About InspireMari ★
Hi! I’m Mari. I’m a Dutch artist and old school blogger and this is my personal blog about daily life, nostalgia, and kawaii art!I made my blog to share lots of visuals with you: cute art, animals, delicious food, mini games, travel pictures, cute game reviews, graphic resources and more.
I hope my works make you smile. It would mean the world to me!
Find me:
TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | YOUTUBE | KO-FI
My Story
In the last few years, my life revolved entirely around the sickness and death of both of my parents, who died within one and a half years from one another. My dad passed away on January 14th of 2022 from cardiac arrest and my mom passed away on April 18th of 2023. Just three weeks before my dad died, she found out she had cancer. I am especially upset over how my mom was treated by the caretakers around her, with our very own doctor (GP) not taking her issues seriously and even removing care where he shouldn’t, causing immense stress on my mom (and myself, living with her 24/7) in her last weeks.
Life has been an absolute roller coaster for me since my decision to move to The Philippines in 2019. Up until that time, I had only lived with my parents. My dad’s condition – he had a stroke in 2009, suffered from diabetes and became increasingly more invalid – was my main reason not to move out. I remember saying to them, as they sat in the backyard enjoying the sun: What if something happens to you guys? They assured me it would be fine for me to move out for once and start my own life.
So I did. After spending two years packing up my stuff and mentally preparing myself to move, I left for The Philippines on November 7, 2019. I left Tommy with my parents figuring I’d come pick him up one day when the inevitable would have happened.
But the inevitable was closer than I thought. My dad was having some health issues once again, which made me nervous so I came back with my valid return ticket. Initially, things still seemed okay after all, so I started planning a new trip to The Philippines after two months. That’s when the lockdowns began and I had to cancel my plans.
Two months into the lockdown, my dad suffered a second stroke, 10 years after his first. I don’t know what happened in the hospital as we were not allowed to be there, but they sent him home a day later, worse than he came in. I am certain that if my boyfriend hadn’t convinced my brothers to help push for a second trip to the hospital, he would have died. After his second visit to the hospital, he was sent to a rehabilitation center to re-learn to walk and speak. Again, my mom was initially not allowed to come for a visit. One of the staff members even admitted to us that this rule was having a negative effect on their patients’ ability to recover. Every day, I biked with my mom to the rehabilitation center, where we visited dad outside, sitting in a wheelchair, from a two meter distance with a fence in between us. Also in the rain.
Fast forward, the rehabilitation center advised against taking dad home, but mom and ad had been inseparable for over 50 years and even though it was extremely hard for mom, she would not want anything more than to take care of dad. And so so she did. However, all of a sudden, mom started having some issues and a year later it would turn out she had a rare, incurable form of cancer. Dad died 3 weeks after her diagnoses. The ambulance people initially wanted to separate me and my mom inside the ambulance to tell us that the resuscitation attempts for the last two hours were unsuccessful. Mom in the back, me in the front, looking through a tiny window. My aunt was able to talk some sense into them to not separate mom and I for that life-changing moment.
Mom went through absolute hell grieving over the loss of her husband while dealing with her own reality at the same time.
After mom passed away, I had to move out of my childhood home, where I lived for 31 years. I was not allowed to continue renting it and was given 6 months to move out. I asked for assistance from a non-profit organization in my town that helps homeless people as well as people with financial problems, but I received no response.
Initially the plan was to move back to The Philippines, but as an important document arrived very late and we experienced another hick-up, we decided to first check out Eastern Europe. I had always wanted to see more of Europe anyway. So here I am in Bulgaria, with two cats, after having been technically homeless for 4 months. I am not yet ready to let go of this story.
My Blog
Like other people, I too want the world to become a better place. My way of contributing to this, is by making content that makes people smile. Because there’s a lot to be sad about in life. My blog is my happy place, my baby. Here, I post my artworks, cute photos, mini games and other attractive visuals as well as game reviews, free resources for artists and fellow content creators and personal interests. InspireMari.nl is a website that makes me happy when I go there, and I want to give that same feeling to you.
Every single post is carefully created and put together for optimum viewing pleasure for my readers. I also try to keep the amount of stressful content (such as negative details about my life) to a minimum. There is one subject however that I feel very strongly about and I want to tactfully share with the world: the well-being of animals, especially cats. I will occasionally post content that is meant to make people think, and hopefully change things for the better for the lives of cats. These blog posts will never contain graphic images, but the same can not be said for the websites that I may link to, so please always use caution when clicking on links on such blog posts.
Backyard Cats
Both cats born in The Netherlands, they are now living with me in Bulgaria, Eastern Europe. Here on my blog, you will regularly be updated about how the cats are doing.
They also have their own YouTube Channel. The videos capture their life, but in a way, they also show my life through theirs.
The Backyard Cats YouTube channel first and foremost serves as a video diary for myself. Needless to say, I am thrilled to introduce Ricky and Tommy to you and share my cats’ lives with you. Check back regularly on my blog and YouTube Channel!
