1/2 Jenny next to her special dress (photo: Ista van Galen).
She was thirteen years old when the English soldiers landed with their parachutes near her home in Sprang-Capelle. The 91-year-old Jenny Schoondermark made clothes from the parachute fabric. On Saturday, Jenny exhibited the dress during the Liberation Parade in Sprang-Capelle.
About fifty decorated wagons drove through the village to celebrate 77 years of liberation. The parade would actually have been two years earlier, because of the 75-year liberation, but was canceled two years in a row due to corona measures. Now the inhabitants of the village enjoy the procession all the more.
Hundreds of residents stand along the side to watch the spectacle. So is Jenny Schoondermark, who watches from her front yard. About 77 years ago, a plane carrying English soldiers was shot down near her home in Sprang-Capelle.
“The soldiers allowed my father to cut off a piece of parachute cloth.”
“They came down with their parachute, close to Zuidewijn Castle,” Jenny recalls. Her father went there and spoke to the soldiers. “In the end he felt that parachute material and thought it was something very special. One of the soldiers allowed my father to cut a piece of cloth.”
From that piece of cloth, Jenny’s family made three dresses. “One for my sister, one for me when I was younger and this one,” she points to a satin dress next to her on a mannequin.
“I made this one myself. I also wore it often, until I was about seventeen years old.” Daisies are embroidered on the collar. “I think because of Princess Margriet, but I’m not sure anymore.”
Jenny says she doesn’t know much about the war. “I was thirteen or fourteen years old. I did not experience it all that consciously. I do know that we had many people in hiding at our house. And I remember that there was once something like a parade and that my sister and when I wore these dresses.”
“I am grateful that I can still experience this at my age.”
All these 77 years, Jenny has kept the dress in her closet. “I think it’s a special dress. And that it’s been around for so long… There’s nothing wrong with it.” She therefore does not think that there are many people who still have such a piece of clothing.
“That is why I find it interesting to involve him in this Liberation Procession today. I am grateful that I can still experience this at my age.”
Jenny donates the dress to the Sprang-Capelle Heemkundevereniging, where you can find everything about the history of the village. “My daughters don’t need it, so this way more people can see the dress than if it’s in my closet.”