For many, the highlight of the year is the Zuidlaardermarkt. It’s that time again on Tuesday. But for a couple it is just a little more than that. Jantinus and Stien Schutrup met there in 1954 and married a year later. Today they celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary at home in Zuidlaren.
With a visit from Deputy Mayor Jurryt Vellinga and the children, there is a lot of fun in the Schutrup house, just before the kick-off of the Zuidlaardermarkt week. And then thoughts go back to that first meeting in 1954.
Tinus lived in Eext at the time, Stientje in De Groeve. “At that time, that was the place where young people met each other,” says daughter Jenny Willems. “They probably were dancing, but they never actually told us as children. But it must have gone something like that.”
The couple starts dating and the wedding follows a year later. “A must,” Willems laughs. Their first daughter is on the way. “That’s how it was back then.”
Initially, the couple rents accommodation in a house on Koningstraat in Zuidlaren. A family with three children arrives and the rented house is exchanged for a house on the same street.
Tinus and Stientje work hard and are also renovating their own house. At the same time, they also have time to help family and friends. The children grow up, the couple moves again. To the house next to theirs. There is a whole life on Koningstraat.
“My mother still keeps the household running,” says Willems. And she is still there for others. “She is a seamstress and has always sewn a lot of clothes. Now she still makes knitting projects, such as baby sweaters, socks, hats and scarves for the great-grandchildren.”
And Tinus? After a difficult period, he sweeps the paths in the garden again and also likes to prune there. They will probably skip the Zuidlaardermarkt this year. But the event remains special.