JOHN pdf

A LIFE’S CHOICES MADE
This is about Jan (John) Klomp and dedicated to his offspring
Commenced by Jan Klomp March 2016

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Preface ________________________________________________________________ 3
Jan Klomp! _____________________________________________________________ 3
Our World Voyage! _____________________________________________________ 42
Adelaide! _____________________________________________________________ 47
On Hindsight! _________________________________________________________ 61
Again a kind of an interruption! __________________________________________ 63
Time off! _____________________________________________________________ 73
Our home coming! _____________________________________________________ 74
Now back to Currency Creek! _____________________________________________ 92
Bert van Oostveen! ____________________________________________________ 107
On Reflection! ________________________________________________________ 116
My mother Gezina Egberdina Maria Wildeboer – Klomp! Sientje. ______________ 122
The sweet fruit on the other side of the fence! ______________________________ 128
My father, Andries Klomp, born 1/6/1904! _________________________________ 129
Cornelia Gerarda Maria Hulstijn! _________________________________________ 131
My son Andre! ________________________________________________________ 135
My son Robbert Jan Klomp! _____________________________________________ 140
Gene Douglas Klomp __________________________________________________ 144
My son Kim Klomp! ____________________________________________________ 149
My daughter Yvonne! __________________________________________________ 152
My daughter Ilona! ____________________________________________________ 155
My son Johnny Klomp! _________________________________________________ 157
Babette, the daughter of my niece Ineke! __________________________________ 160
Epilogue! ____________________________________________________________ 161

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Preface
On the 20 th of February 2016 I became 86 years of age and even though I have
started on my life story 20 years ago and already finished it for quite a few years, I have
never been very happy with the results. In the first place it were the mistakes I had
made grammatically as was pointed out by my friend Betty Brindal after she went
through the trouble of editing my writing. Even though after I tended to those, I was still
not happy with the way it turned out and now at this late date I decided to re-write it
completely.
After migrating to Australia, by now 59 years ago, I realized that my descendants
would have no idea about their roots from my end and so I decided to write my story. In
the beginning I did it just for them, but by now I enjoy it so much that I also do it for
myself.
Jan. 6/4/2017.
Jan Klomp!
I was born on the 20 th of February 1931. The place in which is Meppel, the Province
of Drenthe and the country Holland.
Thinking back, the earliest thing I can remember is a steam blower mounted on the
edge of my crib blowing steam at me. Later on I was told that I had some problems
breathing as my bronchial tubes were blocked. Then, on my third Birthday I got a three
wheeler bike from a next door neighbor whose name was Appelmelk and happened to
own a bike-shop. I remember this very well, because I could choose between a bike and
a swing. The next thing I remembered included again the same next door neighbor.
Every Sunday morning we would hear a tapping sound on the skylight of our
bedroom. The bedroom was in the attic of the small house we were living in.

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The tapping on the skylight meant that a slice of fruit-loaf was hanging on a
hook at the end of a fishing rod. At that time we were sleeping with the three of us in that
room so this action was repeated three times. The three were my eldest sister Jenny,
Annie and myself. I was two and a half years younger than Annie.
The reason behind this was the fact that we were very poor and the goodhearted
neighbor tried to spoil us somewhat.
Next I remember something strange happening when I was walking in the street at
the age of about four years. There was a commotion going on behind the window of a
neighbor living opposite. Obviously that silly memory has never left me as it was about
20 years later that I realized what had happened then, when I saw a photograph of
myself at about 4 years old in a sailor’s suit and as soon as I saw the snapshot, I knew it
was the moment the photo was taken that I remembered.
Maybe it is of some interest to hear that on my eightieth birthday, my second wife
Corrie surprised me very unexpectedly. For this party she had rented a house close to
the beach in Port Elliot and also had organized with our friend Chris Smoker (now
Michelmore) dozens of bottles of wine and on the label this old picture of mine was
printed on half of the bottles and on the other half was a picture of me at eighty.
My memories after my sixth birthday are more defined. I will however only write
about those that might be worthwhile. Of course, they could still be boring, but if they
are, don’t take any notice.
When I was five years old, my brother Bert, who was three at the time, and I
scrambled into a rowing boat that was tied to a jetty at the edge of a canal bordering the
property on which we lived. At that time we had moved from The Kreton to The East
End of the same city. They are both street names. I had found a bucket on the end of a
long handle with which the septic tank was emptied and I thought it would be a good
instrument to catch some stekelbaarsjes (very little fishes) swimming around. I heaved
the bucket above my head and let it come down into the water where I saw the little fish
swim around. However, when I tried to drag the bucket towards the boat, the weight
pulled me into the water. As I am re-writing this now at 86 years of age, you must know I
did not drown. As I surfaced again my head was covered in duckweed and my little
brother Bert, seeing this, must have thought I was a monster from the deep as he

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scrambled out of the boat yelling his head off and raced towards the road! That must
have been the way in which I perceived it then. In the meantime I had clambered back
into the boat and was already walking towards the house when by that time my brother
ran back to me with a man who saw the whole thing from a bridge. It was obvious that
Bert did not panic but went for help and must have noticed this man on the bridge and
being only three years old that was quite something. I never did find out what happened
to the bucket.
I have always been very shy and at the time still using a potty to do my
business. Anyway, one day when I was sitting on it in the kitchen, there was a knock on
the backdoor and the baker entered to deliver the daily bread. Like lightning, I slid with
my potty under the table to hide from him. Mind you, the table was covered in a big
tablecloth whose sides nearly reached the ground. My mother must have winked at the
baker and gestured to him where I was as he lifted a corner of the tablecloth and said:
“What are you doing boy, having fun?”
I nearly died with embarrassment. I am not writing this because it was particularly
important or funny, but these are some of the first things I can remember so it must have
been of importance to me.
Around that same time my tonsils were snipped and my parents told me that if I did
not cry they would give me a present. I did not cry, but I will never forget the icy cold feel
of the stainless steel snippers in the back of my throat. However, I earned myself a
wheelbarrow to play with.
The house we lived in was, as far as I remember, a kind of a mansion, two
stories high plus a huge attic. Underneath it all was a large cellar that could be entered
from the back and was big enough for my father to use as a workshop for his trade. He
was a motor mechanic.
One day there was a truck parked in front of a fruit tree and after I lifted my
little brother onto the passenger seat, I climbed on the driver’s seat. My father must
have been working on it, finished the job and parked it on the spot where I climbed into
it. I released the handbrake and as it was obviously not in gear, it rolled downhill until it
stopped against the tree. I don’t remember if any damage was done or if I was
punished, but I panicked and hid for hours afterwards somewhere in the orchard.

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I also remember that one day Bert and I were standing at the entrance of the
property throwing rocks at the cars that were passing by.
During this exercise we hit the headlight of a motor bike and got such a shock that
we fled and hid somewhere in the house.
The man, who had followed us, knocked on the backdoor and I am sure that my
mother already had her suspicions after she had seen our frightened faces passing her.
The man explained to her what had happened and knowing my mother, she must have
pointed towards the place we were hiding and raised her voice telling the man that the
police would come and take us to jail. We nearly peed in our pants. Then she called us
and made us aware of the dangerous game we had been playing. We of course had to
apologize to the man and were waiting for weeks for the police to pick us up.
My mother must have pacified the man by telling him that my father would fix his
headlight.
The first experience I had with electricity was when I climbed onto a chair and poked
with some copper wire into a PowerPoint. I have had lots of respect for power points
ever since.
We had a dozen geese grazing in our orchard and we had a habit of teasing them
until they went for us. One day we did the same and after they charged us, my sister
Annie fell over while we looked from behind the safety of a window, she was lying face
down on the grass. While the geese were pecking happily at her clothes she was
screaming her head off! I don’t remember if I was worried about her or if I was laughing
at her.
When the world renowned motorbike races at Assen were on, a group of acrobats
camped and trained in our orchard every time the races were on and entertained the
visitors during those races as an extra entertainment. Meppel is in a close vicinity to
Assen.
One day when I was walking towards them, I heard something behind me in the air. I
looked back and saw a huge thing coming for me. I was sure it was going to hit me and
threw myself flat on the ground. What I thought was a thing, actually turned out to be a
small plane which flew over me. When I scrambled up again with a face that must have

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been as white as a sheet, there was a lot of laughter from the acrobats. For my defense
I must explain that I had never seen a plane before. Apparently the pilot was a friend of
the acrobats saying hello.
I can still remember my first day at kindergarten. My mother took me there and I
really felt like a duck out of water. I have never felt as badly deserted after my mother
left me there.
A year later I went to Primary School. As I only went there for less than a year
because after that we moved to another city, I don’t remember much of that time. But I
do remember that when I learned to write, I had to do it right-handed while I was lefthanded
and I still feel that this change has done me harm somehow. My writing has
never been any good as a result. Never the less if you did well for some time, you were
awarded with writing in red ink and wonder above wonder I was also chosen. However
when two children were chosen for each desk, at my turn there was only a girl left to sit
next to me and at that age, what boy wanted to sit next to a girl? I never wrote in red.
The only thing of some importance happening at that time was the fact that a girl
wanted to be my girlfriend and I was not interested. Another girl took my fancy. However
an older brother of the first girl took offence because I choose this girl over his sister. On
the way home one day he kicked me in the groin and it must have hurt terribly because I
can still remember. The parents of those two owned a hotel and I only mention this
because of something that happened 46 years later and I will tell you the rest of the
story when this time has come.
Our parents played quite often with us children and one day when we were playing
hide and seek, I hid in a tree of which low hanging branches reached way out over the
canal. I crept onto one of the branches as far as I could and waited to be found or not as
it turned out. They could not find me and became of course terribly worried as they
might have thought that I had drowned as the canal boarded the property on two sides.
So after half an hour or so I climbed back and walked quietly towards the house where
everyone was sick of worry. I never told them where I was hiding and only said that I
could not understand why they did not find me. Already at that age I had a habit in
acting out the unexpected and being very secretive.

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Two brothers of my mother had moved to Hilversum, a city in the Province of North
Holland and sometimes their families stayed with us for some holidays. At one time we
had Luppie staying with us and he was the son of my mother’s eldest brother. Uncle
Lub.
Anyway, as far as sleeping was concerned, Luppie had to sleep between my brother
and I which was in the Attic. In the middle of the night he woke me up and told me that
he had to go to the toilet urgently. I informed him he had to use a potty because the
toilet was two stories down.
He looked at me as if he was shot and blurted out: “I never shit on potties!” As long
as I live I will never forget this and even now it is something to laugh about in the family
when we talk about the funny things of the past.
As we lived in this old mansion and actually far too grand for us, but it was ideally
suited for my father’s business so with enough work we could afford it. On this property,
next to our house, a dome shaped building which we called a “koepel”in Dutch was
situated in which an elderly couple lived. Their name was Hulleman. She looked a bit
like a witch and we were very wary of her.
At dark we would scare each other by pointing at the kitchen window suddenly
yelling: “Mrs. Hulleman is watching!” This is also not very interesting if it was not for
something happening many years later so be patient again. The only thing that might be
of some interest was that sometimes their grandson would spend some time with them
and as he was of my age, at one time they invited me for dinner. Still not very important,
but never the less has always stayed with me. I must have been very badly brought up,
because when I have my dinner, I had a habit of putting my hand under my chin. I did so
again in their company and suddenly Mrs.Hulleman asked me if I wanted a turf. And a
turf means a brick of dried peat that was used to burn in a stove and about as long as
an underarm. Mrs.Hulleman only meant to show me my bad manners. Believe it or not,
since then I have never been able to do this again.
My father could not get enough work in the little township we lived in so we moved to
the much bigger place I mentioned before where employment was more plentiful as my
uncles told my parents. So we left Meppel behind and settled in Hilversum; the city I
lived in from then on until the time my young family and I left Holland for Australia. But
by now I was still only very young and must return to that time.

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I was then still one of four children. Two older sisters and a younger brother; six
years old and my parents had rented a house on the outskirts of Hilversum.
It was 1937, 3 years before the outbreak of the Second World War. My parents were
both 32 years old, my oldest sister Jennie 11, Annie 9 and my brother Bert 4; I was six
at the time. The only thing I remember of that time was our first Santa Klaus night in
Hilversum on the fifth of December 1936 when I said to uncle Lub who was disguised as
Santa Klaus: But you are uncle Lub. I only remember this because he did not like that of
course and thought I was a spoiled sport and he was right of course, even though I have
always been very shy and kept most things to myself, at a time like that I blurted those
things out. After that I never believed in Saint Nicholas any more.
Already then I had a habit of spoiling people’s fun by being far too observant and
letting people know what I perceived. This has always made me very unpopular in the
company of others and I only realized this much later in life.
I also remember the backyard of the first house we lived in at Hilversum where our
Christmas tree was discarded. The tree looked terribly lost and hard to recognize as the
decorated one we celebrated under in our lounge. It gave me my first sense of loss
towards an awareness of the morning after.
Then there was the time I learned to ride a bicycle. I can still remember my feeble
attempts and riding into the hedge surrounding our house. The second house we lived
in and only about 200 meters away from the first one in Hilversum. However I never
give up very easily and was soon able to ride this bike. Funnily enough I never asked for
any help if I wanted to do something and for years to come, my parents never found out
what I could and what I could not do.
I will now go to the time I attended Primary School in Hilversum after my first start in
the one in Meppel. Compared with the students from a town like Hilversum I was of
course straight away looked upon as a country pumpkin and at the start was treated as
such. But for some reason this lasted not very long and soon I became accepted as just
another pupil of the school. Education wise I was on an even keel with the education at
this school so I did not have to go through the humiliation of being behind. Even though I
was certainly not a brilliant student, I was and have always been a very competitive

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person and stayed therefore in an acceptable range of education even if this was only
on an 80% level.
But at the same time I was a dreamer and found it very hard to concentrate on the
lessons given at the time. My mind would wander off and I would leave the classroom
completely attention wise. When the teacher would suddenly address me with a
question, I would have no idea of what he was talking about and had to come back to
earth with a jolt. But I was always very quick in adapting to those situations and could
talk myself out of trouble.
When we had a reading lesson for example and someone had to read a couple of
pages from a story, I was way ahead of this slow pace and when the teacher suddenly
said: Jan, your turn; I was lost as where they had gotten to as I had left them behind. I
cannot remember how I got away with this, but somehow I managed.
I also remember very well that the girls must have liked me very well and one girl in
particular. I can still remember her name: Tiny de Vos.
When we were finished with a subject we had to write about we had to line up in
front of the teacher’s desk so our papers could be marked and when I was standing in
line, Tiny approached me and kissed my cheek. This was a very new experience for me
and at the time not very much appreciated. Even though she was very nice looking, I
was that upset that I would never look at her again.
Later on someone pushed a note into my hands and when I read this, it said: Will
you meet me after school at a certain place? When our teacher noticed me reading
something, he asked if he could read it also. As I had no idea of what this note meant in
the first place, I gave it to him and this poor girl did get herself into a lot of trouble. Sex
had at this time of my life and at an age of may be 10 or so not entered my interest yet
and as I became aware of it later in life, girls were way ahead of us male dumb clots. On
second thought this girl may only have wanted to get to know me better out of class. To
me at that time it did not mean a thing and only confused me.
Even though I was a dimwit that way, I was not a pussycat as far as physical
prowess went. I stood my ground as far as this was concerned and with a confrontation,
I was always able to prove this. It is actually quite strange because I have never been a
violent person but always able to conduct myself in a way that made others look upon
me with enough respect as not to bully me.

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Of course I know that this sounds awfully conceited and at the time I would not have
been able to recognize this in myself, but now at 86, I have a better perception of what
was happening to me then.
Anyway, I was always on the side of the bullied and made the bullies aware of this
fact and what was of more value, it worked.
The strongest boy of our school challenged me once in a fight and I was able to hold
my own and as a result I was never challenged again.
For a reason I cannot explain I have a liking to animals. My uncle Roelof owned an
aviary with all sorts of birds and I, may be for that reason became very interested in
animal life. At some time or another he gave me a couple of tortle doves and I very
happily made a home for them and was looking forward to look after them. But I did not
feel that they were happy enough being caught in a little cage and opened the door so
they could fly freely around and then come back to their home. They never came back
and this should have been a good lesson for me. Birds that have been in captivity from
birth are not able to cope with life outside an aviary and therefore will die before their
time. I felt sorry for them as I must have condemned those beautiful birds to an early
death. My first lesson in life; compassion can kill.
My uncle Roelof is still often on my mind because of the value he was able to imprint
on me through his Bon Vivant behavior. He never seemed to be worried about anything
that interfered with his perception of what life was about and lived therefore a very
valuable life, not only for himself but also for the people he interacted with.
The years before the war were not very eventful even though they were of course
important enough to be part of my time in growing up.
The two brothers of my mother, uncle Lubbert and uncle Roelof were both
plasterers, a job uncle Lubbert still performed towards the end of his life which must
have been around 85 years, but uncle Roelof was besides a plasterer also an artist in
painting. He has always mainly painted still-life and landscapes. He also wrote poetry
and the lyrics for a very well-known Dutch children’s choir. He loved life, people and
Nature.

