When Michiel Vandeweert was a child, doctors told his family that he would probably not make it to age 12.

Doctors gave him 12 years. He used the extra 16 to tell his story, win awards, make thousands of strangers laugh, and leave behind a book with his name on the cover.

Diepenbeek opened a book of condolences. Somewhere in the lines of that book, someone will write that Michiel never lived in fear of the clock: he lived despite it.