness certainly had an impact on others. But above all, he did his best to spend as much time as possible with his loved ones at all costs. “I want to see her, I want to hear her voice. When you enter her sanitarium, you immediately know where she is. She's not what she used to be," said Burkhardt. "But I still love her.