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Both my uncles were National Socialists as I found out in later life. But it was the
philosophy behind it that attracted them and made them join this party already way
before the 2 nd World War. For this they had to suffer after the war even though as
people they were better than most of humanity and had certainly nothing to do with any
Nazism. But, nobody could foresee where Hitler’s sick mind would take his followers.
I never became very close to uncle Lubbert, but quite close to uncle Roelof. He was
very much a philosopher and I loved him for the person he was.
What also has been a very fond part of my life was the time when we celebrated
birthdays or other occasions when all the family came together! Actually they are the
memories that still make me smile and especially when the parents started to tell their
stories after we children begged them to do so. Mind you, we did not have to urge them
too long as they were good story tellers and used to keep us amused with those. They
were wonderful stories and uncle Lup and uncle Roelof were the best.
Each year the stories became better and better as something was added, but we did
not mind as we still enjoyed just the sheer enthusiasm with which they were told.
Looking back, we as children did not have such a bad youth. The troubles my
parents had between them did not come to our knowledge or at least mine, until quite a
few years later. My mother was wonderful and unfortunately I did not know much about
my father as he never seemed to be part of the family and was often drunk when he
came home. My mother never complained about him and always defended him when
we did. When we were older, things could not be hidden anymore and we realized the
sad truth about their relationship. I was however still blissfully unaware at that time as I
spend my time between playing, school, reading and bed. We never had any money but
that fact never seemed to worry us. What we lacked in toys was made up for by our
imagination.
As I mentioned before and reading back I always seem to do that, I was extremely
shy and on second thought, shy may not be the word and a bit backward in
communication will probably be a better explanation. Even though I had a secret
admiration for one girl or another, I would not dream of approaching any of them. On the
other hand, looking back I must have looked quite all right in the eyes of the girls
because they had no trouble in approaching me.

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The third house we moved to I would live in until I got married. We moved there
because it was very close to my father’s work.
A bit later on I started to like a girl in our street; her name was Matie van de Brom
and even though I never told her, I looked upon her as my girlfriend. She was the
daughter of my father’s employer. Believe it or not, to show her my affection I even spat
at her a couple of times, not really spitting, as instead of blowing the spit I sucked it in.
Thinking back of it, I must have been for a girl a not very attractive person.
How would she ever come to even look at me as a future sweetheart with such
treatment and only through my inability of showing my true feelings? Years later she fell
pregnant with some other boy and I had the guts to denounce her as some cheap girl
who betrayed something the existence of which she had no idea of even being there. In
telling you about this part of my character, you might be better able to understand the
rest of my story.
However at that moment I was still one of those innocent children, trying to
grow up as well as the circumstances allowed. I don’t think I was too bad, as my choices
never seem to cost me problems school, I was just mediocre as far as results were
concerned but at school I really shone at gymnastics. I liked to move, play and do all
kinds of physical challenges. Of the other subjects, mathematics, history and reading
were the ones that interested me the most and not to forget biology and languages. I
became interested in history because of our teacher Mr. de Hond. He had such an
expertise to keep the attention of his pupils riveted on the stories about our history that if
anyone disrupted its flow, the rest of the class would be terribly upset and just about
ready to lynch the perpetrator.
Mr. de Hond would slam his heel on the nearest desk and shout his displeasure into
the classroom. This also meant the end of the story and a lot of trouble for the culprit
and mainly from the pupils’ side.
Sometimes things happen that are very hard to comprehend. This happened to me
when a friend of mine became involved at a very young age in robbing and killing a taxi
driver through the pressure put on him by an older brother. I only remember his first
name as being Pim.
I have often wondered what could have become of him. I can even remember his
face from then and that after so many years and only at twelve years of age.

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Through that experience I have realized that later on in life we very rarely know
beforehand what might happen to us. Nothing is clean-cut in that respect as we do
make choices which we later on bitterly regret.
My primary school years went past without many hick-ups. As I liked animals I often
came home with a stray dog and I was very keen on birds. Of my immediate family I
was the only one to go to High school. But I am going a bit too fast as I am already
jumping to 1943 and I still want to mention my experience with the start of the 2 nd World
war.
As a child, one is never very interested in politics and certainly not with anything that
is going on outside one’s own country. I don’t mean of course all children, but just the
ones around us. It was however 1939 and before it turned into World War II, I became
involved as one day, German dive-bombers dropped their cargo on a part of our city not
far from us. Later on we found out that it was a military headquarter. Of course, to us it
was very exciting.
Those small silver airplanes diving time and again without much opposition as we
were not expecting this attack and in our minds war was not even a thought. But this
was how Hitler worked. No warning! He meant business and went for it even though we
were supposed to be neutral. It was certainly not gentleman-like, but very effective.
He treated the Dutch the same way as he had treated the Poles and tried to treat the
rest of the world. But an 8-year-old boy does not know those things and therefore I will
just tell my personal experiences about that time.
The area where the bombs were dropped was, from the point where we were
watching, very close to where relatives of a friend of mine lived. His name was Gerard
Remmers. He ran to me and suggested we should have a look and see how things were
going. I was game enough and off we went.
Of course, we did not tell our parents, as otherwise we did not have a hope in
hell to be allowed. Halfway towards the area another load of bombs fell down and all
around us the shrapnel fell towards the ground. It made quite a musical sound when it
hit the roof tiles. By the time we reached Gerard’s family, the bombing was over and we

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found out that none of them were hurt. It was my first contact with what became the
Second World War.
Not long after that, Hitler invaded our country and the Germans occupied us for five
long years. Most of my high school years were spent during the war and they were hard
and arduous. Most industries were turned into the manufacturing of war materials for
German warfare and a normal way of living was impossible. The Germans also robbed
us of most of our food and we had to turn to the black market if we were to survive. All
able males were arrested and send to Germany to work in their factories. My father was
one of them.
I can still remember as if it happened yesterday. In order to save him from being
sent to Germany to work, we dug a hole under the linen cupboard and concealed that
with a hatch. Every time we had a raid, my father used to dive into that terribly confined
space and wait until everything was quiet again. It went on for quite some time but the
last time, all kinds of stories reached us before they came to our street. At one time we
were told that they were throwing hand grenades into the houses to smoke out the men
who were hiding and that became too much for my father. He joined the cue to be sent
to Germany.
Later on we heard that they were only very effective scare tactics. Anyway,
when he learned on the train where and how they could end up, he escaped and went
underground.
He moved into a farm in a polder not very far from the town we lived in and from
there he still looked after the family as well as he could while making sure to stay out of
the hands of the Gestapo. On this farm he became a farmhand for the rest of the war
and only to hide. This meant that he was not paid or fed.
However bad a husband and father he had been and became later on in life, during
those difficult years he did his best for us. It was about 10 km from where we lived and I
remember it very well as I had to take food to him every day. A neighbor, Mr. Smith, was
hiding with him and a daughter of his went with me on that track to feed her father. One
day and a very stormy one at that, we were flying behind our cart with the wind in our
backs on the dirt track we were on. When we were crossing a Freeway, we could not
stop any more and just made it across before a Military Convoy passed just behind us.

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We could have been killed then and there and the war would have ended for both of us.
Frightening!
In the meantime, besides working on the farm, he was all over the place wheeling
and dealing on the black market to provide us with necessary food and just as well as
otherwise I would have had no food to bring him on a daily basis. I had to take charge of
matters at home as far as feeding the animals was concerned and in keeping the house
warm in winter.
Matter of fact it was extremely hard to do so. We had sixteen goats in our shed and
they had to be milked and fed. In the latter part of the war they had to be killed and
consumed. Mind you, this was all done on the very small block our house was build on
even though the shed was big enough to shelter the goats. We also kept sheep in this
shed for meat and wool and everything we could not consume ourselves was sold on
the black market, bartered or shared with family and neighbors. However, in the time of
winter 1944-’45, there was nothing to eat any more, my father’s resources had dried up
so we had to find another way to feed ourselves.
The farmers in the North of the country had still enough food for themselves and
much to spare, so many thousands of people climbed on their push-bikes or walked up
to 200 km. to get to them and barter for food.
I was 13 years old and my eldest sister Jenny 18. We were the ones who took the
gamble to cycle to the North of the country and the Provence of Drenthe where we
came from and where we had most of our uncles and aunts. That was of course a great
help and we did not have a great deal of trouble in filling our bags with wheat, corn,
meat etc. needed at home. It was for us a trip of 250 km. there and back. The distance
was not the trouble, but it was in the middle of winter, we were grossly underfed and the
bike’s we had, were without tires. It was bad enough to get up there without too much
weight, but to get back with a load of fifty kilos on each bike, was sheer murder. I
remember at one stage, cycling on a dijk (dike) with the eastern wind blowing onto my
cheeks and the temperature a couple of degrees below zero. Because of my steamy
and heavy breathing I had formed an ice cap on the side of my face where the wind
came from and therefore could not look to my right without turning my head. But as it
had become all ice on that side, I could only hope that everything was O.K. out there.
On the other hand I did not want to break the ice, as all the bad weather came from that

17
direction and the ice formed some shelter. As we progressed very slowly, we did not
have any hope in getting home that same day.
I do remember very vividly that while all this was going on, my bike slipped on the
hard frozen service and I fell down. I was so exhausted, that I had no energy left to get
up and just wanted to go to sleep. I vaguely remembered that the road was cluttered
with dead people who were in the same situation I was in, but I could not care enough to
get myself up. That was until I heard my sister call out to me: Jan, get up for Pete’s
sake.
After a while it penetrated through and with her help, I got up. It was somewhat
harder to put the bike back on its wheels, but we managed. A couple of km. further on
we found a church in which we could get shelter for the night. We left the bike with all
the goodies outside and entered the church-hall. The floor was covered with straw and
with, which we could not see because it was pitch-dark, sleeping people. After having
stepped on a couple of them, I found a spot and fell asleep as soon as I laid myself to
rest. I had lost track of my sister, but obviously did not bother and neither did she. The
next day we found each other again and started the last part of the journey. Strangely
enough in 2002 when I visited Holland again with Corrie, my second wife and we
exchanged memories with the same sister Jenny, her recollection of the same time was
completely from mine even though she was 5 years older. She did not even remember
that I fell of the bike and that we slept in the church.
I cannot remember the rest, so I don’t think that anything disturbing happened. I do
recall however that nobody seemed to steal from each other on that trip, because
nothing was missing from our bikes the next morning. Any way we came back to a
jubilant and relieved mother and I hoped that the war had finished before I had to go
again. But unfortunately we had to do one more trip.
Many other things happened in the meantime of course and I will just mention the
ones of most interest. Being the oldest male in the family after my father and he could
not stay home, it was my job to supply the family with firewood.
During the last winter of the war, my father had built a sturdy, large sledge and I
used this to get firewood. Armed with a small tomahawk I went into our adjacent forest
and cut oak trees or beech with a diameter of up to a foot with this little axe. May be on

18
second thought they were somewhat smaller as I cannot imagine now that I would have
been strong enough to handle such big trees even though I was very strong for my age.
Afterwards I would cut off the smaller branches and the trunk to manageable lengths
so I could get them on the sledge. The suitable branches as far as thickness was
concerned would follow. I had started early in the morning and by the time I had finished
with all I wanted to take home, it had grown dark and the sledge was frozen solid to the
ground. By this time I was left by myself as all others had already left and when I put the
harness around my chest and tried to move this load of at least half a ton, I could not
even make it shudder. I became desperate as by this time the curfew had started and
the chance of being caught in this illegal affair would have been doubled. Believe it or
not, I got the sledge moving through sheer desperation and was on my way home. It
was a very cold and windy night and because of that, part of the way was without snow
and I had to double my effort to get the load across the parts where the snow had blown
away.
You know, writing this down I don’t blame anyone to suspect me of fantasizing, but
believe me, I was there and lived through it even though I never told anyone about my
experiences. It did not even enter my mind to tell my mother about my troubles. At one
time I was caught during a raid and the Germans confiscated my sledge.
Another episode during this period was the time when the Germans would move
briquettes from the place of manufacture to the places where they needed them. It was
perfect fuel for our own fireplaces and hordes of kids used to run behind the horse
driven carts and try to steal some of those briquettes. The German soldiers who were
driving those carts were not worried at first, but as they arrived later at their destination
with lesser briquettes, questions were obviously asked and in due time a guard would sit
on top with a whip.
By this time we all had become very sophisticated and had a bag with a hook which
we attached to the tailboard, but as the whip became quite a problem something had to
be done.
I found a solution and I was actually quite proud of it. I asked one of my friends to
undo one side of the clamps of the tailboard while running like racehorses next to the
cart and I would undo the other one. The result was beyond belief. Half of the load
finished up on the road, including the guard. As he had not hurt himself, he climbed

19
back on the cart laughing. It gave me heart as I realized that not all Germans were bad.
In no time at all the briquettes had disappeared.
Another source of fuel for our stoves was the coke that was discarded after gas was
extracted. It was compacted in the yards of the gasworks. Somehow it came to our
knowledge and all the children in the neighborhood got themselves a ladder in order to
climb the 7 foot wall that surrounded the gasworks. The cemented-in sharp pieces of
broken bottle were soon hammered flat and off we went. Tons of coke was removed
from that area until it was completely depleted. Fortunately the Authorities did not seem
to mind.
But the gasworks had more to offer, it was the place with heaps of briquettes and we
soon cut holes in the cyclone wire that closed off other parts of the area. We filled our
bags for weeks until armed guards were posted and bullets started to fly around our
ears.
Now again I have to go back in time. In order to survive, the black market was the
only way to go as all the shops had nothing to sell and we had to turn to this only way of
survival. As my father went underground and lived during that time on a farm and very
close to a fishing village, he was able to get hold of fish.
Somehow he managed to get it to our place and while my mother sold the fish from
home, we children sold it door to door. It was not only for our own benefit, but also for
our customers as otherwise no one had anything to eat. I had no idea what we did with
the money we received because money had no real value. It was a bad time for all
people and we had to make the best of it. My father was a real poacher at heart and
doing this kind of thing was something which he relished.
We had sheep and even sometimes pigs delivered on our doorstep and I
remembered vividly holding a sheep down on the kitchen sink when my father cut its
throat. The meat went the same way as the fish.
Of course we had lots of jealous neighbors who did their best to inform on us and
sometimes we were just able to get rid of evidence before a raid. However my father
knew lots of people and there was always some person who informed us of a coming
raid so we could take our steps to prevent being caught. This of course happened
before my father escaped from the train and lived on a farm.

20
But one day I remember, we were nearly caught. The doorbell rang followed by
heavy knocks on the door. It was enough for a feverish reaction from our side.
My mother took as long as possible to let the Germans in and the last pot of meat
just left our house to the next door neighbors when they entered. Those were scary, but
also exiting times.
One day we were sitting at dinner when suddenly another raid came upon us. My
mother stormed upstairs because my parent’s bedroom was full of contraband. My
father went to the door, pale as a sheet because at heart he was a bit of a coward. He
knew however what my mother was doing and kept the search as long as possible away
from upstairs. We also had a cellar and as this cellar was empty at that moment, he
cunningly directed their attention to it as it was not easy to get to it and it took some time
which my mother needed desperately.
When the party however was satisfied with downstairs, it was time for the upstairs
and my father told them that he had a sick wife in bed and hoped they would leave that
room alone. However they were adamant to get into the room and my father nearly
fainted with anticipation when at last he opened the door.
No one can describe his relieve when he discovered my mother shivering under the
blankets with, if she would have had teeth, they would have chattered. The room was
empty of anything the Germans were looking for. My mother must have worked like a
Trojan to be able to get rid of all the gear.
After the German soldiers left our house, terribly upset of course with the obviously
wrong information they had. But we were deadly curious as where my mother had
stashed the stuff.
She had opened the window and thrown it all on the roof of our kitchen. Even though
it was at night, if the Germans had only looked through the window, they would have
seen it all.
In our eyes our mother was a heroin and actually that is how we have looked upon
her for the rest of her life and I still believe that from her we have inherited our sense of
humor and integrity.
There was far more to my mother than we even imagined and it is strange to realize
that you only really get to know even a person like your mother in moments of hardship.

