The following was written by AFS-USA volunteer and host parent Matt Lewis.
In the summer of 1973, AFS exchange student Geert Vanroelen arrived in LA from Brussels, Belgium, and immediately “ran with the pack” of his American sister, Ann, and her friends. I was lucky to be one of those friends, and Geert became an AFS brother to us all.
Fifty years later, my family and I still reap benefits from and celebrate Geert’s legacy.
So why did Geert make such an impact on my life?
Because Geert was an incredibly bright, charismatic, loving, and hilarious person. Even at 17 when he arrived, he had a “big personality” and great sense of humor. Geert’s English language skills were really strong… On the state exams that year, he actually outperformed a good chunk of our native speaking fellow students. And he came with an English accent! An accent he would always be happy to demonstrate with his recital from the first book in English that he learned to read from, “Rip Van Winkle”: “This is Rrrip. Rrrrip is in the gaaarden.”
Geert was up for anything our pack of friends wanted to do; hiking in the local mountains and sliding down the stream-fed natural rock slides, dressing up in Elizabethan costumes for the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, wearing a fake beard and cave man costume for a movie project we did, riding blocks of ice down a steep grass hill in the moonlight at the local golf course (and hiding from police), to playing on our high school soccer team with us, to… he was up for everything.
And on top of his other skills, Geert was also a gifted graphic artist and cartoonist. It was a fantastic senior year for us all, and Geert was right in the middle of everything with his wit and charm. At the end of that school year in 1974, we said “until we meet again”…
And meet we did… My older brother visited Geert and his family and joined him in a student street protest. In 1980, during my “gap year” in England before grad school, Geert was a rising Belgian rock star and visited me in Brighton. That summer we shared his Brussels apartment for two weeks as the fame of his ska/punk band “The Employees” continued to grow. Yes, I even was a dancer for the band, on-stage, during an appearance on an afternoon, live TV kids’ show. And then on to a vacation with members of his band in a heavenly, village home in the south of France.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Geert returned several times, later bringing his girlfriend to stay with me during visits back to his beloved Southern California, where we’d reconnect and renew our brotherhood.
But Geert was also experiencing a number of significant life problems, from which he always rallied. Geert had a key to my house, which he knew was always also his home.
Tragically, we lost Geert in 2006 to a ruptured aorta during a pickup basketball game.
Our gang of friends later gathered to remember our dear brother Geert and scatter some of his ashes in a favorite mountain canyon.
I wanted the experience of having an AFS brother like Geert for our twin boys when they were high school seniors… and to have that international brother throughout their lives.
Lucky for me, my lovely wife, Wendy, had had very positive experiences with exchange students at her high school, too: she was on board. And our boys gave the “thumbs up” to a new brother.
Geert’s legacy continued… In 2017, we welcomed our German son/brother, Leo, into our family. And, like Geert, Leo hit the ground running. He made friends quickly, played on the high school football team, and was a wonderful brother and son. It was an amazing year. And Leo inherited an AFS legacy, too: His father and older brother had also been AFS students in America!
But the gifts that AFS has given continued…
In the end of summer in 2021, when our boys were going into their junior years in college and living in other cities, Wendy and I both got the same email from AFS. It said that due to districts still recovering from COVID and not accepting exchange students, there were a lot of potential students who were not getting placed into families and would “age out” of AFS.
My reaction was “That’s a bummer.”
Wendy’s reaction? “We should take one.”
About two weeks later, our Italian AFS daughter, Federica, stepped off the plane at LAX. She made great friends, played on her high school girls’ rugby team, and flourished. We had a fantastic year with Fede, our first daughter!
Since their visits, both Leo’s and Fede’s families have welcomed us into their worlds during multiple visits to Germany and Italy. And we’ve hosted them in our world here in LA. They are our families.
Wendy and I continue to be active in AFS-USA, as a liaison for local students, in recruiting/interviewing families, and doing parent orientations. Plus, we regularly shepherd incoming and outgoing AFS students through the myriad of terminals at LAX to get to their connecting flights.
Geert’s laughter, energy, and spirit still echo through my life, not only in treasured memories but also in the new bonds of family that AFS has given us over the decades. What began with a Belgian teenager stepping into our world in 1973 has grown into a lifetime of friendships, love, and shared adventures that span continents and generations. His legacy, and the legacy of AFS, lives on in Leo, in Fede, and in the countless young people whose lives are touched by the exchange of cultures and the simple but profound act of opening our homes and hearts.
For me, and for our family, Geert’s story is a reminder that one person’s presence can spark connections that ripple forward for fifty years—and beyond.
Geert Vanroelen
27 January 1956 – 16 May 2006