Rienk and Elisabeth Pool met each other more than 70 years ago during a snow storm. Mayor Klaas Smid came by on Monday to congratulate them on their 70th wedding anniversary.
“We got to know each other in a snow storm,” says Rienk Pool. “Yes, very romantic actually when you think about it.” It’s been more than 70 years. Heart of winter. He was employed in Soesterberg, she studied domestic sciences. Both wanted to stretch their legs. But as they got some fresh air, it started snowing harder and harder. She sought shelter in a bus shelter. The snowstorm turned into a blizzard and a moment later it came blowing into the bus shelter. “We talked for a long time there,” says Rienk. “She was cold, so I put my coat over her legs.”
A start with obstacles
It was the beginning of a relationship that lasted decades. Although at first it seemed to go completely wrong. “I was with the genius. Explosives, building bridges, that work. And we had to go to Indonesia. I knew: you will not come back from that or in a straitjacket. So I wrote her a letter that we couldn’t go on. It touched my heart so much. I would leave January 4th. But on December 21, there was a truce and the mission was called off. Well, that lasted a week, that euphoria, because then they wanted to send me to Suriname! But a few months later, that too was cut short. Then I wrote her another letter. I had an answer within a day. And that’s how it happened.”
‘I’m laughing my ass off at those idiots!’
The couple sought adventure. They moved thirteen times. “At a certain point we bought a farm near Best, which we completely renovated. Then an old house in a beautiful location on the Loire, as leaky as a basket, in the winter there were pots and pans everywhere to catch the rain. Then we bought a boat and completely refurbished it, we lived in a historic water mill with seven outbuildings.”
Whether he ever I leave looks? “Sure, I’m laughing my ass off at those idiots!”
Rienk noticed that his wife felt the need to live closer to the grandchildren. A daughter lived in Peize. “We were already 84 when we came to live here. This house is only 45 years old! Ideal for us.” Elizabeth has recently moved to De Hoprank. On Sunday there was a big party in café Ensing in Peize.