21
Through the efforts of my father we always seemed to have something to eat and only
because of his in-built characteristics as a wheeler-dealer. He was a man who defied
authority, in order to make his own way.
Anyway, because even if we did not have plenty, we certainly had more than many
of our neighbors and my mother took a lot of food around to them.
As you must have noticed by now, my father was not all the time away from home
and before the raids came to take all eligible men away to send them to the factories in
Germany, he already found devious ways in providing a good deal of people with food.
Not because he was so goodhearted, but because he saw profit in everything.
One of his contacts was the manager of a food processing plant and through him we
received tons of peeled potatoes. At night, after curfew was already in effect, my little
brother Bert and I would take the famous sledge that was by then still in our possession,
to the kitchen from where this manager operated and collected a load of those potatoes.
At that time no one with our education had ever heard of adrenaline, but I am sure that it
was the stuff that made us go like a bat out of hell to get home without being caught. As
this kitchen was providing the Germans with food, I didn’t feel bad at all about this.
Another time I joined my father on the farm where he was hiding after he escaped
from the train that was taking him to Germany; we collected heads of wheat left behind
after harvesting. It was incredible how much grain we had after one day’s work.
On the way back, when we were both riding our bikes on the road, I suddenly saw a
row of German helmets appear over the top of a dike just before a bend in the road. I
shouted out to my father: “Germans!” When I looked next to me to see if he heard me,
my father was not there anymore and when I looked back, I saw him disappear into
someone’s drive. He must also have been a fast thinker with speedy reflexes and I must
have paid him short in mentioning before that he was a nervous wreck in moments of
need.
That was my father also and I feel that like now, after so many years I may have
misjudged the essence of his being and also may through the circumstances he went
through as the person he was and made his choices accordingly with those
characteristics and its results I could not accept or concept at that time in my life. I will
never know the truth about who he was, but from the place I am pondering this at this

22
stage in my life, I have come to the conclusion that I may have been wrong in my
judgment.
The first four years of the war we kept attending school. The first two years I still
attended Primary School, one year at High School and the last year no school. I finished
High School in 1947 and still did not lose any time. This is hard to fathom as so much
had happened during those years.
Life has many facets and there are millions of stories like mine, but these are my
experiences from that time and my grandchildren can read it firsthand if I decide to have
it printed. Unless no one is interested!
There is one thing that happened during the war of which many Dutch people
cannot be proud of and this only struck me when I returned to Holland after I spend six
years in Australia. I happened to see the movie “The diary of Anne Frank” and realized
that all those things happened also and certainly outside my knowledge. How could I
have been this ignorant and selfish? If more of the Dutch population had opened their
hearts and doors to the Jewish people, many Jews would not have ended up in those
concentration camps and dying in the most appalling of circumstances.
Most of us cowardly refused to give shelter and in doing so condemned those
people to death. Of course those awful stories only came back to us much later, but we
still could have done a lot more. Unfortunately Jews have never been readily accepted
and were the last people to be helped at any time. It was my first understanding of the
existence of racism.
Yes, they were hard times to grow up in, but at the same time it toughens someone’s
character and we can only be grateful that the war never reached our town. The only
thing that hit us the hardest was the lack of food and even if I really cannot complain
about our family I mean most people around us and till this day I find it impossible to
waste food.
I will never forget the day that the Germans surrendered and the war was over. It
was the time that we had no food left at all and I was as hungry as hell.

23
The English and American soldiers entered our township and we were greeting them
with ardor. However I was so hungry that I could not stay there to celebrate but had to
go home hoping against all odds to find something to eat. Can anyone believe that?
As I mentioned before I still had two years left at High school and finished those
without much trouble. My strong subject was maths.
Actually something quite funny happened during the exams. I had finished algebra
and when I started on geometry, I said to the examiner: I am glad that algebra is out of
the way, because I am better in geometry. He knew by then already that I had nearly a
100% for algebra and decided to question me far more thorough on geometry. I finished
up with only 80% for this subject through my own stupidity, only because he asked me
things I had never even heard of. You see I may have been a good student but never
enthusiastic enough to go beyond the books I needed to study.
I liked sports and whatever I took a fancy to; I seemed to be good at.
Physically I was built the right way for it and mentally I was very competitive. We had a
gymnastics teacher who was a bit of a sadist. He used to stand behind a pupil and
would put his hand on his shoulder and squeeze the muscle underneath with all his
strength between thumb and forefinger. The kids would squirm and wince and then he
would let go with a smirk on his face. One day he started on me and even though it hurt
like hell, I would not give him the satisfaction and stayed completely impassive. When
he let go at last I turned around and whispered to him: “You do that again and I will
knock your teeth out even if you do it to someone else.”
No one else heard this so he did not lose face, but he never did it again. It felt good.
So it should, but reading this back I am not really sure it happened that way and was
that last bit something I liked to have happened. So, be a bit wary that, if I sound too
heroic I might have added a bit.
One day a fellow student, who followed boxing classes, felt the need to try it out on
me. I never had any problem with any of the boys as I must have looked like someone
who could take care of himself. So he must have thought that I was a good subject to try
out his prowess.
It feels a bit strange when someone jumps in front of you in a boxing stance and I
was completely unaware of what was about to happen. He punched me straight on my

24
lip and I had a big gash on the inside of my mouth. I was just about ready to defend
myself when the bell rang for the classes to start.
I must admit that I was quite happy because I did not think that I had much of a
chance anyway. But I had a friend, his name was Arnold Talmon. For his age he was
very big and strong and as straight a fellow as anyone ever had the good fortune to
meet.
When school went out, I was walking home with Arnold and suddenly he ran across
the street and went straight for the boy who had hit me. I could not believe it, he must
have been so angry with this fellow that he wanted to let him know that he could not hurt
his friend. He pushed him over a brush fence and they both disappeared from sight.
Arnold got up again and the other fellow must have been a kind of a coward because he
had enough. Arnold walked back to me and we continued to walk as if nothing had
happened. That shows you, Arnold’s character showed in a better light than mine. When
I mentioned this incident to Arnold in 2002 on a vacation to Holland, he had no idea
what I was talking about. It shows how different people are towards the importance of
what they remember.
But I never forgot the scar I received as a result and it is still there. However I must
have learned something from those two incidents, because one day I went to school by
myself and when going through a tunnel, I met three boys coming towards me. As I was
walking on the right side, I had no intention to get out of the way so we had a bit of a
collision and one of the boys hit me and they were laughing at me. I put my schoolbag
down, walked back and punched the fellow on his nose. Blood streamed out of it. This
time I came out fighting. As none of the three fellows felt like taking me on after that, I
picked up my schoolbag again and continued on my way.
As far as my future was concerned, all the reading I had done about adventure and
travel, I wanted to go to the College for the Merchant Navy in order to become the
captain of a ship. You see I could dream very well. After I had attended High School for
a couple of years we had to choose which direction we wanted to go because of the two
grades we needed for a different further education. For the Navy school I needed High
School B and of course I put myself down to that. However when I came home and told
my parents what I wanted to do, they looked at me in amazement and told me straight
away that it was out of the question. They could never afford to pay for those studies.

25
What a bummer, as I had never even thought about that side of affairs and my
parents were only willing to support me as far as High School. So I cancelled the B-
grade and went for A. The result of this showed me also in the light of accepting things
that come across too easily instead of having enough incentive to fight for my
convictions. This flaw in my character has been the reason that I never reached any
heights in all of the things I ever started, sports as well as business wise.
After High school, I started to look for a job and finished up as a junior clerk in a
bank. It was not at all what I wished for but it was all I could get and I had to be satisfied
with it.
But I had learned from my past not to mope and accept the way things are and soon
settled down to the tasks I had to perform. I worked my heart out for my firm and even
after 8 months of this, I still was the lowest paid employee. I did not understand this and
went to my boss to ask for a raise. He told me that his hands were tied and could not
break the rules. At the same time he told me that they had plans with me for the future
and hoped therefore that I would be patient enough to wait until I knew what they had in
store for me.
However, I decided to look for another job with a more adventurous prospect. I
learned at a later date that the job they wanted to groom me for was to educate me over
the coming years as a manager for an over sea’s branch. I had to prove myself first of
course and my rebellious nature prevented any further education in the banking
business.
I applied for a job as a steward on a shipping line. I had to go to Amsterdam to get
my ticket and being as ignorant as I was for many years to come, I went there and I had
to go back home to get all kinds of papers, which I did not have on me.
Now I have to write something different, in order for anyone to be able to
understand the choices I made for my future. During the time I worked for the bank, I
joined a sport school and started to learn the art of boxing. You know already why
because daily I felt the scar on the inside of my mouth and I was still adamant to face
this boy but then with better odds. I did very well and my instructor, who was also the
owner of this business, offered me a job as his assistant. This consisted of clerical work,
cleaning of the place and as I already had started on Jiu Jitsu and Judo, instructing
beginners in those.

26
So I had to make up my mind either to go for my sailor’s ticket or to take this
assistant job. I choose the assistant job. If anyone could be called a champion in making
bad choices, I am sure that I could fit the bill. But it was the way in which I was made
and grew up. I cannot remember that I ever asked my parent’s advice in anything I
planned and always confronted them with the choices I had made. Don’t ask me why
because I still have no answer for that fact. I loved my mother, endured my father but
had never learned to take them into my confidence. The reason could be of course that
they have never given me a shoulder to lean on. On second thought it may be because
of the way I was they never thought I needed this.
If I had persisted in getting my ticket for this shipping line, my life could have been
completely different and may be happier for myself. Who knows? But then of course it
is hard for a boy of seventeen to have already a solid idea where his future lies and at
the same time I have never had any regrets towards the way in which my life turned out.
But one is allowed to be curious when reminiscing.
My boss was a good Catholic, but looked more like an Egyptian Jew and later on
proved that he did not just look like one. I may be very unkind to Egyptian Jews,
because I am sure that many of those people are like most people, good people. But it
is just an expression.
For five years I worked my guts out for minimal wages just to proof how stupid
someone can be. May be I could be forgiven for my innocence because of my youth, but
to last that long in that position is something else.
I started 8.30 in the morning till about 12 o’clock at night and during that time I
cleaned the whole complex, did the administrative work, answer the phone, gave private
lessons, club lessons and did whatever it took to run the place. My real payment was
the fact that I did not have to pay for my own lessons. Thinking back I still feel humiliated
about the way I have let myself being used.
Of course, I was an apprentice and because of that I had to do the dirty work. I did
not really mind that, but I certainly deserved to be paid a decent wage; unfortunately this
was not to be.
Even though I had become very confident as an educator in the field of indoor
sports, I was still unable to sell myself. If my boss had given me the backing I

27
desperately needed and certainly deserved, I am certain I could have reached the top in
anything I attempted. But as it turned out, it left me empty and disillusioned.
In boxing I could have gone far, if it was not for my instructor. During practice I
regularly knocked my sparring partners down with a straight right, so my instructor
decided for me not to use that right any more during practice. By the time I went into
amateur boxing, my straight right was completely useless, as was my boxing career. If I
have to be honest, I actually did not have the heart to be a good fighter as I certainly did
not have the killer instinct but I could have done a lot better.
One time, when the championships of North Holland were on which I was going to
attend, my father decided to attend this event and came with me to Amsterdam where
they were held. Unfortunately I talked to him about my nervousness before a match and
he said to me: That is easily fixed. He took a bottle of valium out of his pocket and as I
was eating a sandwich at the time he sprinkled some on it and said that this would get
rid of my nerves. By the time my match came up I was completely out of it and made a
complete fool of myself. It was also the end of my boxing career. I never even talked to
my father about this afterwards. He must just have thought that I could not box at all. I
never told anyone because at that time I was still such a private person and have been
one for a long time and have during that time been my own worst enemy.
When one thinks back about those things, one can only come to the conclusion that
the way one’s path goes, is depending on the circumstances one find oneself in and the
choices made because of character.
Of course other people play a part in the way one’s life goes, but it is the strength of
your own character that determines the choices you make and therefore the direction
you take. My weak point was the fact that I did not know myself well enough to have the
confidence I needed in order to survive my surroundings in a satisfactory way. So for me
to say that other people caused my lack of success has never been and is still not true.
During my boxing career I received a fair share of medals. If I did not win the match,
I often came home with a style price.
I became an expert in Judo and for five years I was the best in our school.
Even in the national arena I belonged to the top four or five.

28
I was just about to skip the results I gained in this sport, but I should not do so
because after all I worked hard enough for it. I became club champion for two years in
succession and would have won the cup for a third year if it was not for the interference
of the National Service.
I never even received anything that I could show anybody as proof for what I had
accomplished during that time and my offspring will have to take my word for this time of
my life. From the moment I started Judo and Jiu-Jitsu I took to it like a duck takes to
water. It did not matter who I was playing against, I played to win and it never entered
my mind that I had no chance.
Because of that attitude I used to throw champions and teachers alike in the one or
two throws I had learned to perfection and only because they did not expect a beginner
to be so fearless and fast. I am still laughing about those times and mainly because I
never feared an opponent and was always good enough to prove my worth. Mind you, I
lived Judo through many hours of practice and even at night I dreamt about my moves.
After a couple of years I received my first black belt in Judo and my black cherryblossom
in Jiu Jitsu. At that time I was the first one in Holland to get that far; in Jiu Jitsu
that is.
In the National arena everyone was quite well aware of my ability, but fate has
always been against me when I was attending important matches.
I have always been my own person and still am, but it has also put me on the
outside of a general acceptance.
At one time during the National Championships, I had already beaten last year’s
champion in my weight class even though I lost the final. Afterwards I had reached the
semi-final in the black-belt and the fellow whom I had already beaten in the weight
category, had reached the final. The only one between me and this final was a person of
no consequence. Through my own stupidity I lost this fight.
The reason was that I let myself get in a hold and if anyone can hold another for 5
seconds, it is a point and as such the end of the match. I have always been extremely
strong on the ground and I would wait for three second and then throw the fellow of me.
My timing was right, but I had no idea that the circumstances were against me again.
The referee was a teacher who I had thrown a couple of times before during exhibitions

29
and this was the time he could pay me back. On the fourth second I had thrown my
opponent off, but this referee counted against me.
Those things have happened to me on quite a few occasions and call me stupid by
cutting time this short, but I still believe that a second stands for a full second. Being
chosen for the National team we had to qualify and as I have always like a sacrificial
throw; (which means that you throw yourself in order to throw your opponent as a result)
I did this twice and my referee called twice a point against me. So again I was out of the
picture. The referee was my own boss and by that time things had been soured between
us a lot, because he had gotten wind I was planning to start my own Gymnasium. The
same thing happened when I was going for my second Black Belt. He did not think that I
was mentally ready for it.
Even though I was being used, I did not really know it at that time and actually quite
enjoyed my world of sport. (Until I was paid back so badly of course) This may all sound
like sour grapes, but one way or another I have to explain to my descendants that of this
glorious part of my life I only have to show a few trophies and even they disappeared
over the years.
This was also the time I became more acquainted with the girl who would become
my wife and mother of five of my children. I knew her already as a cousin of my friend
Gerard Remmers through birthday parties etc. She also worked in the same building as
I, but on the second floor and for another business. One day, when I closed up to go
home, my future wife Wil and the wife of one of my cousins who also worked with Wil,
were waiting for me on the steps and when I passed, Annie pushed Wil in my direction
and said: “Ask him now”! That was more or less how it started. I agreed to go to a
certain Show with her as a result.
However I was very keen on another cousin of Gerard and he was the friend who
was worried about his cousin after the bombardment at the start of the war. Her name
was Jenny Remmers and she was also going to this Show with another fellow. When
the time arrived to go home after the Show I was in a dilemma because I actually
wanted to take Jenny home but could not do so because I actually was with Wil. So I
took Wil home and as far as I was concerned from then on we were a couple as I kissed
her on departure and never looked back. I never found out what Jenny thought of me.

