You don’t choose family, but of course you can just be lucky with it. One is best friends with his brother or sister, the other cannot actually understand or see his DNA partners. These are the stories of brothers and sisters from Brabant who have a very special family situation.
Dymphie van der Dussen (24) from Tilburg found out that she has 10 half-brothers and sisters
Take Dymphie, who until she was 21 always thought she was an only child. “Until I heard in 2021 that I am actually the daughter of a sperm donor,” she says. At that moment her world was turned upside down. She was no longer an only child, but turned out to have more than ten half-brothers and sisters in the province. It now appears that there are even more than twenty.
“Actually, what I had always wanted came true,” Dymphie reflects. She asked a brother or sister for her birthday every year. “Not long after, I attended the first group meeting, with my ten half-brothers and sisters. That is a lot to process, but you also see many similarities. In your appearance, but especially also inwardly. For example, in our work we all do something with children.”
Diana van Nederkassel (53) from Etten-Leur crowned her nephew as a brother
And just as Dymphie suddenly received the shared DNA in her womb, Diana more or less chose to adopt her nephew Fred as a brother. It didn’t happen in so many words, by the way, but she really feels that way. “After he got divorced we went on holiday together and have been super close ever since. I call him my spare brother,” she chuckles. “I just have an extra one.”
Together they really love Dutch music and, yes, fun. “André Hazes, parties and lots of laughter,” she sums up. “If there is something wrong, he always calls me and vice versa. We have the same sense of humor and speak the same language.”
Beau Frijters (18) from Breda lives with her sisters, brother, brothers-in-law and nephew in one house
“There are ten of us now living there,” says Beau. It is a pleasant atmosphere in the Frijters house, where three generations live under one roof. The family is extremely close. So much so that Beau’s sisters and their partners simply decided to live in Hotel Mama again. “It’s mainly the little things and the games that we play. It’s laughing, screeching, roaring here.”
But that has also been different in Beau’s family. The fact that she is so close to her sisters and brother is partly because she has already lost two sisters. Twins, who would now be 17. “We have been through a lot as a family, but through all those adversities we have always held each other’s hands. Together we keep each other strong.”
