History (why Mendel)
Here’s some historical perspective: Johanna and Mendel Hagedoorn were the late parents of the founder. The history of their last years is of paramount importance to the whole of the Mendel initiative.
Highly trained (academic) Dutch Citizens of the World; they were brilliantly prepared for a fantastical 3rd age, on a self-selected and self-built dream location on La Palma, one of the most lush of the Canary Islands. But when Johanna started showing early signs of dementia, the couple hastily decided to return to Zeist, Holland, where they bought themselves an expensive place in a care-community where “any circumstances could be dealt with”. However, this turned out to be a place which stranded the Mendel’s depressed stubbornness and Johanna’s slowly progressing dementia . She spent the last ten years of her life in the family home of the founder and eventually in a nursing home, after Mendel, in his despair, took his own life.
Had they had the knowledge and the support we envision from the Mendel Foundation (and indeed of the whole Mendel-consentus initiative), then this whole history would have turned out completely different, so much better.