They call at the parsonage of the village, where at that time Pastor J. van Leeuwen lived with his wife and two children. He opened the door and offered the women to eat and drink. He also gave them a card so that they could find their way to Assen. But Van Leeuwen didn’t have a place to sleep.
“It was a very unhappy moment, because my mother was giving birth to my sister exactly at that time,” memorizes Max van Leeuwen (82). He was 4 years old when the resistance women knocked on the door and knows little about it, but later heard the story from his father.
Eighty years and a little later he is sitting at the dining table in the parsonage. Together with Henk Hesseling (77), the son of Minie van der Swaag. Until recently they did not know about each other’s existence, although their families already crossed a lot.
The current occupant of the parsonage, Leen de Graaf, brought the two sons together after Hesseling had rang the bell out of curiosity. Earlier, family members of Van Leeuwen had already been at the Graaf at the door. The contact was quickly made.
“It is very special that Max’s father was the first to offer my mother the helping hand after her escape,” says Hesseling. “My mother died at the age of 34 when I was 10 years old. At that age I did not talk to her about her war past.”
After Tiny Bolhuis shared her story with the memory center, Hesseling started rolling the ball. Little by little he put the puzzle pieces together about his mother’s escape. And at the same time, without knowing it, he found a missing detail from the story that Max van Leeuwen always heard from his father.
“My father has always felt guilty about having not offered the women. He would have liked them to have seen them again, to ask them about how they experienced it. But that never happened,” says Van Leeuwen.
All six escaped women survived the war, Hesseling knows. After their short stay in the parsonage, they continued their way to Assen. “In Ekehaar they slept one night in a peat barn at a farm. After a long journey they came to a pastor in Assen, where they were allowed to stay,” says Hesseling.
For the son of the pastor, the son of the resistance fighter still has a nice message. His mother never blamed Van Leeuwen for not being allowed to stay. On the contrary. “The women were very happy with the help they received and understood the circumstances well.”
Enthusiastically, the two sons in the parsonage share the details of their sides of the story while enjoying a cup of coffee. As if they have known each other for years. “As far as I’m concerned, the contact remains,” says Van Leeuwen. “Certainly,” Hesseling nods.