30
Wil’s family was Roman Catholic and as I was a non believer it was the reason for
which we came across a lot of hardship. Her parents refused to accept me and forbade
our then friendship. At my place Wil was always welcome even though my mother was
not so sure about her. But it never became an issue as I was happy with her, she was
my first girlfriend and when you are young and think you are in love you don’t listen to
advice.
One day it came to a head with Wil’s family. I was going to visit her parents and talk
about the pros and cons of our relationship. Things went wrong as soon as I arrived on
my bicycle. I rang the doorbell and they would not let me in and Wil was not allowed out.
As I did not want to make a scene I took my bike and was ready to leave again. It could
also have meant the end of our fragile relationship.
However not as far as my Wil was concerned, no sir, she escaped from the house
and raced all teary-eyed towards me and put her arms around my neck begging me not
to leave her behind.
In the meantime her parents had run after her and while Wil was holding on to me,
her father gripped her hair and tried to pull her away. By now there were a lot of
onlookers and I felt like a regular idiot, certainly way below my dignity.
I dropped my bike and told her father to let go of her hair and that we should go
inside and tend to the matter at hand more privately.
He agreed and we went towards the house. As soon as the family was inside, they
slammed the door in my face and I was left standing outside feeling completely
humiliated.
I went home after that incident and when I entered our house completely overcome
with emotion, my mother wanted to know of course what had happened. After I told her,
she promised that she and my father would go to them and talk it out for us. Both our
parents knew each other quite well as they had met on the same birthday parties at the
same house where my friend Gerard lived opposite our house.
They saw each other and smoothed things over so we were able to still see each
other. It was only a couple of days later that my mother took me aside and said: “The
way in which Wil and her mother went for each other made me believe they are very
much alike”. But I had chosen my girlfriend and for me that meant a future for the both of

31
us and thought that my mother was very unfair about her comments, so Wil and I
became a couple.
Sometime afterwards Wil was not quite sure that it would work out as she must have
listened to her father whom she loved very much and we decided to call a stop to it and
finish our relationship. It was OK with me because I could not see that her parents and I
would ever come to agree as far as many things were concerned of which their religion
was the main part and the way in which they had treated me secondary.
But blow me down, the day after our agreement Wil rang me and told me that she
could not live without me and wanted to see me again. We decided to reunite over an
ice-cream with strawberries and whipped cream as a kind of a celebration. I had far too
little experience to be able to determine what I really wanted and only felt good because
someone else needed me.
I also have always been a person who, once he started something had to finish what
he had started. Wil was my girlfriend and as far as I was concerned the girl who would
become my wife. So from then on it was the way in which I saw our future.
Wil was also a member of a gymnastics club and trained continuously to do as well
as her body would let her. She was a person who would train till she dropped, but
unfortunately her build and movements were not really suitable for this kind of sport to
reach any heights. But she liked it and enjoyed herself while she was at it and what also
was important to her that she liked her coach very much.
Personally I think she would have been better suited for the game of hockey as her
body with her mental makeup would have been perfect for this sport. I also introduced
her to the sport of Judo and she was certainly very much suited for that.
In the meantime I had reached the age of 19 and received my call up for the
National Service.
When I entered the National Service there was nothing to warn me for the traps that
it involved. I was just another human being who had to do the right thing and followed
the rules of society.
My life and my philosophies about life in general, even though they were only
infantile, made me act in a way that became unacceptable for the people who play a big
part in running the country. Of course I must take the responsibility for this, because I

32
should have known how to be smart enough about the things that were, but I was only
me and I didn’t.
In the meantime I spent from 1950 till 1953 in the air force and that was certainly not
a time that I will easily forget. From the peril of a war someone was suddenly thrown into
the realization for a possible other one and I am sure that no one had any enthusiasm
for more. I retaliated vigorously and was punished severely for just an idealistic reaction
towards more education in killing. I was looked upon as a communist as a result and
was dealt with this accordingly. Later on I discovered that the black mark I received in
my soldiering time would pursue me for a long time afterwards.
However, I made of my National Service time the best I could and there were
certainly moments of fun. I remember the day that we entered boot camp in Nijmegen.
By the way, I had joined the Air force.
All the boys were of the same age and became 20 at the year of call up. I never
forget one of the boys. He was noisy, full of telling jokes and as such the middle of the
attention. He was also about 2 meters tall. At night, after the lights went out and we had
to go to sleep, one of the boys cried most of the night for his mother. In the morning we
found out that this was the joking giant. No wonder he did not want to go to sleep
because he missed his mother and it showed me for the first time that size has nothing
to do with the mentality of a person.
Anyway, I soon settled in and because, being a very sporty person, I liked all the
exercises and other physical activities. I put my objections of to war on the backburner
and just did what was expected from me. My political test came and went and was soon
forgotten by me. I went with the flow.
After boot camp we were sent to our destination in Eindhoven. It was a camp for the
training of Air force guards. I was obviously chosen because of the sports I had
practiced. When our train arrived at Eindhoven station, we had to get off and pick up our
gear. We assembled and were, as far as we were concerned, waiting for the trucks to
take us to camp.
To our astonishment they wanted us to run the 10 km in full combat-gear. As there
were many amongst us who were still not very fit, lots of complaints arose but without
any effect. Off we went.

33
One boy who came from the same township as I, a certain Joop Busse, was very big
and also overweight. From the start he had trouble in keeping up. I started to run next to
him and kept telling him: “Don’t let these bastards win by giving up, keep going.” Many
boys gave up, but this Joop kept going and lasted all the way. After all, the pride of
Hilversum, the place we came from, was at stake. This boy takes quite a place in my
soldiering time as I came across him quite often.
As I mentioned before, I liked the competitive side of what we were doing and when
we were sent on exercises, I was very often chosen as a leader. Crazy as it may sound,
I was quite proud of it. After a couple of weeks of hard work, I got the message that I
was being sent to Breda. It was the place where a soldier was trained to become an
officer.
As I had finished High School, I was certainly educated enough to qualify. When I
got off the train and made my way towards the barracks, I went straight away to the
officers building and left my gear there. Then I went to the office to acknowledge my
arrival. They told me that I was not dedicated to become an officer, but had to move in
with a certain exercise platoon. From Eindhoven we knew all about this platoon as the
place where all the misfits were sent to finish their service.
I looked at the sergeant in charge with astonishment and told him that he must be
mistaken. I had done nothing to deserve this kind of treatment. There was no mistake he
said and this platoon was it. Only then did it dawn on me that I was being punished for
my political test.
I was devastated as I already had come to terms with my situation and just wanted
to make the best of something bad enough. So, this was it! I collected my gear and took
it to the building of this exercise platoon. The impact of this was for me beyond belief.
The boys I met were obviously not doing any exercises and hung around as something
out of this world. Mind you, by this time I was used to regularity and cleanliness. These
boys looked dirty and unkempt.
It took me about three days to become one of them even though I never let myself
go as badly as most of them. It was the indifference towards what we were doing and
what was expected of us that made us this way. I never forget the first time we had to
assemble. I pulled on everything that was expected and raced towards the inspection
ground. I stood there in attention for a long time before the next one arrived and it must

34
have taken about a quarter of an hour before everyone was there. And boy, was that an
assembly. It still took quite some time to get them moving. I think this first day we had to
fill straw mattresses for a fresh lot of new comers.
It did not take long for me to change from a model soldier into something completely
different. I never became the worst as I don’t think I had it in me, but I did become
calculating in making the circumstances work as best as they could for me. I did not
interact with many of; what I called inmates, so I was probably looked upon as a loner.
But I knew how to look after myself and was never treated as an easy prey for ridicule.
As I mentioned before that I would come across Joop Busse more often; he was
also sent to the place in which I had landed myself, thinking the same as I did and when
I walked through one of the corridors, I found him balling his eyes out. His story was, as
I found out later, that his parents had been Nazi sympathizers and he had therefore
been rejected from the regular forces also. We never became good friends as we were
too different, but he was quite likable never the less.
One day he became a participant in something that could have made my own future
even worse than it already was. Sometimes we had guard duties and were supplied with
a revolver. Two different kinds mind you. Of one of the revolvers the cylinder would be
revolving left and of the other one the cylinder was revolving right. We kept one
chamber free so we had to pull the trigger twice before the gun would fire.
During smoko we would often go to our rooms, draw the gun like in a Western
movie, point it at someone and pull the trigger. This day I did the same. It was Joop
Busse to whom I pointed the gun at and for some reason I did not pull the trigger. Till
this day, it is still a wonder to me why I didn’t. At night when I took the gun back, I
realized that I had loaded the gun wrongly and if I had pulled the trigger I would have
killed Joop.
This realization made enough impression on me never to fool around with a loaded
gun again. Years afterwards I told Joop about this incident and I don’t think that he was
ever aware of the fact that he was only still alive because I did not pull the trigger at that
moment. For me it was the best lesson I could ever get and that I was very lucky. It
made me also realize that it was far more than just the incident.
It made me understand fully the effect of the choices we make and their outcome. I
could have finished up in jail only by the tightening of a finger and did not because of

35
something beyond me. It also made me aware of an invisible force that aids us when in
need and when we follow up on this instinctive warning.
May be it was not that clear to me then, but it has happened to me on numerous
occasions afterwards and it has become part of my understanding of the Nature of
things and the spiritual side of us which at that time in my life I still was unaware of.
Again I must interrupt my train of thought as all this happened so many years ago
and at this time of my life going through it seems as if I am writing about someone else’s
life and find it hard to realize that; yes, it is me I am writing about.
Service life became a routine, we did as much as we did not want to and over the
weekends we were home and I spent most of the time with my girlfriend Willy and at the
Sport school where I still ran the body building department.
One day, walking into the office of this school, Kees, the boy who took over from me
when I left, said to me: “Hey John, what about those magazines you left in the drawer”?
It took me some time to realize what he was talking about and suddenly it came to me
what he meant, but I had already walked on and did not answer him.
The person who did the office work before me, had a few sexy magazines left
behind and probably through a sexual inadequacy accentuated the female shape of the
vagina on the bikinis with a pencil. Going through the drawers, I had noticed them but
left them there. I never told anyone and as matter of fact forgot all about them until this
fellow confronted me with them in company of quite a few people, my boss included.
But what kind of a person would say something like that in front of others with such a
revelation? The least he should have done was confronting me in person, as it was it put
me in a very bad light. I was certainly not ready for a satisfactory explanation at that
particular moment as I did not know at the time what he was talking about. But I am sure
that this interlude has damaged my credibility as the person they thought I was.
Years afterwards I still blame myself for being so stupid and not confront this bastard
with his confounded accusations. But even though later on in life I had learned to speak
out a bit more, I still find it very hard to defend myself as I am always thinking that
people should know me better. Later in life I realised that I am not an easy person to
read.

36
Back to Breda! The commander of our section was a short heavyset man of around
fifty. He always acted like a grump, was a man of very few words and because of his
attitude, very much capable of keeping this unruly assortment of men under the thumb.
He was a stickler for the right soldier behavior and as soon as I realized that, I would
always be the perfect soldier in his company. Dishonest, but necessary in my case!
Certainly when I needed his signature on a written request for special leave! I
became very cunning in this exercise with such results, that when our new platoon
lieutenant had been there already for a couple of weeks, he asked me how many days
ago I had joined the outfit. When I told him that I was an old hand, he got my measure
straight away. However with this knowledge he never made my life harder, on the
contrary, he seemed to enjoy a soldier with some imagination which proved itself later
on. He was obviously punished for some reason as he also ended up as our leader.
Each time we went on an exercise, I had taken on the habit of leaving the platoon to
roam the area on my own in search of the fruits that grew plentifully in the orchards we
came across. As an excuse I would suggest to the lieutenant or sergeant that I should
be doing some scouting. Afterwards I would return with my pockets full of whatever was
available and share it around. That did of course not include the staff.
The second time we went out under the command of this new lieutenant, I
suggested to him politely that I should go ahead and scout the road and countryside.
Without turning a hair he told me to go but not to forget to bring some apples for him. He
was no one’s fool.
The first and only person who made quite an impression on me was Geert Versteeg.
He was a University student majoring in mathematics and because he did refuse to join
the officer’s corps, he ended up in our platoon.
He was a very easy going fellow and the same as I, very sports minded. From the
start we clicked and spent a lot of time together and trained regularly in athletics and
gymnastics. He also was a top player in Handball.
One day he was sent on a mission with a few blokes who always seemed to get into
trouble. They did something of which I was sure that Geert would never agree to and
were caught red handed.

37
They were put in lock-up, my friend included and after I was told, I raised hell to get
him out. I told our commander that Geert was in the wrong place at the wrong time and
unfortunately in the company of this riff-raff when things went wrong and that he could
not possibly be part of it. The lieutenant told me he could do nothing as he would have
been a willing participant.
I returned to our barracks in a murderous mood and went for our sergeant. The poor
fellow had nothing to do with the situation but I advised him to make sure that Geert got
out of lock-up because we had our own way of retaliation.
I knew that our platoon had a bad history in this sort of thing and even though I
carried some weight personally, most of the hard cases were already demobilized and
besides the ones who were already in lock-up, only the tame ones were left to retaliate
with and I was sure they did not want any part of it as I already had confronted them.
I was bluffing grossly but I must have underestimated my own influence in those
matters and most possibly the staff had not realized the lack of backbone amongst us. I
have always gone my own way and never even thought of myself as a personality of
certain power. I also knew that because I kept to myself no one really knew what kind of
a person I was and may be through that I received the biggest surprise of my life in the
way my sergeant reacted.
This sergeant pleaded with me not to do anything drastic until he had done as much
as he could to get Geert out.
Geert was back with us that same night. I thanked the sergeant for what he had
accomplished and felt for the first time in my life the exhilaration of a feeling of selfrespect.
Through a sheer show of personality I did not only get my friend free, but also
gained a lot of respect from the ones around me. This may all sound very conceited, but
it was for me quite a revelation.
As I wrote a complete separate story about my time in the Air force, I will put this in
later as a supplement.
---…---

38
After the service I got married to my girlfriend Wilhelmina Majoor. We dated
for about three years and she had become pregnant towards the end of my soldiering
time. The first bad brake I got was the fact that my old boss of the Sports Institute did
not take me back.
It was the law that any employee had to be taken back in the same capacity by his
employer after leaving the service, but for some reason my boss asked me if I could wait
a couple of months before coming back in my old capacity as he could not sack the one
who took my place at that moment.
I realized later that it was only a ploy from his side. In the first place the magazine
incident might still have been on his mind and secondly, because I was married, he
could not pay me a pittance any more.
Anyway after two months had lapsed after I left the air force, he did not have
to take me back. At the same time I realized that the other fellow was more his type. Of
course there were a lot of other reasons from his point of view I am sure, but at that time
I could only see my own. However he let me keep the bodybuilding section as by that
time, men specially had become very aware of their physical fitness.
This by itself was a very clever move. A couple of years before I left to join the
Service, I had started this department in the school and it had become by that time the
most profitable.
After my service time it had deteriorated to next to nothing so he needed me badly to
re-establish this part of his business. Even though I knew all this, I decided to do it
because I did not have much of a choice. It was all I knew and I needed the money.
Married and with a child on the way.
So I let myself being used again. During the day I worked for my brother in law,
loading and unloading bricks on a semi-trailer and at night the bodybuilding classes.
During this time I also studied for my teacher’s certificate in Judo, Jiu-Jitsu and physical
education which I obtained in due time and obtained the so called CIOS diploma. This is
a college where its students boarded during their studies and the first in the field of
sports. Strangely enough I must have been a person who breaks moulds, as I was the
first one ever to attend the end exams and pass comfortably without having studied at
this College. To go back in time I was also the first one to receive the black cherry

39
blossom in Jiu Jitsu. I may have mentioned this already before but for me it was in that
case good enough to mention this again. Now the next disaster!
One night during a body-building class I suddenly became very ill and was
send home on my bike with an enormous fever. It turned out to be pleurisy. It was the
end of my working career for six months and afterwards I still had to be careful with
physical labor. I had to find another job, which I did.
I started to work for a firm in grinding machines and its associated materials. As I
had no former experience, so again I had to work for a pittance. With my normal zest I
threw myself into this new venture and again very soon ran the business more or less.
The less was the fact that my new boss did the buying in Germany and left me
running the business at home. Of course I did not do such on my own because his wife
was also part of this, but as she was having an affair at the same time with a friend of the
family, most of it was left to me. I worked there for about two years and by that time I was
sick and tired of again being used and underpaid. I went to my boss and gave him an
ultimatum to either pay me sufficiently or I will leave. In the meantime he had employed
another poor fellow to give me a hand, as my workload became too heavy. I did not get
my raise and soon afterwards I took my leave!
I still believe that I was the main cause in the way people treated me at that time
as I let them!
Reading back I would not blame anyone to think me a winger as it reads a bit like
that. But it still happened the way as I described it at that time of my life in the state of
mind I was then.
I hope that by now one does not feel that I have always been thinking a lot of myself.
I don’t believe so. Remember, I am so much older now and I am trying to explain my
past to myself and this is the best I can do.
In the meantime I was married to Willy Majoor and we had a son called
Andries. At birth he was already rather tall so we expected him to be a big boy. We were
very happy at that time and even though we had a very bad start, I was certainly not
letting it have the better of us. I remember that when Andre was only a couple of days
old, he had trouble drinking. Wil’s nipples withdrew and he could not get hold of them to

40
suck. He did not get enough fluid and became dehydrated. Of course I did not know that
at the time, but as he was letting his arms hang to the sides of his body I felt there was
something wrong.
As the birth happened at home, we had a sister coming in to check up on him and
Wil. She assured us that nothing was wrong. However, I did not accept that and rang
the doctor. As it was on a Sunday, he was not at all happy to come and told me that all
new parents were overly worried about their newborn. I was not having that as I firmly
believed something was wrong. He came and within a quarter of an hour Andre was in
the hospital. He was dehydrated and could not have lasted very long if that was not
fixed up.
Years afterwards the doctor told me that without him Andre would have died.
Thinking back, I knew that, if my wife and I had listened to the midwife and the doctor,
help would have been too late. Of course it did no good to tell the doctor this and after
all, his quick action was as good as our stubbornness.
After this near fatal start, our son became a very healthy baby. When he started to
walk he did so without any problems as if had thought about this exercise and trained in
his mind of how to go about it. I mention this because it took him 12 months to start
walking.
Two years after Andre, we had another son called Robbert Jan. He also was a very
healthy boy and we were very happy with the both of them. Life went on but I was still
very unhappy with our prospects. I was a fully-fledged sports instructor, but I still did not
make a satisfactory living. By now I had entered the stage where I was working for my
parents, the pay was minimal and I felt that the business was too small to support three
families. Bert, my younger brother also worked at home.
That’s where we started to look into immigration. I am sorry that I hardly mentioned
my wife and one might think that she was of no consequence, but we were then still
happily married and of course, when I write about I, us is meant. So if I sound somewhat
callous, it is not meant that way.
At the same time Wil has her own story of which I don’t have the privilege to know
before she writes it.

