- There has to be a better way to improve your relationship with your family.
Nobody likes it when you don’t get the respect you deserve, especially from your family. How can you reheat a cooling relationship between family members?
Well, you could make an effort to treat your relatives better. Or, you could start attending more family events to remind them of what good company you are.
Or you could just fake your own death.
That was the approach Belgian David Baerten, also known as TikToker Ragnar le Fou, took. When the 45-year-old felt his family didn’t want him around, he decided to show what being without him would be like and “died.”
As is tradition, his family organized a funeral — a real one — for their supposedly dead relative. The ceremony took a bit of a bizarre twist, though, when Baerten dropped by in a helicopter.
Perhaps surprisingly, the man says his outlandish stunt has improved his relationship with his family and brought distant relatives back to contact with him. Yet, he regrets putting them through everything and says he wouldn’t do it again.
Then, why did he do it the first time?
‘A Life Lesson’
You could argue that Baerten had a more-or-less justifiable reason for what he did. He did genuinely feel like his family was shunning him.
“Nobody sees me. We all grew apart. I felt unappreciated,” he told the French talk show Touche Pas a Mon Poste, according to The Independent.
Baerten said he would never get invited to barbecues or any other family gatherings, for that matter. In his defense, that kind of stuff does hurt.
Yet, instead of talking to his relatives, he went for more extreme measures
“I wanted to give them a life lesson and show them that you shouldn’t wait until someone is dead to meet up with them,” said Baerten.
Baerten hasn’t disclosed exactly how he managed to fool his family into believing he was dead. And perhaps that’s for best — maybe that’s not information that should be in the public domain.
Baerten said that only his wife was in on the prank at first. He also admittedly that she had begged him not to go through with it, but he was undeterred.
Oh, and the man has children. In his own words, he allowed even them to believe he was dead “for a couple of days.”
Over those days, his daughter reportedly posted a heartfelt message on Facebook about her deceased father.
“Rest in peace, Daddy. I will never stop thinking about you. Why is life so unfair?” she wrote.
Baerten did eventually come clean to his children — but only because a film crew told him to. He wanted to hire a production team to film his arrival at the funeral, but they agreed to do it only if he told the truth to his immediate family.
Let no one say they have no principles.
‘In a Way, I won’
Baerten’s funeral was held near the city of Liege in eastern Belgium. Reportedly, about half of his family had gathered for the ceremony.
It was an appropriately somber affair — until a helicopter suddenly landed near the graveyard. Out the door came waltzing the star of the show, much more alive than his family expected.
“Cheers to you all, welcome to my funeral,” he greeted everyone.
We wouldn’t blame you if you expected Baerten’s relatives to be furious with him. However, they seemed genuinely relieved.
They crowded around the man to give him hugs. Sure, some were understandably upset, but in general, their reaction was shockingly positive.
The response seems to have made Baerten understand that he crossed a line. He said that he regretted the stunt as soon as he stepped out of the helicopter.
“As soon as I started receiving messages from people and videos of them crying, I wished I could cancel the whole thing, but it was too late,” he admitted.
“I’m sorry to all the people I hurt. I hate hurting people.”
Yet, he’s probably somewhat alright with the results. After all, he got what he wanted — his family has started getting in touch with him.
“That proves who really cares about me. Those who didn’t come did contact me to meet up. So, in a way, I did win,” he said.
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