“This photo was taken in Lourdes in 1958. In the middle are my newlywed parents, sitting between my grandfathers, who had never stepped foot across the border. They therefore decided, very romantically, to go on their honeymoon. The outward journey took three days, with a bus full of fathers, one of whom, at least according to my father, fell ‘a little’ in love with his Riek.
My parents both came from a traditional, Catholic farming family from Reusel, in the Brabant Kempen. Both families had ten children.
My mother was six when her mother died, already at the age of 42. Despite the sadness, she could later look back on a strict but good upbringing and a pleasant childhood. The close bond with her father, brothers and sisters compensated for the loss of her mother. Due to the many activities on the farm, further education was not an option for her. Her passion was sewing; she could produce the most beautiful and complicated garments.
When my father spoke about his caring and gentle mother, who died when she was 65, he always had a warm look in his eyes. He described his father as very strict, but also as enterprising and progressive. The story was often told of a modern tool that grandfather was the first to purchase in the area; it harvested grain and bound it into sheaves at the same time. When he harnessed his horse to it for the first time, half of Reusel stood along the field to view this technical wonder.
My father was a good student and was allowed to attend training school with the Brothers of Tilburg. He went into education and became principal of a primary school. He was also enterprising and that was possible because my mother mainly took care of the four children, the household and social life. In addition to his job, he was the founder of a medium-sized school and with colleagues he developed a new, still widely used language method for primary schools.
Seven years after my mother’s death, my father, who was still in the middle of his life, was told that he was terminally ill. He wrote a farewell letter to his family and friends entitled ‘Life comes as it comes‘. In it he thanked us for our share in the wonderful life that he, together with my mother, had celebrated to the fullest.”