41
As I said, we wanted something different and put our mind on immigration.
Personally I liked to go to Canada, but my profession was not suitable and we had no
sponsors. My second choice was New Zealand but that country needed the same
requirements. Years later I found out that quite a few of my cousins had already
migrated to New Zealand and could easily have sponsored us, but as it was I did not
know.
Australia was left, as it was the only country that accepted migrants without any
qualifications or skills and unfortunately, with my education and professional past, I was
looked upon as such. We applied for Australia.
It took such a long time before we heard anything about any acceptance that we lost
any hope in ever being able to migrate.
I settled down to my job with my parents who were thinking of buying my own truck
for me so I could start for myself. By the way we had a sheet metal business. We bought
off-cuts from one manufacturer for scrap and cut the usable pieces into the right seizes
for another. It was a very profitable business.
Suddenly from out of nowhere the government was asking questions about my
credentials all around the area where I lived and grew up. The reason being that
because of my political test in the Air force they still thought that I was a communist and
the Australian government had no intention of letting people with that denomination into
the country. It took me a long time before I could wipe this unfair even though self
brought on smear of my record but at long last I succeeded and we were allowed to go
to Australia.
My parents already thought that this emigration nonsense was behind them, as they
certainly did not want their son and his family to move so far away. As I also had started
a Physiotherapy course (that by itself took some doing.) it was after a long deliberation
between my wife and I that we still decided to go.
It was an extremely hard task for me to tell my mother as I knew it would hurt her a
lot. That she would take it on the chin without complaints made it not easier for me.
With Willy’s parents it was something different, as she never saw them again
after they refused to give their permission for marriage and we had to wait 3 months
before we could do this legally. During that time Andre was perceived and even though I

42
never realized it at the time, for Wil it was something hard to take. I only found that out
decades later. My wife swore that she would never see them again.
Anyway with us going to leave the country, I did not think it fair to go without trying to
reconcile her with her family. My wife was adamant however not to bother as she
pointed out to me a certain situation in the past. What she was aiming at was one day
after Andre was born, her father rode past on his bicycle and she called out to him to
come in and see his first grandson. He rode on regardless without any reaction.
I can still get tears in my eyes when I remember this episode and how she must
have felt. She loved her father very much and to be able to cope with a situation like that
takes some character or may be destroys part of this character.
But I was far too certain of the finality of our step and insisted. They invited us to
stay with them for the last week before we departed and I must say that I am very happy
that I accomplished this. I knew that Willy adored her father even though she could not
get on with her mother and leaving Holland without reconciliation would have been a
disaster for her and her family. As it came about, it was the best we could have done.
My mother however was not all that thrilled because she would have liked us to
spend more time with my family, but as you cannot please everyone, we had to make
this choice. I am sure that my mother would forgive us in due time and I thought that for
my wife it was essential.
Little did I know what the future had in store for us? So we went and I will never
forget my mother’s face when we were waving them good bye from the ship’s railing. I
don’t think she cried, but she had such a lost expression on her face that it will be
forever in my memory. Till then I never realized what I did to her by leaving.
Anyway, life goes on and after the ship (The Southern Cross) had departed,
all the new things that were going on in our lives, made us soon put the sadness of
parting on the backburner.
Our World Voyage!

43
We had said our good-byes at Amsterdam and went on our way to Ijmuiden,
which is a kind of an outer harbor. When we left this harbor, some of our relatives had
followed the ship and stood waving on the pier. This was a very nice surprise as it was
the very last opportunity to do so. Even if it did make us go through the sadness of
saying Good-bye again. After that, we had really left and started to tend to our settling
in. It was all very exciting and new. The only drawback was the fact that married couples
split up as far as sleeping quarters were concerned. Women and children separate from
the men.
But we were soon used to this situation and from the start I looked upon this trip as a
free holiday and our honeymoon. If I remember well, it cost us a total of 600 guilders
which of course we did not have and my parents paid for. All my life I wanted to travel
and this was the first time I went on a trip full stop. Halfway around the world was an
added bonus. In the meantime it was Jan.1956 and as there was trouble in Suez Canal,
we went past the Dutch West Indies and through Panama Canal. None of us became
seasick during the whole of the sea-voyage and we had a whale of a time. As we had no
money to spend ashore, we could not really look upon this adventure as a holiday, but it
was good enough. I am not going to write much more about this trip as it is not of much
importance as far as the rest of my life is concerned except that we had a taste of the
way in which rich people spend their holidays.
Actually we met quite a few people on board ship who became our friends and
whose friendship lasted for many years. But those you will meet later.
The first city we saw in Australia was Melbourne, the final port of our sea
voyage and where we disembarked. Also something incredibly happened when we got
off the ship; a young man approached us and asked me if I was Jan Klomp from
Hilversum and when I acknowledged this, he told us that he was the brother of Miep, the
girl who approached me in Primary School with a note that she wanted to meet me after
class to have some fun time and got into trouble because of it. Of all the things that
could happen in one’s life this was the most unexpected. We never saw him afterwards!
After all the paperwork was done we bordered a train and were on our way to
Bonagilla. This was a stopover camp for immigrants. It was a dreadful trip. Hot, dusty
and our children were tired, in no mood to behave quietly. By the time we reached

44
Wangaratta, for us the last stop, all of us were exhausted and hoping it would soon be
over.
There were buses waiting to take us to our destination. By the time we reached
Bonagilla, (a migrant camp from which the immigrants found work and their new
destinations) we really had it and only wanted to lie down and go to sleep. In the dark
we had to find our way to our living quarters and when we at last arrived, they turned out
to be one roomed dwellings with beds made of steel and cyclone wire. In other words,
from the luxurious life on board ship, we came back to earth with a thud. For my wife Wil
it must have been a lot worse than for me, even though she did not complain. For me it
was not hard to accept. Having been in the Air Force, I was still used to just the
essentials. As everybody was very tired and only thought of sleep, snoring was the only
sound to be detected afterwards!
All of us accepted life in this camp, even though it was very hard for many
people to get used to the food. Even so I did not like the food I realized that in due time I
needed my strength for probable physical labor; I ate enough to stay fit.
I can still hear a friend of mine say to me: “How can you eat that muck in heaven’s
name?”
I laughed and told him, but he wanted none of that. The friend’s name was Joop Kok
and he had migrated with a family of five. He had two boys and a girl. As he sold a
profitable business in his home town; which was the same as were we came from, he
had plenty of money with him and he and his family had a most beautiful trip coming out
on the same ship because he could spend money in the harbors we encountered.
When we arrived at Bonagilla, many people warned us about spiders, snakes and all
kinds of creatures that could kill us with just one bite. Instead of just wishing us a good
stay in this very different home for the time being, everyone seemed intend to warn us
about its dangers. I never came across a snake and neither did anyone else of my
family and we looked upon spiders as just creatures of nature. Why those stupid people
had to warn us about this was the proof of their stupidity or just a show of superiority.
The camp we lived in had an employment office and they would in due time get us a
job with or without accommodation. As it turned out, Joop had a friend from the ship we
arrived in who again had friends living in Glen Rowan; the town in which Ned Kelly was
born as we found out afterwards and he had come in contact with Joop. He had a job

45
offer from the same firm he worked for and if I wanted to, I could come along. It was
work in a quarry, good wages and accommodation close to work. My wife and I thought
it a good idea and we made ourselves ready to go. But first we had to clear this with the
employment office. They were not at all impressed, as in the past most of the people
who found a job without their help, were back in the hostel within a couple of days
because the job they found turned out to be a disaster. The employment officer did his
best to talk us out of it and told us at the same time that, if we went, we could no longer
depend on them. But we were adamant as in fact we did not like Bonagilla. The next day
we were on our way.
The train journey to Glen Rowan was an exciting one. Two families; going to
their first job in a new country. We were full of hope and looking forward to make some
money after those months of doing nothing. When we arrived at Wangaratta we had to
hire a taxi to get to Glen Rowan. You should have seen us, two families (all together
nine people) with all their luggage in just one taxi. But we got there and we were ready
to settle in our quarters. Nobody could have made us believe beforehand where we
would end up.
Our accommodation was an old broken down tin shed with nothing in it but chickens.
Obviously it was used as a chicken coup.
We chased them out and were just about ready to settle in, when my wife Willy
suddenly cried out: “This is bloody ridiculous, both children have diarrhea, we have no
furniture, no food and I will be dammed if I am going to stay here!”
I would probably have given it a go, but I could see her point and realised the state
of affairs through her eyes and we made up our mind then and there to return to Bona-
Gilla. A stroke of luck sent a delivery-van to the quarry and I walked up to the driver and
explained to him our situation. The good man did not hesitate a second to drive us back
to the railway station. We were of course very grateful for such good fortune.
From the station I rang the hostel at Bona-Gila, hoping they would be willing to take
us back. The result of the call was very heartwarming. They were happy to hear from us
and if we came back on the first train, there would be no problem at all in accepting us
again.
A bus would be at the station to take us back to the camp when we arrived.

46
As we had a couple of hours to spare before the train left, we decided to let our
friends know about our decision. As we knew their phone-number, we gave them a ring
and they said that they would be at the station in time to say good-bye.
In about half an hour they came down and told us how surprised and disappointed
they were that we had made up our minds so urgently. Apparently the owners of the
quarry had collected bits of furniture for us to settle down in. We did not change our
mind however as the living quarters were the same. As a matter of fact Joop and his
family had their accommodation and settled down comfortably in their friend’s house. Of
course they understood our situation very well but I believe that I was part of the deal
between Joop and the owners of the quarry. I was then still a strapping young fellow and
they needed me to swing that sledgehammer. Joop was certainly no good at that sort of
thing. Anyway we said our good bye’s and they left.
Sometime later we were on our way back to Bona-Gila. When we arrived, the bus
was already there to pick us up and take us back to the camp. The same hut was still
waiting for us and we moved back in. We felt more or less coming home after the
debacle we had experienced.
Life went on as before but this time we were waiting for the employment office
to find a job for me. I probably did not mention that when we arrived in Australia we
received 70 pounds landings money. This was an agreement between the Australian
and Dutch government to make sure that we had some money to start a new life.
You should have seen the vultures in the disguise of insurance salesmen, coming
into the camp to make sure they got their part of this money. They were also migrants
who realized there was money to be made. Many gullible migrants lost most of this
landings money through their badgering. Even I, having had enough experiences with
crooks, spend some money on insurance to make sure that the family did not have to
suffer if anything happened to me. Of course it was a stupid move, as we never
extended the same policy afterwards and as with everything, the chance that something
would happen to me was very small. But that is how things were; you just arrived in a
new country and are very vulnerable to that sort of thing. The next that happened to us
was the news that they found a job for me in Adelaide. The bad thing was that I had to
pay the fares out of my own pocket because the government had already paid for us to
go to Glen Rowan. We were devastated because it meant that we would have hardly

47
any money of the 70 pounds left on arriving in Adelaide. But our good fortune kept
following us from a much unexpected side.
Our friend Joop did not stay in Glen Rowan either and left soon after us. He,
with his family went to Melbourne to start a new life and do you know what, they were
smart people and they sued the employment office for damages because they were
allowed to look for employment themselves. Being a rather simple person myself, or
may be just honest, I could not understand their reasoning as they got my family and I in
the same position and I would not have dreamt to sue them for the disastrous result.
I really took it for granted then that Joop and his friend were trying to do their best for
my family and me. When it turned out badly, I did not blame them as I thought that it
was my own responsibility by taking them up on the offer. So, from my side I could not
see the gripes they had with the Employment Office as they had warned us beforehand.
So I became a witness before the court and certainly not on Joop’s side.
In the meantime however I had the cost of the trip to Adelaide hanging over my head
and thought that by now I might be able to sway the Government to change their mind
as far as paying the trip to Adelaide was concerned. I again told them that I was very
happy with the way they treated us and could not understand Joop’s reasons for suing
them. Immediately afterwards I added that I was hoping they would change their mind
about paying the fares to Adelaide. After I brought this to the attention of the court, they
thought it no more than fair that our trip should be paid for the second time.
In the meantime an acquaintance of us had advised us to see the priest for help and
when I did so, he said that so far no person had ever received the money for a second
trip. So we must have made history.
I also did not feel like a heel towards my friends, as I did not think they deserved any
better and writing this after so many years I have come to realize the importance of
making up one’s own mind.
Adelaide!

48
When we arrived in Adelaide, we were taken to Woodside, an old army camp
in the Adelaide Hills. We encountered some trouble as one of our suitcases was missing
and all the children’s clothing was in there. But our fellow migrants were happy to help us
out until the suitcase was found and that did not take long.
As soon as we were settled in, I had to go to the employment office. They told me
that the job I was promised with Perry Engineering was no longer available so they had to
look for something else.
Woodside turned out to be only for women and children. The men were taken to
the Glenelg Hostel. There we had to wait until a job came available. My first job was with
ETSA and I had no idea what kind of work was waiting for me. ETSA was the division
part of the SA. Government that supplied the State’s electricity.
When I arrived, fresh and bushy-tailed, the first thing they asked me if I had a
driver’s license. Coming from Holland where all the travelling we did was on trains, buses
and bicycles, I had to tell them that I had no license. That was a very bad point in my
favor as in Australia nearly everyone went for his or her test when they reached sixteen
years of age.
Anyway, I became the lunch boy. I had to go to everyone with my list to write
down what they wanted for lunch. That was the reason I needed a driver’s license
because those lunches had to be picked up from a close by restaurant and that had to be
done by car. This job was bloody awful. As you can see I had already learned a swear
word!
After all I was a fully-fledged sports-instructor 25 years of age and I had to do the
job of a 16 or 17 year old. Don’t think now that it really got me down because I had done
many dirty jobs already and after all, I was making money.
After a couple of days I got some of the boys together and taught some selfdefense
during lunchtime. However, the job only paid ten pounds per week and it just
covered the cost of the hostel. After a week or so, my wife and children joined me at
Glenelg and the family was together again.
I lasted a fortnight at ETSA as I read an advertisement in the paper about a job as
bricklayer’s laborer with wages of 18 pounds per week. It did not give me much of a

49
choice and as I saw it in the weekend and had to start the same Monday, I could not give
notice to ETSA, so I lost a week’s wages.
But I did ring ETSA and explained the situation, as I did not just want to leave
without any notice at all. Monday morning saw me bright and early on my new job and I
was ready to flex my muscles. It took a while before everyone else was on the job. My
new boss was a huge Pole, not just a pole, but a Polish migrant with hands as big as
shovels and wrists twice the size of mine. He was a man of few words and very impatient.
He explained things only once and expected me straight away to do the job of an
experienced laborer. I had to make the mortar for two fast bricklayers and at the same
time supply them with bricks and build the scaffolding. Thankfully I was not a slow learner
and physically quite strong otherwise I would not have lasted the day. I still remember
that at one stage I fiddled with the very heavy cement-mixer when suddenly I was pushed
aside and bossy-baby grabbed one leg of the mixer in his bear-claw and righted the thing
in one heave. Afterwards I thought he must have been waiting for the opportunity to show
off his enormous strength. After a week of slaving out my guts, the second in command
told me off handedly that I was only taking the place of the regular laborer who had
injured himself the week before and would come back after he was healed.
Bloody hell, what do I do now, I thought, I did not feel to be cheated again as I had
enough of that in Holland. As he told me this on Saturday morning and I was being paid
on Tuesday, I should have stayed on till that payday, but I was very adamant not to waste
any time and find a good and reliable job. So I decided not to go back and look for a new
job on Monday. This time I did not bother to inform the builder, as he obviously did not
have the courtesy to tell me the way things were. Besides the facts of what I am doing, I
am still so far not telling much about our family-life and with the same reasons as before.
This will come later!
Monday morning arrived and I decided to visit a few Employment offices. After
a few inquiries here and there I finished up in the Port Adelaide office and they told me
that the Actil Factory was looking for tuners. It is a spinning and weaving company and
they manufacture cotton sheets, pillowcases and towels.
I went there and after an interview I became employed as an apprentice tuner. A
tuner is a mechanic and boss of a weaver who looks with a spare-weaver after 40 looms.
As soon as I was introduced to my job the next day, I learned that it took an apprentice

50
about four years before he got his own section of looms and I could not afford to last this
long before I started to make decent wages. Weavers however were making good
money. Especially at nightshift so I straightaway applied for the job of spare weaver at
nightshift. I succeeded in getting that job and after a couple of weeks training during day
shift; I became a spare weaver for continuous nightshift. Something developed from there
of which I am still very proud today.
When I turned up for my job, I became the helper of a German weaver on C-
section of the narrow looms, the ones that produced the material for pillowcases. The
wide looms produced sheets. I did not mind the job, as you had to be on your guard
continuously in order to stay ahead of breakdowns. My C-section was by the way the
worst section of the four called A, B, C, and D. I was working my little heart out to keep
things going, but my weaver, I’ll call him Heinz as I forgot his name, did not seem to care
much and often disappeared. The weaver of B-section, another Dutchman, said to me:
“You are nuts working so hard for that lazy German.” But I knew that our head weaver
was watching us all the time and that in due time I would be the weaver and Heinz my
spare weaver.
This happened within the next six weeks and by then I had learned enough about
weaving to understand how to make the machines run without too many breakdowns. All
the tools the weaver had to keep the looms going, was a little hook to pull the thread
through the reeds after knotting a broken one and a bit of sandpaper to smooth out a
wooden shuttle after it started to splinter because of hitting the reeds through a badly
timed shove from the pick-stick.
I am not going to explain this any further as I don’t think many of my descendants
will be interested. But I knew then that if this happened, a piece of sandpaper was not the
cure. I wanted to know why it happened and I soon found out through watching and
listening, that it was the wear and tear of pick-stick and leather straps attached to the
pick-stick that was the cause of all the work the weavers and spare weavers were doing.
So after a month or so, I walked through the aisles between the machines and
observed and listened and when anything happened that I did not like and I knew its
cause, I stopped the loom and wrote down on the worksheet of the tuner what was
wrong.

