The final link

Paul Wildackers looks back upon his life and tells about the untimely death of a young colleague who died at the school where they both worked.

***

Paul Wildackers is a 46-year-old teacher at a Dutch school, who befriends a young colleague that accompanied him to the United States in a teachers’ exchange programme.

Despite the age difference they get along well. Only six months after their return from the States, Renate Snijders is killed at school by one of the students. Paul is devastated by her death.

As the days pass by he gets consumed by guilt for not having done anything to save her.
Decades later - he has retired by now - he decides to write down his thoughts and feelings about the circumstances that according to him played a part in the tragedy.

When he happens to meet a woman who confides her troubled life to him, he does not realize that he is about to make the same mistake he made thirty years before.

***

The final link gives a glimpse of contempary school life. It is a tale of some of the misfortunes young people may encounter these days: teenage motherhood, problems relating to integration, divorced parents, drugs.

Paul Wildackers tries hard to be a father figure to his students, but he gets frustrated when he finally discovers that all his efforts are in vain. You simply cannot change other people’s destiny, is the only conclusion he can make after investing all his time and energy in the well-being of youngsters.

The tragedy described in the novel is every school’s nightmare. It is fiction and let’s all hope it will stay that way.