The Gathering

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Robert and Trude mourned what she thought was a lonely and isolated life for their disabled Son . But if Mats died, she discovered that the People in the whole of Europe, burning candles in His memory.

A version of this story was first published in Norwegian broadcast NRK.

"We were really very traditional. We wanted Him not His daily rhythm turns on the head. "

Sitting in a cafe from His office in the City Hall of Oslo, Robert Steen describes how he was worried for His Son to stay up late into The Night .

"In retrospect, I think we should be More interested in The World of The Game , where he had spent so much Time ," says the 56-year-old Robert. "Not so do, we cheat ourselves of the opportunity that we didn't know we had. "

Robert gave His funeral Eulogy for Mats by the end of 2014, in a chapel in the Norwegian capital of the Western cemetery.

Among those who sat listening to His words - in-between relatives and a few People from the healthcare, knew Mats was a group of People , The Family you didn't know.

Just had Robert, met you. And only once, The Night before.

Mats had hardly The Basement -apartment is left under the house of The Family in The Last years of His life, so it was strange that unknown People were The Family at The Funeral .

Even strangers - doormat himself, had never learned, these People know.

a Father and a Son , Robert, and Mats in Oslo, In July 2012, Prior to His death, this grief-stricken visitors did not think, Mats -Mats , But instead of Ibelin, a nobleman by birth, a philanderer and a detective. Some of these pay their respect, lived in the vicinity, But others had come From Afar . They wept for their friend.

The Day of The Funeral you, and you say to the Assembly that right now, in the whole of Europe, People were lighting candles for the Mats .

It was written in The Stars , it was coded in His DNA.

The Mats , strolled around with a crown on His head His fourth birthday In July of 1993, would be to go within a couple of years, will not be able to.

Mats fourth birthday Robert and Trude had received the news in may of 1993 in a small office in a large brick building, Ulleval hospital.

Mats ' parents learned why their boy held the fall of the swing and not hurt himself, why is he climbing The Ladder on the slide, to the Kindergarten, even though he push the loved One to the bottom of why he supported on His knees like an old man, as he rose from a seated position, and why he doesn't race The Other kids.

The Doctors told Robert and Trude, the Mats had. Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a rare disease which causes muscle degeneration, especially in young Mat genes contain a coding error that would prevent His muscles from developing normally. And that would destroy them eventually.

"After we get the Mats to bed that night we called The Doctor . We had given the permission to do that. We were able to call at any Time , if we need information," says Robert.

Trude sits at His side, Robert talked on The Phone for More Than half an hour.

"I said to The Doctor : 'But at least he didn't die from!' The Doctor at The Other end of The Line was silent for a moment, "no, But our experience is that these patients rarely live to be older than 20'. "

Robert breaks.

", He made it to 25. "

In the Home of The Family in Ostensjo in The South -East of Oslo, Robert and Trude tried to take it All In .

Mats would not live, what you as a "normal life". He would die young, and you will be taken away, Without His mark in The World .

you were so completely misleading.

If our DNA maps out of our lives even before we are born, how we can choose who we want to be?

Mats found a way and created a new.

By the turn of The Millennium , the Steen family moved to a wheelchair-adapted house in Langhus, South of Oslo.

While Mats play His handheld Game Boy was during the breaks in school, not even Super Mario could be being chase away The Feeling of difference. Mats sat in His wheelchair and an assistant went with Him everywhere.

His parents asked what activity, the Mats could know How To do in His Spare Time - When His classmates were playing football and running around outside.

Online gaming perhaps? Robert gave Him the password to The Family PC, and a New World opened up for the 11-year-old.

"In the course of The Last 10 years of His life, Mats played between 15,000 and 20,000 hours," Robert said in His Eulogy. "That's the equivalent of More Than 10 years of full-Time employment. "

But the gaming for The Family , also caused friction.

"When The Night nurse came in around 22:00, Mats had to be in bed," says Robert. "Your task was to monitor, Mat in the bed, not to put Him to bed. Mat protested, But reluctantly agreed. "

Mats are a gamer had. Don't go to Gamer to bed early.

Mats gaming, such as a child who was Mats during the many hours to play the he spent?

He became Lord of Ibelin Redmoore and sometimes Jerome Walker. "Jerome and John of Ibelin extensions of myself, they represent different sides of me," he wrote.

He immersed on The Planet of Azeroth, in the very popular game World of Warcraft. Azeroth is a mythical fantasy world. There are continents, seas, and forests, rocks and meadows, villages and cities. Mats spent most of His Time in a region called The Eastern king.

As an online player you will get to know this world piece by piece, just as you know your physical world.

There are places that you plan to Travel , landscapes and cities, you will master Some better than others. In Some areas you be on your guard to hang while in The Other , The One you love. Find your local inn and meet new, interesting People .

this is the way of The World . This is the way Azeroth is.

Mats out of the way and found a wide circle of good friends.

"As I walked past the Mats basement apartment during The Day and The Curtains were closed. This is a grief, I remember it Well ," says Robert, who works as Oslo's Deputy mayor of Finance.

", " Oh, no,' I thought, 'he has not even started His day'. I was sad, because His world was so limited. "

to not see, But gamers the whole picture. You don't realize it's More Than just shoot and point-scoring.

"We thought it was all about The Game . And not only that. We thought that it was a competition that they were supposed to win. "

And there is the question of Mats was to the circadian rhythm - a 24-hour-daily cycle.

"We don't, why it was important for the Mats to be online in the late evening and night hours," says Robert.

"But of course, it is not in The Morning or in The Middle of The Day , that the People play. That is, if most of them are in school or work.

"first of all, We understood it after he died. To the end we wanted Him to sleep at 11 in The Night , like The Other "normal" People . "

Lisette Roovers, from Breda in the Netherlands, was One of the Mats is in the vicinity of gamer friends. She was also One of those present at The Funeral in the year 2014.

it is in Norway again, visiting friend Kai Simon Fredriksen, the also played online with the Mats .

"I knew that Mats for many years. It was a shock When he died, and it has shaped me," says Lisette, sitting on Kai Simons sofa in Hoybraten, in the North-East of Oslo.

Lisette, now 28, was just 15 years old When she met 16-year-old Mats . Or, to be precise, if Lisette's game-character rumor Mats game character Ibelin met.

Lisette / rumor "We met up in Goldshire," says Lisette.

"is It not a nice place anymore, But at the Time , Goldshire was a nice Little Village , where you new, interesting Characters were able to meet. I was looking for someone a role, and others sitting around a campfire, was a learning I would later recognize as a Ibelin.

", I -, or a rumor, But traded a bit impulsive. I jumped out of the bushes and grabbed Ibelin. We stood for a moment, staring back and forth, then I ran away with His hat, Without the thoughts of the direction. "

smiles a little.

Mats also wrote about The First meeting with Lisette, who is in a Blog post he called love.

"didn't see this Other World , a girl, a wheelchair, or anything else. You would be my soul, Heart and mind, conveniently located in a beautiful, strong body. Fortunately, pretty much every character in this virtual world, looks great. "

Lisette says: "Mats was a good friend, sometimes a very close friend.

", We wrote [to] each other about everything, But he didn't write about His condition. I thought that His life was like mine. For example, we were both of us agreed that we hated the school. "

But there were things that do not agree on the you could.

"he wrote that He hated the snow. I wrote that I loved it. I wanted to do not understand, then, that he hated it because of His wheelchair. I don't know about. "

", One of my game friends separated was hard for me," Lisette remembers.

"you are important to us," she wrote.

you came Too Late .

long reads, gaming, disability, oslo, norway

Source of news: bbc.com