51
You should have seen the reaction of those tuners. They abused the hell out of
me and told me to keep to my own job and keep the looms going with my piece of
sandpaper. It went that far that when I stopped a loom and wrote down the complaint, the
tuner would storm down to this machine and start it again. I would stop it again and
informed the tuner in no uncertain terms that if he did not fix the ailment, I would go to the
supervisor. It took me about two weeks before the tuners got used to me and it took
another two weeks for my section to become the top section in quality and quantity. I am
using the word tuners in the plural sense because on one section we had three different
ones; because of the three shifts. Boy, don’t I sound bigheaded. Never the less it
happened as I said and in due time my results became known to the top brass.
But not to my benefit as I was put onto the worst section again afterwards, but this
time with what were thought to be the best tuners. It was the D. section. One must realize
of course that changes are never readily accepted or understood by anyone. As the
tuners came from A-section, which was the best section before I fixed the C- section, the
weavers must have thought the worst about that Dutch upstart who thought he knew it all
and made it clear to me from the start they were not going to be part of my different
approach.
However they did not have much choice as by now, as I realised later, I had the
backing of management. We got over our differences and in a short time section D
became again the best section. By now management obviously wanted to know why. I
was taken of nightshift and put on dayshift.
I was very upset, mainly because I had no idea why at the time and the money
was not as good. But I soon found out why. Our managing director was watching
everything I did for a couple of days and shortly afterwards my system became a law
through the weaving department.
I was put back on nightshift but I never profited by any of the things I had
accomplished. On the contrary I lost because as a result we had to run 80 looms instead
of 40.
In the meantime I realized that I did not want to do this for the rest of my working
life as I vowed when I left Holland to start my own business no matter what it was.
I had already started a window cleaning business during daytime.

52
Here I am not completely truthful. Lou Reinalda, one of the boys we befriended on
the Southern Cross went to Melbourne and started a cleaning business with our old
friend Joop Kok, the friend we left behind in Wangaratta and complained about the ill
treatment of the employment office in Bona-Gilla. Well, he found us in Adelaide. Boy, I
am getting carried away again, because in the meantime things have happened on the
home front. So I have to back up a bit.
-.-.-.-
When at one time my wife Wil and I walked towards the dining room of the
Glenelg Hostel, a woman went past and she looked very familiar to me. We walked on
but I said to Wil: Blow me down, I think that the woman we just past is my cousin Hetty
Rosmalen, a cousin from Holland and a daughter of the only sister of my father. “If you
want to know for sure, just ask her”; my wife commented. I turned around, approached
her and fair enough, she was my cousin. Unbelievable and quite a coincidence! But what
is even more unbelievable is the fact that she was married to a man whom I had already
met before on the bus going from Woodside to Glenelg. A man on the bus talked nonstop
to someone with him and I said to Wim Verkuil, a friend of mine at the time: Just
imagine being married to someone like that. You must have guessed it by now: He
happened to be to be my cousin’s husband. It turned out that my cousin became
pregnant while she was still in Holland and unmarried. You can make up out of this
revelation that I am quite a gossip. He was willing to marry her, baby and all. I will end her
story here as it is of no importance to dwell on it any further.
Also during that time Andre and Robbert contracted diarrhea. Wil was adamant
that we should look for a house in order to cook for us and have a more regulated life. I
could not blame her as I was working at night and slept during the day, while she had to
cope with the daily problems of our lives. So we looked for a house and found one. But
the price was eleven pounds a week. More than half of what I earned.
We decided to take it, as the house was big enough to have boarders. But we
needed a security deposit of two hundred pounds, which we did not have.
However, something always seems to come to our rescue and this time it was
someone we met on board the Southern Cross, Peter Broer. He migrated to New
Zealand, was very disenchanted with his employment and decided to come to Australia.

53
That move has been of a greater impact on our lives than we could ever have imagined.
You will find out later why.
We moved into Braystreet in Brayville because Peter was willing to loan us the
down payment so we could move in but with him as a boarder. It was there that Lou
Reinalda looked us up after been together with Joop Kok who had started a cleaning
business in Melbourne and worked with him for some time. He was also a migrant we
met on the Southern Cross. Joop Kok was the same man with whom we went to Glen
Rowan where we landed ourselves in the chicken coop.
He became a boarder and stayed with us for quite some time. He started his own
cleaning business in Adelaide on his pushbike and sometimes asked my help when he
had to do a job that needed an extension ladder. We would carry it between us; both on a
bike and did this job.
As he gained quite a few customers I started to help him more and more and as
he thought it was a good thing for me to make money during the night and also work
during the day; he asked me if I could introduce him at Actil.
I did and he soon worked as a spare-weaver at my place of employment. He did
not have my urgency to make money as he had no family to look after and he soon gave
up on window cleaning and left me to do this by myself.
In the meantime, our next door neighbor wanted to buy a new car and had an old
1934 Triumph to trade in. He asked me if I wanted to buy it from him for the money he
would get as a trade-in and as that was very low I took him up on the offer.
I had already my driver’s license because I also had bought an old motorbike
some time before. I used it to get to Actil and also to do some garden work for people I
met during the time I cleaned windows.
The motorbike was a Douglas with two cylinders side by side and when I once
misjudged the width while going through a gate; I knocked off one of the cylinders. It
meant the end of my gardening as the bike was a write off.
So when our neighbor came with his offer it came quite timely. However by the
time our friend Lou came on the scene, this poor ancient vehicle had already given up the
ghost.

54
So when Lou left me to it, I needed another car and bought a Goliath made in
Germany by the Borgward Factory. Of course when I mention I bought this and that; I
should say we, as Willy was just as much involved and I would do nothing without a
deliberation between the both of us.
We decided to call our venture “Brayville Cleaning Service”. In the meantime, our
benefactor Peter Broer became a nuisance after a couple of years to look after for my
wife and she asked me one day to speak to him as he complained about everything and
was never happy no matter how hard she tried. I talked to him and as a result I told him
to leave as he could not understand what he was doing wrong. He mentioned that he had
helped us with money so we could move into this house so why would we complain.
I looked at him in amazement and told him that he had offered to help us out, only
because, firstly he could afford to do so and secondly he needed a boardinghouse for
himself. He also knew Willy as the caring person she was. The borrowed money had
been paid back with interest because of the way he was looked after. As he still could not
understand why he had to change his attitude, I told him to leave. As I said before, I had
enough of people who only want to use people.
This was however something very hard to put into practice as our house was
somehow always filled with people who suddenly were standing on our doorstep asking
for help. Most of them were people we knew from the “Zuiderkruis”, the ship we arrived
on and for some reason found out were we lived.
Whole families moved in and of all of them one family is still very clear in my
memory; Wim Verkuil with a family of seven. They were very simple people and very
good to my wife when she was left behind in Woodside when I had to leave her to go to
Glenelg Hostel.
They were only going to stay for a short time as they just wanted to get out of
Woodside and needed a place to stay while looking for a house to rent. After about half a
year they were still happily living with us and made no attempt to find other lodgings.
What do you do in such a situation? It was only after Wim and his wife went out
regularly and left Wil to look after their children and also feed them, that my wife became
a bit worried and asked me to have a talk to them. Boy, were they upset when I did, as I
have never been someone who minces words.

55
They were soon gone to a place they bought in Bridgewater; a place in the Hills.
We were very happy to help them move. Funnily enough we still stayed friends and saw
them on a regular basis.
Before all this happened and still living in Brayville, I had enough of being used at
Actil, gave that away as the cleaning business got big enough for me to be able to afford
that. But blow me down, no sooner had I given up my night-job, or I became terribly ill. I
was struck down with something that hit me like a ton of bricks. I had an enormous pain
in my neck and severe headaches. As the doctor suspected it to be meningitis, I had to
go into the infectious decease hospital at Northfield.
We were therefore in a terrible situation. I just started to work solely for myself and
I was not insured yet for my time off work. In the meantime I was very ill and even after a
few tests the doctors still had no idea what was ailing me.
So there was nothing left for me to do than somehow leave the hospital and try to
get better on my own. I told the doctor that I felt completely healed and I wanted to go
home. As the poor man had no idea what was the matter with me any way, he said: “If
you can stay up for a few hours to-morrow morning without any trouble, you can go
home.”
Feeling as sick as I did, I had no idea how I would be able to accomplish this,
but when the morning arrived, I bravely sat up for about half an hour and was near
collapsing.
I managed to say to the attending nurse: “I am getting cold and I don’t see why I
have to sit up and suffer. Just let me go back to bed to get a bit more comfortable”. She
agreed just in time.
Early afternoon the doctor came to check up and everyone agreed that I was well
enough to go home. I telephoned my wife to pick me up and in the meantime I was
bathed and disinfected. It was the worst time ever. I had to wait in the bathroom for Wil
and it took, in my mind, forever. I could not sit on the chair, as I felt dizzy and sick. So I
stretched out on the tiled floor during that time and jumped up every time I heard
someone approach. At long last my wife arrived and took me home.
I was in such a state that it felt as if it took forever getting home. When we at long
last arrived, everyone was there to greet me and on the back of my chair was even a

56
“Welcome Home” sign. In the meantime we still had quite a few boarders which of course
was a good thing for us during this time of hardship.
I must have been an awful disappointment to them, because I could not sit up and
just wanted to go to bed.
To make a long story short, I came home on Friday and the next Monday I was at
work again. Don’t ask me how I managed this as this is impossible to explain. It was
about 50 years later that I thought I found the answer to the cause of this illness. I read
somewhere that a footballer fell suddenly ill after a swim in the bay and he described the
same symptoms as I went through. It appeared that he was stung by a certain jellyfish
and that was treatable. At that moment I also remembered that I took a swim with a friend
called Jan Reiman and after the swim had such an attack of head- and neck aches that I
had to lie down on the beach until it somewhat dissipated. The article about this footballer
also mentioned that if untreated this poison would stay in the body. I have still and now at
85 years of age a regular pain in the neck and headaches. I told this story once to my
doctor and he thought that this was nonsense.
I can also not blame anyone reading this thinking that I must have been stupid to
act in such a way as I could have had something life threatening and I could be off worse.
Fair enough and understandable, but at the time I felt I had no choice and could only
think of the wellbeing of my family who depended on me.
For a year afterwards I had dizzy-spells when I suddenly turned my head,
especially standing on ladders. I had to put my arms around the spokes in order not to
lose my balance.
When I explained this to my doctor years afterwards, he said that if I had not
acted the way I did, I might have been off a lot worse as a result. Anyway, I survived and
as you can see I am still here.
Many things have happened to us during the time we lived at Braystreet. For me it
was not too bad, as I worked night and day at this particular time, but for my wife it must
have been hell. Of course it was a self-inflicted hell, as we did not have to take all those
people into our house. I presume we were too soft. I also don’t think that we ever made
any real profit out of the people we looked after. We were no real business people and
spend therefore far too much time and money to make their stay comfortable.

57
With all the work we did, I still took some time off for myself as I loved spear
fishing, an activity some fellows from ACTIL introduced me to.
Even when I took my family with me, they were most of the time left behind on the
beach with the wives and children of the friends who joined me. However, starting afresh
in a new country with a ready-made family could only mean hard work and sacrifices. Wil
never complained and it took me a long time to realize her hardship. This period in our
lives should have consolidated our relationship, but unfortunately, as you will find out
later, it did not.
In 1958 our daughter Yvonne was born and I was ecstatic with happiness. She
was a lovely child and a very solemn one. We met many people during those days and
quite a few became our friends. Our friend Peter Broer had left in the meantime after
being with us for two years. He moved in with mutual friends and for us it was a big step
in the right direction.
Boy, this all happened 40 years ago and I really have to think back and tell only
the things that are of importance and also remember the right sequences.
As I am in essence a real gossip, I find it hard not to write all kinds of juicy bits
about our acquaintances, but that is not what this is all about, so I have to keep this script
lean from that kind of information.
My first car accident was with our Goliath station wagon which happened soon
after we bought it. On the way to Actil I was overtaking another car when in the dark I
suddenly noticed that the other driver had his arm out of the window to make a right hand
turn. He obviously had not noticed me driving next to him, so all I could do was slam on
the brakes and try to get behind him. I ended up however on the sloping left-hand side of
the road, heading directly for a Stobie pole. I desperately tried to steer clear of the thing,
but as the car had a front wheel drive, when I accelerated I managed to turn the car over
on its side. The pack rack on top stopped it from rolling over completely. It was in a way
very funny as one of our boarders; a Danish fellow called Ove Hanson was sleeping on
the backseat and rolled off the seat upside down. He had his pocket full of small change
and when I heard the tinkling of those coins rolling down, I thought some windows were
broken.
Nothing bad had happened to either of us and after we pulled ourselves together
and pushed the car back on four wheels, we just continued as if nothing had happened.

58
There was only minimal damage to the car. This was the first and the last car accident I
would ever have up to the time that I am writing this. Now I am actually lying as a few
more things have happened, but only minor ones.
You know, at this moment in time and after re-writing and re-writing my story a
couple of times and at this time being 85 years old, when I write this all down again It
seems to me that I am writing someone else’s story or that I have lived through a couple
of lives.
Many things went on in the next couple of years of which I will just briefly touch
on the more important. From the beginning of the time that we settled in South Australia,
we became friends with two Dutch couples.
Jan Reiman with his wife Wil and one son called Wimmie, what in due time
became Bill. The other friends were Piet Verdonk, his wife Riet and their three children.
One girl and two boys, they were called: Willeke, Peter and Paul. (Why they did not call
her Mary is still puzzling me).
Jan was the stepbrother of Piet and the two families lived together in Glenelg,
which was not far from where we lived. We spend lots of time with them and had many
heated discussions. In later years I often thought back of those moments as being one of
my best times.
Jan and Piet had already started together a printing business. It was called “The
International Press”. Their father Bill Reiman, who lived in Sydney with his wife at the
time, was summoned to work with them as they all had been in the printing trade in
Holland where they also came from and the three of them made the business grow quite
successful. Until one dreadful day, the worst day for all of us concerned. For me, at this
moment in time it is horrible to write about this, but it is necessary as one does not
mention friends and refrain from their stories.
We decided to go for a trip to the Morialta Falls with the three families, Wil and I,
Jan, Wil and their son Bill and Piet and Riet with their children. It is a beautiful place in
the foothills and a perfect area to have a Bar-B-Q. Sitting on the rocks and looking up at
the steep wall from which the water cascaded, I mused more or less to myself: I wonder if
I could climb this. Jan answered: I did it a couple of years ago with a friend.
It was enough for me to make up my mind to try. “Anyone interested?” I asked.

59
I did not expect anyone to come with me, but Lou Reinalda who was also with us
said: “I am coming”. Jan Reiman wanted to come as well, but his wife Wil did not want
him to, so he stayed behind.
I started to climb with Lou who gave up after a few meters. I am somewhat more
stubborn so I continued. After a few more meters, I was glad that I was the only one, as
the rock-face was very slippery and crumbly and I had to test every hand- and foothold.
Time had deteriorated the whole surface. As Jan was not a very agile person at best, I
was very happy that he had listened to his wife. For me it was too late to turn back as I
was closer to the top.
Painstakingly I went further and heaved a sigh of relieve when at last I reached
the top. The others were using the path and steps to go up and we would meet each
other after our separate ascend. When I saw them all, I missed Jan and I asked
anxiously: “Where is he?” His wife said that he went after me.
The whole world seemed to collapse around me and after I collected my wits, I
went back the way I came as I realized that he might need my help. When I went back far
enough to be able to look down, I saw to my horror Jan lying at the foot of the drop. I
went back up and raced down the path, ignoring the imploring faces of my friends, hoping
that Jan only went up a little way and was not hurt too much. This was not to be and
when I arrived at the spot where he fell, I could see that he must have fallen from a great
height the way he looked. The ambulance was on its way as other people had already
called them.
He died on the way to the hospital and for years afterwards I blamed myself being
the cause of his untimely death. If I had not mentioned anything, he would still be alive.
But unfortunately there seemed to be a need in me to challenge everything coming my
way which was to stay with me for many years to come.
However, in due time I came to accept the fact that he was a grown man and
capable of making his own choices! Never the less, it destroyed many things. Mother and
son lost a loving father, Piet and Riet a friend and brother. As his parents were still alive
they lost this very valuable son. We also lost a good friend and our lives changed forever.
The business they had, lost that part needed to keep on making it a success and
collapsed in time. Jan’s fall had changed everything for all concerned and we never felt
the same towards each other.

