Called At 1 A.M., Volunteers Rushed To Help A Son Say Goodbye To His Mother

February 11, 2026

Some wishes can’t wait until morning.

That’s exactly what happened when Menno Kuiper of Stichting Ambulance Wens (Ambulance Wish Foundation Netherlands) received a phone call at 1 a.m.

“Something very special happened again tonight. An urgent wish,” he wrote on Facebook.

Menno Kuiper / Stichting Ambulance Wens Nederland

On the other end of the line was a nurse from Amsterdam UMC asking a simple but powerful question: do you fulfill emergency wishes at night?

Kuiper admitted his first reaction was hesitation.

“Geez, I thought. Are we really doing this?”

After a short but serious consideration, the answer was yes.

The wish was for a man recovering from recent leg surgery who could not be transported the usual way. His mother was dying in another hospital that same night. His final wish was to see her one more time… to say goodbye.

Kuiper quickly gathered the necessary details and sent out an urgent call to their volunteer pool — both drivers and nurses.

“And then what Ambulance Wish Foundation Netherlands stands for happened 💛,” he wrote.

Within minutes, a couple — both volunteers with the foundation, a driver and a nurse — responded. They were ready.

By the time Kuiper called the hospital nurse back, the volunteers were already on their way to the office. While he was still entering the wish into their planning system, “the ambulance already left.”

The mission was simple. The moment was not.

By morning, Kuiper opened the system and saw that the wish had been completed.

“Then I feel only one thing: pride,” he wrote. “Proud of our volunteers. Proud of our foundation. Proud that we make this possible together, even in the middle of the night.”

He added a heartfelt thank-you to the volunteers who answered the call without hesitation.

“Thank you, for who you are and what you do. Even at night. Also in emergency room. That is the Ambulance Wens Foundation.”

In the quiet hours when most of the world is asleep, strangers came together to give a son one last moment with his mother.