Lex de Haan

My friend Lex died 1st of Febrary, 2006, at 1600 hours CET.

He asked to see a few friends before the final shutdown abort, and James Morle and I flew in on the Sunday before and visited him in the hospital.

On Tuesday I visited him again, in his home, and he told me he had decided he would leave this place the following day at 1600 - he had gotten permission from two doctors independant of each other the previous day, and seemed very much at peace with his decision.

After 90 minutes of splendid conversation about things past, present and future we hugged and said goodbuy.

He did ask me to accept one final present, which turned out to be a tie with Asterix and Obelix. We were both big fans of these cartoon characters. But not until later that afternoon did I learn that that was the tie he had worn for his wedding.

And not until the following day did I learn that he had left us with a riddle: 1st of Febrary, 2006 can be written as 1-2-6, which he had repeated to his wife and daughters a couple of times in his last 24 hours. As some perhaps know, Lex was famous for his work with 3-valued logic, and the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything is 42. So 42 times 3 is 126, which was figured out independently by Lex' oldest daughter and my wife Anette.

I have many good memories of things Lex and I have done or participated in together. When I look through old pictures I keep saying 'Ah, yes, he was also there!'. And always with a friendly, positive attitude and a sharp mind.

My best wishes for Lex' family.

Mogens