60
past.
But life goes on and even those times of drastic upheaval became part of the
I think that it is about time I go through the names and personalities of the
boarders I remember, as without doubt their names will come up again later.
I have already mentioned our first boarder, Peter Broer. Then we have Dinie
Hemming, a former work-mate of Wil who decided to try her luck in Australia. She was at
the time a portly girl of twenty-seven, very nice and outgoing, knowing exactly what she
wanted from life and did not stay with us for a very long period. After that, John Warmer
arrived. He was and actually still is the brother of a girl friend of Dinie and also a former
work-mate of Wil.
He did not really fit in our circle but was never the less an honest and diligent
fellow. In time to come, Dinie and John would marry and produce three children.
We also had two friends from the “Southern Cross” who went first to Melbourne
and came to Adelaide. Lou Reinalda, who I already mentioned before and who started
the cleaning business on his bike and Wim Mengerink.
Wim Mengerink was a short young man of about the same age as Lou and
myself, which was then approx. 28 years. Wim was a redhead and with a very short
temper which got him often into trouble. I got them both a job at Actil, Lou as spare
weaver and Wim as a spinner. Then we had Henny Nieuwendijk, who was a friend of
John Warmer. They knew each other from Holland. He was the sporty type and played
soccer. I spend a lot of time with him at first, but later on he got his own friends and after
that he moved to Mount Gambier where he got married and settled down.
The father of John Reiman and stepfather of Piet Verdonk moved also with his
wife into our house for some time. He was an interesting man and very young looking for
his age. I could not believe at first that he was old enough to have a son of John’s age.
His wife and Piet’s mother was a heavily build woman with a tendency to gossip and we
never really took to her. Of all the other people who have lived with us, I will only mention
Rob Endenburg and the Indian-Fijian girl who later became his wife. Her name is Sanny.
Rob was a very heavily build young man, a few years younger than Wil and
myself. He was also a Judoka and a second Dan at that. I, myself was 1 st Dan and
therefore a degree lower than Rob. We both started to teach the boys of the O.B.I. (Our

61
Boys Institute). As he was an amateur Judoka and I, as a professional teacher because
of my certificate, became the number one coach.
Belt is a degree in Judo. You start from white and go up to black, then red and
white, then red. Not many Western people reach those heights and they are mainly
Japanese. In 1962 we both entered the S.A. Judo Championships and I became both
Black belt and Heavyweight champion. Mind you, I still have to receive the trophies.
Rob helped me often in the cleaning business if I had a lot of work on and soon
used this experience to start his own cleaning business.
Even though he quite often undercut my prices with my customers in order to
establish his round, we still stayed friends. I don’t think that he will be pleased to hear this
after all those years, but facts remain facts and there is little chance he will ever read this.
I must have been a regular pain in the butt for him because whatever sport we played,
Judo, tennis or even chess, I always beat him. Even at table tennis. The sad part is that I
was not very good at any of these games except Judo. He later became a land agent and
made a lot of money. We never see him now as we both went our own way and they
don’t seem to cross.
As with many people from that time!
On Hindsight!
Many things have happened in my life and I was very often astounded by the
reactions of people towards my statements. As I mentioned before, I have quite a sense
of humor. But unfortunately not the type that is readily understood or accepted. So
looking back, I can see that the friends and relations we had were merely the result of the
effort my wife Wil put in. Everyone was always being made to feel welcome and so our
house was a haven for many people. The only drawback was I. I seemed to be always
sarcastic as if I made it my job to make people feel ill at ease.

62
I was and still am very righteous and, looking back must have made people feel
as if I knew it all and they were just dummies. My problem was that I had no idea at the
time I made people feel that way.
I thought I was all right and did my best to make people feel at ease. What I was
doing was quite the opposite. I never realized this until much later, because of the way I
am and felt was so much different from the way I projected myself.
Now I can. One can only keep himself ignorant for a certain time. Sooner or later
one wakes up and has to alter attitudes. I have always shown people a side of me that
was only a mask. I could react verbally towards challenges in a way that only expressed
my sense of humor or just to contradict someone with the only goal to start a fiery
discussion. I was and still am a person who does not like to be cornered. I will try to find a
way out and often do so with a completely new approach. This causes a lot of friction and
most of the time, ends up in confrontation. This does not mean that I am not willing to
show defeat, it only means that someone has to earn victory. OK, I am difficult, but only if
I am challenged, that is who I am.
So, dear descendants, if any of you have the same habits, you know where that
came from and can use this, more or less confession, as a guideline. But on the other
hand, it is because of the way I am that I am writing this and if there is only one of you
game enough to read this, I have cemented the purpose of this story about me as the
person you read about.
So, here we are approx. the year 1960 and come to think of it I forgot to mention
two people who certainly were of some influence in our lives. Their names are Bill and
Sjannie Muusse. They were and still are a considerable couple as such. They came out
on the same ship as Dinie and when the three of them arrived, we met them on a
welcoming party at our place. Sjannie is a warmhearted person and a real party lover.
She is very open and it takes a lot to upset her. Her husband Bill was also a party animal,
but less open.

63
I don’t think he liked me very much as we had nothing in common. I never made
any sense as far as he was concerned and he could not be bothered with my strange
antics. But then, as I found out a lot later, who could.
With Sjannie however I had a lot of fun. She was an excellent dancer and even if I
was not all that good a dancer myself, she brought me to acceptable heights. Anyway
that was the feeling I had then. May be she had completely different thoughts about this.
We also came to know a family van Oostveen. They were friends of Bill Reiman and his
wife. About them some more, but at a later date!
Again a kind of an interruption!
Writing about something that is by now still 40 years ago, one must understand
that a total recall is not possible. I am doing my best to give my descendants a true
picture, but I am viewing the past through a much older mind and therefore somewhat
prejudicial as far as the past is concerned. It is a bit like judgments after the facts. But I
am really trying to give the right picture of myself at all times. If anyone feels that I still act
as a hypocrite, so be it.
All this time passed and I have not written much about my own family.
I could not wait for the children to grow up so they could be ready to fit into my
scheme for the future. There you have it. I was too busy work-wise to have much time for
my children and I also wanted or may be needed some time for myself. The children were
too young for this and by the time they were ready for me, I became too old for them.
Now, after all those years, I am still paying for that. We lost a bond through lack of
connection. My fault and I am being reminded of this every time when I see a grandfather
having a good time with his grandchildren.

64
-.-.-
In the meantime I was getting far too much work for just me in the cleaning
business and needed some help. When working at ACTIL, I met a Dutchman who worked
the section next to mine. His name is Gerard Bekker and he had worked there for many
years. He was tall and bony with rather an unhealthy complexion. Obviously the result of
long years of nightshift! I rang him one day to find out if he was interested in giving up his
job and work for me. After some deliberation he became my off-sider. The main reason
he came to this decision so quickly was the fact of a very unhappy marriage. Married with
three daughters and a Polish wife, years of nightshift take a hard toll on any relationship.
In due time he divorced his wife and moved in with us in Aldgate!
In 1960 on the 29 th of Dec. another son was born to us. His name is Kim and he
was a rather tiny baby with a pale complexion. As he stayed small for a long time we
always thought that he was a bit sickly. But he never acted that way and when he was big
enough to play with all of us, he threw himself in every game with gusto. It was also hard
to predict at that time in his life that he became such a force in the Australian Rules
football. More about him in my essay about him!
Nineteen sixty-two became a year to remember. Firstly I won my S.A. Judo titles
in fist Dan and heavyweight and shortly afterwards we received a phone-call from my
father telling us that my mother was on her deathbed. She had cancer and did not have
long to live. She was only 56 years old. My father also expected me to come home as my
mother was waiting for me. Wil had no hesitation to urge me to go and as we received
the call on Friday, during the weekend I organized my passport and injections. Monday I
boarded the plane to Holland. I write this very off-handedly, but in reality it was an
extremely difficult decision to make. We were just in a position, financially that is, to be on
top of things and now this. We decided I had to go because of the circumstances, but I
left with a heavy heart.
Gerard was going to carry on the business on his own until I came back.
There I was, sitting in a plane flying off to Holland with my mind in turmoil.

65
How could I leave my wife and children behind and in what state would I find my
mother. She could already be dead and then everything would be for nothing. The whole
trip was like a nightmare. When I arrived at Frankfurt am Main, the end of the flight, I had
to take another plane from the K.L.M. to Schiphol. I promptly missed the connection out
of sheer stupidity and had to take a later plane.
My family, waiting for me on Schiphol, was of course very disappointed when I did
not step off the plane because of my mistake and went into town for a bite to eat.
By the time I arrived, there was no one to greet me. I rang my father’s place and
my youngest sister Annie answered the phone. She of course had no idea what had
happened and told me to wait for her. She rang a taxi and picked me up.
After we left, the rest of the family went back to the airport. As they still had no
idea what happened, they rang home and heard the story. This can only happen to Jan
was their comment. For me it was very strange to be back in a place that I left 7 years
ago. I went to Australia because I wanted to and was back now even though I did not
want to be but had no real choice. I don’t remember much of the time between which I
arrived and the passing away of my mother. I do remember however that she was too
sick to have the strength for a talk between us and I had a high fever because of all the
injections I had before leaving Australia. What I do remember is that she did not want to
have me out of her sight. I can still hear her say:” Stay, don't go”.
For ten days I sat at her bedside, no sleep and listening to her laboring breathing.
Sometimes my father would come to take over, but he would lie down on the sofa and fall
asleep straight away. As I was trying to sleep next door, I could hear everything that was
going on. As my mother’s lungs were also affected by the cancer, her breathing was very
laboring and quite often she would cough.
Ah, this all only mattered to my mother and I. I will therefore skip the rest of this
difficult and private a time. She died after ten days of extreme suffering, as she did not
want to be mentally subdued through painkillers. Her moment of passing away will
however for always be with me. I was standing at the end of the bed and she was looking
straight into my eyes. Somehow I felt this was the moment and life slowly left her sight. I
was terribly sad and yet relieved that her suffering was over.

66
Even so before this happened we had very little vocal communication. I had to
promise her however to stay in Holland and help in the family business. She felt it would
not survive without her and hoped that I could take her place.
As I mentioned before, the family owned a sheet-metal business. Sheet scrapmetal
was bought for scrap-metal prices. It was cut into the right sizes for manufacturers
and was sold with a good profit. It was a very good business if run economically.
Even though my father had looked well after his family during the war, for some
reason he was not a very good person. I am not going to elaborate on him at this point as
I will do this in a special chapter.
After my mother’s burial I wrote to my family in Australia what I had promised my
mother and asked my wife if it was possible for all of us to keep this promise. As it had
always been a hard life for her in Australia and as far as she was concerned, going to be
a part in a family business where responsibilities were shared, it was very easy for her to
make up her mind and start to make steps to get the fares together.
It was the worst decision we have ever made and I take all the responsibility. I
should have known better. And actually I have no excuse as we were already very happy
in Australia.
My wife sold everything for very little money, as firstly; she was not a business
woman and secondly there was not much time to do any better. The business and house
in Aldgate was sold to Ove Hansen. He was a former workmate at ACTIL and the one
who was my off-sider for some time and with whom I had the accident in the Goliath. He
also boarded with us at some time.
He paid a deposit that covered the fares for my family and was going to pay the
rest in monthly payments into our bank. In the meantime we had also bought 5 blocks of
land in Bridgewater for which monthly payments he was responsible. What happened to
this friendly arrangement I will come to at a later date.
I was very happy when my family at last arrived in Holland. It was a good trip for
them even though Kim was worse for wear. He looked very sick and pale when he arrived
and when I saw him, I got the shock of my life. But thankfully that did not last very long
and soon our lives came back on an even keel.

67
Andre and Robbert went to primary school and were top of their class within half a
year. They were and still are very competitive boys with a strong drive to satisfy their
curiosity. Yvonne went to kindergarten and I am sure had a good time, while Kim was still
his good-natured self at one and a half years old.
So here we were, thrust into a completely new life again. A life however that had
actually become very foreign to us. We did not fit in anymore because we had become
accustomed to a way of life that suited us a lot better. I should have waited a few months
before I burned my bridges and gone back to Australia.
I found this out soon after my mother died. The family business was on the brink
of bankruptcy through the sheer lack of responsibility of my father and inadequacy of my
brothers and brother in law.
This sounds very harsh, I know, but it was a fact. I realized that only my mother’s
sense and ability to curtail disaster, was the only reason that the business still existed. I
don’t want to blow my wife’s and my own horn, but we have done our best to make the
business still work.
When my brothers refused to work during the weekend, Wil and I made orders
ready for the new week. A factory that needed a delivery before a certain Monday in
order to keep things going on their front was supplied with our steel and only I was willing
to take a chance to get it there in time.
Because of rain and frost the weather caused the roads to be closed towards the
factory where I had to deliver the steel. Look, I don’t want to appear to be a hero as I am
far from that and I hope that the ones, who are willing to read this, don’t take me for
someone who only wants to blow his own trumpet, but our business depended on
reliability as all businesses do. I made the trip to the factory up North, delivered the steel,
loaded another truckful with material of which we had an order from a firm in Rotterdam
and delivered such on the same day.
Even though Wil and I were somewhat estranged from Holland and the family, we
knew how to work and as far as I could see it was the only way the business could
survive.

68
My brother in law was the sole representative of a firm who looked after the
welfare of four families. He did not even come close to be able to look after his own
family.
If anyone wants to know the full extent of the predicament I was in, they are
welcome.
Here I was, willing to make things work for all of us and suddenly realizing I was at
a dead end. Even worse was the fact that my father was not willing to take a loan from
the bank to get us out of immediate trouble. The business had a relatively low mortgage
on the property and a decent loan could have cleared all of our immediate debts and
given me a reasonable chance to get the business out of the shit. The family could
unfortunately not think big enough to be able to understand those possibilities.
As such, the situation was as follows. Because of unpaid debts, our suppliers
would not deliver any more steel. You see, we did not only buy scrap steel plate but also
steel from steel manufacturers in order to fill all the orders we had. Without their steel we
were unable to satisfy the necessary demands to fulfill all orders.
Orders that actually weren’t there, because of the lack of a good salesman! In the
meantime my father tried to get a loan somewhere else and one that would have cost us
a lot more, but the person he dealt with, insisted that he only wanted to do it if I was free
to run the business and my wife would look after the books.
My poor family must have thought that the man was crazy and declined. The
situation however had not changed. Not enough steel and therefore no way to fulfill the
demand of our customers.
That was the point in time where I decided to go to our main supplier myself and
make them understand our situation. I explained to them that I came freshly out of
Australia and that I had taken over the running of the business from my mother who had
died in the meantime. Without steel from them we were unable to pay any debts we had.
I also told them that I personally would be responsible for the repayments. It took some
doing, but at long last they agreed. They gave us some more time to pay and more steel
to work with.

69
This was enough to give us some time but of course I got myself in a lot of trouble
with my family, as repayments went before our wages and nobody could understand
where the money went.
You may ask yourself now where all the orders suddenly came from, but I decided
to do some selling myself, as we had no orders to work at anyway.
A cousin of mine worked for a big manufacturer in hearths and I visited them to
get some orders. But they required steel with a degree of softness we could not supply.
However my brother in Law, Arie, met on one of his trips to Germany a man who was part
owner of a steel factory in France and they were able to provide us with the right steel
needed for the Hearth manufacturer. So after all Arie had become of some value!
On second thought I must interrupt my story here as I may be too hard on Arie.
His life has not been easy at all as from the start he grew up in a family of which the
father was an alcoholic and from an early age he also started to drink as this was very
common in such a situation. During the Second World War his mother contracted
Tuberculosis. After the war Arie had to go into the Army and was sent to Indonesia. At
that time he was already engaged to my sister Jenny. When he came back his mother
was still in the grip of TB and very infectious. They were a very close family and kissing
each other on the mouth was looked upon as a normal expression of affection. Of course,
the mother was very selfish in letting this happen and as a result Arie also contracted TB.
He was sent to Switzerland for recuperation but lost a long during that time. He was
healed as far as this TB was concerned but always complained about pain and he looked
for relief in alcohol. As he was also a heavy smoker, in due time he became very reliant
on his wife and my parents. I hope also that my own dislike of him as a person did not
made me a biased judge towards the way in which I have described him.
However we needed to go to France to look at this steel and order if it was the
right stuff and affordable!
The trip that my father, brother in law and I made to France, was a story in itself.
We left in the morning of the day that became yesterday on the date of the appointment. I
forgot the name of the city where we went to, but when we arrived there it was dark. Both,
neither my father nor Arie had any knowledge of the French language and I had only
learned a bit during my school years. The result was that I had to do the honors in

70
communication. However, it was enough as I knew what I wanted and ordered about 40
ton of soft steel plate in different thickness’.
You should have seen the faces of dad and brother in law. They whispered to me
that I must have gone crazy and I whispered back that it was our only way out. There was
enough steel to supply the factory where our cousin worked and it would take us out of
trouble when the first orders would come in. I still don’t know why we were whispering as
we spoke Dutch and could therefore not be understood.
Reluctantly Dad and Arie let me have it my way and the deal was made. We had
about 6 weeks to pay after delivery. My father was complaining that we would never have
enough money to pay in time and I shut him up with the remark that he never paid
anything in time so far and that this was his only chance left plus that it was a 1200 km.
round trip and therefore not very plausible and worthwhile for them to pick up the steel
again if we would be a bit late in paying.
I am not going to elaborate any further on this but for the fact that both of us, my
wife and I, became extremely sick and tired of accusations that we must be stealing, as
they could not understand where the money was with all the work that was done. Mind
you, we, my wife and I worked 7 days a week and we could not get anyone else to work
after Friday or 5 o’clock during the week.
This happened thirty-seven years ago when I wrote this and when my family in
Holland will read this, they will never remember this or agree with these statements.
Everyone looks upon everything that happens in his or her life through his or her own
eyes and perceives things completely different. Never the less, this is my story, in the
way of my perception.
But before I leave this part of our lives, I will still mention a few things that also
occurred during this time and again forgive me my selfish re-call.
When steel was delivered to our workplace, it came in long semi trailers and
because of the drive had a couple of huge beach trees in the way, the trailers had to be
unloaded on the free way near by using our two 6ton trucks. It was a hell of a lot extra
work and could not be done if it rained. One day I rang a crane hire firm to come and pull
out the trees that were in the way. Beforehand we had already talked about this removal,
but the family did not want to do this because of council restrictions. So I had to wait until
I was home by myself, I did what had to be done and as a result the semi trailers could

71
drive in as far as it was needed so the steel did not have to be reloaded and we had a full
year of free fire wood.
The workshop we worked in had a small area in which my father parked his
Mercedes and was also the entrance to our workshop. As we did not have much room to
store the sheet metal needed for our business, I realized very soon after I started to work
with them that this garage was an ideal place to store our stock. At the same time I knew
that my father would certainly not want to give up his garage, so I waited for the time he
would be out for a full day and started to build the racks to store our stock.
I was killing two birds with one stone as the delivery trucks could come straight to
the double doors of this garage and we could unload and store away in one action. I also
attached a big canvas tarpaulin above the doors so we could load and unload even when
it was raining. Believe me, it rained in Holland very often. My father however was not
impressed when he came back that night, but afterwards I build a carport for the
Mercedes.
Everyone was very upset but as business is business, it was for the good of the
company. By this time however my wife and I were sick of the trouble we seem to cause
the family and decided to go back to Australia. I had kept my promise to my mother but
we were too much for the rest of the family and very unhappy. We were actually very
homesick for Australia.
We borrowed the money for the trip from a friend of my wife with the promise that
we would pay him back in installments once we were back on our feet.
The family was devastated; they could not understand why we wanted to go back
to Australia. We could not tell the truth about our reasons, as they would never be able to
understand and accept the facts.
We had been looking after ourselves for seven years and used to make decisions.
I had become used to actions and doing what had to be done and could not cope with
stupidity. On top of this they queried our honesty. That was enough to make up our mind.
After all we did not migrate in the first place because we liked Holland overly much and
we stayed only to help.

72
Of course, I did like the idea of being part in a family business, as I mentioned
before, but this did not work out. To start all over again in Holland in any other venue did
not appeal to me either.
In the meantime the situation on the home front in Australia was not all that good
either. We had written to Gerard Becker in the meantime and he had started his own
cleaning business but was looking forward to have me back as his partner.
However, Ove Hanson, who had bought the business and property, never moved
into the house and Gerard was living there free of charge. It was actually quite a strange
situation. For a full year nobody paid a dime towards this property and Gerard was living
there without paying rent. He told us he would be happy for us to move in. Even though it
did not seem all that solid a proposition for a family, I decided that at least we had
somewhere to stay at the start.
Our departure was again a very sad situation. Two families waving us goodbye,
without any idea why! We came and we left and in between we had become quite friendly
with Wil’s family. But decisions were made to suit us and it had to be done. We had
boarded the “Orange” and if I remember well, this was its last voyage. It was a lot bigger
than the “Southern Cross”, the one on which we had our first trip, but it was a cow of a
ship. It rolled like a rowing boat and even if we did not become seasick ourselves, it was
still very unpleasant.
This time we went through the Suez Canal and this voyage, made together with
the first one, completed a trip around the world.
I am not going to tell anything about this trip as it just happened and nothing
really important occurred besides the fact that I got to know something about Wil that I
should have known before and had listened to my mother when she told me that Wil was
not the person I thought she was.
Wil showed me a side of her of which I had no idea that it existed. She turned out
to be insanely jealous of any other female who paid me some attention. Thinking back
however I can remember her acting somewhat strangely when I introduced her to female
workmates at a Xmas party at Actil. She glared at me, ignoring my effort to make her
known to the girls I worked with and left me standing there, looking like an idiot. I had no
idea why she acted like that.

73
That she felt insecure was something of which I had no knowledge off as I never
gave her any reason to feel this way as far as I was concerned.
But something happened on board of the “Orange” that gave me a complete new
view of the woman I had married.
On any party I only dance with my wife and only danced with someone else if Wil
asked me to do so. But at one stage during a dancing party on our way back to Australia,
females were allowed to ask a male for a dance and before my wife could do so, a
luscious Swedish girl approached me. Of course I danced with her and actually enjoyed it
quite well until I came back to my table. Wil was that upset and angry that we had to retire
immediately to our cabin and what happened afterwards is too private a matter to
mention.
When we arrived in Melbourne, we took the train to Adelaide and arrived there
without any problems. I have to mention however the moment we passed Bridgewater
station we felt like coming home after a long period of absence. This was the area where
we lived for about 5 years. This was where we belonged.
Gerard was waiting for us at the station in Adelaide. He looked really happy to see
us again and could not wait to get us back home.
Time off!
I do believe that I again have to interrupt my story. I don’t even know if I am on the
right track by writing the way I do. Our children may be very upset that I mention them so
little. I don’t know if any of them ever will, but to put their possible disappointment to rest,
I will come back to them later in a special and their own chapter.

74
In the meantime, I start to enjoy this. I may be a bit lazy at heart and thought
about this epistle as somewhat a pain in the neck. In the beginning I did this for my
descendants, but now I am doing it for myself.
I have the time and it is refreshing. In a way it is coming to terms with one’s life.
Furthermore: You have heard nothing yet.
Our home coming!
So we arrived in Aldgate. The first thing needed doing was to make sure that we
found a reliable place to live. Our old house was all right of course, but no lasting
accommodation. I went to the agent to find out about the way the owners looked upon the
situation, as nothing was paid for over a year, hoping we would be able to restart our
payments as before while catching up with the money that was owed.
They would not hear of it which was very understandable as the property’s value
had increased in a way that I would have to buy it again at double the value and with the
money I had already paid, completely lost.
Fortunately we did not do this. Remember we also bought those five blocks in
Bridgewater? The back payments were far more than we could afford, as Ove Hanson
never paid a dime towards the payments as promised, so we went to a builder, Ian
Woods Homes. (I just rang my eldest son Andre to find out the name of the builder as I
had forgotten this completely).
We asked Ian if he would be able to pay off the land and build a home for us. He
actually advertised this possibility in the “Advertiser” and we took him up on it. Our
situation was different from the run of the mill, but after he looked into it, he agreed to
build our home. He was a real savior. If he had not agreed to do this, we would not only
have lost the house in Aldgate, but also those five blocks. Mind you, the price of real
estate had doubled since we bought it. Never the less, we will forever be grateful to Ian
Woods.
So, here we were, back in Aldgate, having a house build in Bridgewater and
partners with Gerard Becker. It was a beginning again.

75
When my wife Wil and I became married in 1953 in Holland, we had nothing.
Then we went to Australia and started there with nothing. We packed up in 1962 and
started in Holland with nothing. It did not work out, so went back to Australia and started
again with less than nothing, as we had to pay back the fares to Wil’s friend who loaned
us the money to return to Australia.
By this time we were both thirty-two years old and had already started a new life
four times.
You know, as I write this, I suddenly come to the realization that I never really
asked my wife how she coped with all those happenings in her life as I looked upon us as
a unit without really taking into account her personal feelings about the way our lives
progressed and it is possible of course that she might have been very unhappy about the
course of our lives. Unfortunately at this moment I am not in a position to ask her. The
reason why comes later.
Life cannot have been easy on her. Looking after a husband, four children so far
and not having much more security in the future than a husband whose circumstances
seemed to change on a regular basis!
Never the less she bravely embraced those things and made a home for all of us.
That is how it was then.
As Ove Hanson only paid a pittance for the business and never attempted to look
after his promises, I felt within my rights to approach my former cleaning customers in
order get them back. Most of them were happy enough and in no time the future started
to look better. Gerard Becker in the meantime met a young German girl with whom he
started a new life. Her name was Hannelore and I have no idea about her surname. He
moved out of the house and rented a place down the road. As we got most of the
business back and Gerard only had a few customers himself, I told him that I could not
afford him as a partner and asked him if he was willing to work for me as an employee.
He agreed and I paid him for his own round. Things went on quite smoothly from then on
and even though Ove Hanson tried to sue us for breach of contract, he had no leg to
stand on and I never saw him again. Life goes on and one day Gerard came to us and
said that Hannelore was homesick and wanted to go back to Germany. He was going
with her. We took them to the Airport when the time arrived and after they left, we never
heard from them again.

76
That is how it is in life, you meet people but if you don’t really become close, you
become ships that pass in the night. Even if that night lasted ten years! Sad but true.
We moved into our new home when the time arrived and started a period of
growth and rather peaceful as far as our live was concerned. Our son John was born in
1964 and became therefore our fifth child. Incredible really and mainly because he had to
cope from the start with such a diversity of characters at this time of his and their lives!
But more about that later!
The family Verkuil had left for Holland in the meantime. They never felt at home in
Australia and their reason to come out in the first place, was the wrong one. They hoped
that migration would be the answer to a marital break-down, but unfortunately migration
is not the answer to those problems. They were Dutch at heart and would always stay
that way.
When they realised that Wil and I would stay in Holland, they wrote to us that they
also wanted to go back to Holland but never be able to because they did not have the
money. As this came about at the beginning of our own returning to Holland and I did at
that time not yet realised the situation we were in business wise, I asked my father if he
was able to pay their fares back to Holland. For whatever reason he did this and made it
therefore possible for them to return to Holland! I never heard from them again and I don’t
even know if they paid my father for their trip. But who cares!
Through our children we became more involved with the community we lived in.
They all did very well at school and in sports they also excelled.
Swimming and football (Australian rules that is) were the ones they were good at.
Yvonne of course played no football, but loved swimming and later on in her life
basketball.
When Andre and Robbert were at High school, I started to teach Judo at this
school for anyone who was interested, but our own children never took to it so I dropped
it after a few months. This was a dumb move on my part as many others were quite taken
in by it. I should have persevered and could have used this as a springboard to continue
the profession I was trained for.
Even though the children became quite good athletes, I am not going to dwell on
it just yet but will come back to it later.

77
Around 1968 we heard that Peter Broer had married a girl from New Zealand. She
was the daughter of Dutch migrants who had migrated to New Zealand in 1958. At the
time we met up with her she was twenty- six years old.
One day we took our children to a swim carnival in Gawler. They were staying
over for a couple of days and when Wil and I were on our way back home, we called in at
Peter’s to have a bit of a nosey into his marital status. Even though we did not see each
other very much, we met him so now and then at friends and visited him sometimes when
he was still with his first wife. As I said, our curiosity got the better of us and we knocked
on the door at 10.30 PM.
It took some time before someone answered the door as they had already gone to
bed. We felt a bit stupid of course, but as we lived 40km. away and probably would not
have come back, we insisted. His new wife’s name was Corrie Hulsteyn and she
migrated from Holland with her parents in 1958 to New Zealand as I mentioned before.
She became a nurse after she left school and we thought her to be a very nice girl.
However, I took her life story with a grain of salt as it looked to me as if she should
be eighty years old with all her experiences. Later on I realized it was all true but in very
short periods. She is still a bit hurt when I mention my first impression.
Anyway, when we left I said to my wife that a person like her might be able to
make a human being out of friend Peter. It shows you what we thought still of him.
After that we saw them on a regular basis and actually became very good friends.
More so as they had a swimming pool and the children did not mind at all to visit them. In
his first marriage Peter had adopted a son as at that time it looked that he could not
produce his own. This turned out to be wrong as Corrie later on gave him two children. A
boy called Justin and a girl called Ilona. The adopted son was called Michael and he was
a year younger than our Johnny.
Through Corrie we also came in contact with Jake van Elk. His wife Diana sold
Holiday Magic” door to door and when she arrived on Corrie’s doorstep and heard that
she was from Dutch origin, she told her that her husband was Dutch also. Diana herself
was and still is very English. They have two children, a girl called Annette and a boy
called Steven. I think they are of Yvonne and Kim’s age.

78
Jake and Diana used to work in a circus in Europe and at the time they left
Holland for Australia, Jake was with his brother Johnny stage-manager for one of the
leading comics in Holland. He had a good life, a good income and never found the same
quality here in Australia. Even now, after all those years he lives in his mind more in
Holland than here.
From now on we will come across Jake more than anyone else, as he still is the
only one from my past who visits us regularly. On the other hand, he is the only one who
has worked for and with me for many years.
As I have mentioned before, I have a knack in putting people off and it was mainly
through the effort of my wife that people visited us regularly. I am not putting myself down
in an effort to get some sympathy; it is just a matter of fact. Jake and his wife however
stuck with us through thick and thin.
When I met Jake, he was working for an earthmoving firm. After that he started to
work for me in the cleaning business. That lasted for a couple of years. He decided that
my employ was too far away for comfort and became employed by an air-conditioning
firm run by another fellow from Holland. By the time 1973 arrived, I had enough of
cleaning and I finished up by selling the business to Jake.
A few things happened that turned me off Jake. But as with everything in one’s
life, our own gullibility is most of the time the culprit of a disappointing destiny. It does not
pay to re-open a past, as it does not change anything. We can only learn by it.
Peter and Corrie in the meantime bought a block of land in Bridgewater, the
suburb in which we had build our house and sold their house in Para Hills. During the
time they build their house, they were renting a place, also in Bridgewater. When their
house was finished they moved in and Corrie especially became a very good friend.
I have to go back in time and must mention that Wil had joined the cleaning
business as a working partner. She felt bored staying at home and wanted to make some
money herself. She suggested working in a shop. I, however, had a better idea. As we
got more and more house cleaning jobs, which by the way I did not like very much. I
could not see why she would work for someone else if our business could use someone
like her of whom I knew would fit in perfectly and make more money!

79
It turned out to be the worst decision we could have made. As far as she was
concerned, she became the person who did everything with a husband who did work, but
actually just lived for himself. I must admit that I played football for some time during the
winter and tennis during the summer.
This sounds of course very cynical and things may have happened somewhat
differently, but it was a fact, that during that time we lost the bond of ignorance we had
still shared so far.
I did become aware of Wil’s cool behavior towards me and especially when her
father came over with his girlfriend and I saw the loving relationship between them. Even
though I had always missed the warmth in our marriage, I was always far too busy with
supporting the family to notice the fact of growing apart. Getting older and having more
time to think, those things started to worry me and I approached Wil with my findings.
To my astonishment she was not interested and informed me to go to a prostitute
if I wanted sex.
I don't know if I should continue this, because of the sensitivity of the matter, but I
need to give my side of the story as it develops.
Sex was not what I was thinking of; with me it was a question of closeness,
belonging and some affection. For years I have been craving for this and I only became
aware of this when one-day tante Marie, my father in law’s girlfriend with whom he visited
us the second time he visited Australia, leaned over my shoulder to show me something
in the News paper. The closeness of a female suddenly made me realize the emptiness
of my relationship with my wife. From then on lots of things came to my attention. Like the
courtship of other people.
I cannot really blame Wil altogether for the way our life has progressed, because I
never have had other experiences with women and was completely unaware of how to
woe a woman. Looking back, I must have been bad for Wil from the start. Like a bull at
the gate. Our sex life came only from my side and it must have been hell for her when I
needed her. All the years we have been together I cannot remember one time that she
enjoyed our lovemaking.
This is how I see it now after so many years and know that I am therefore just as
guilty for the breakup we had not long after.

80
But before all this happened, I had become a land salesman in the employ of
Stirling Estates. It was a small firm that was run by two men, Clive someone and Pat
Coffee. I enjoyed my time there very much and made a real success in this new venture.
In the meantime Wil and I had bought a 9 acre property in Aldgate valley!
Wil and I had bought 25 acres of land close to Mylor in the meantime and decided
to build our dream home on this beautiful piece of land. In order to finance this we
decided to sell our house and buy a big caravan to live on the property while the house
was being built. It was a huge 30-ft. monster; the caravan that was.
Friends of Pat and Clive, who were builders and wanted to start in the Hills, were
willing to build the house for a very reasonable price. All we had to do afterwards was to
let them use our house as a showpiece.
We bought the caravan, had it moved to the land and did not move in after we
sold our house. After all, Wil could not see herself living with a family in such a confined
space.
Of course I could understand that, but I wished she had thought of that before we
bought this caravan. We rented a place in Aldgate and after that everything fell apart.
Wil had started to work at a supermarket in Stirling. As she was therefore not
home during the day, I started to call in at the home of Corrie for a cup of coffee during
lunchtime. Corrie and Peter had rented a place in Bridgewater while their house was
being built in Aldgate. Even though Corrie and I had already experienced a quite innocent
encounter in the past through a lack of warmth from our spouses, we really got to know
each other a lot better during the conversations we had during those lunches. Corrie had
never loved her husband as she probably should have and became involved with him
because she thought he was able to make her happy and he did his best to make her
interested in him. Corrie may not agree with my observation, but I came to this
conclusion.
He turned out to be an alcoholic and became a pain in the neck to live with. My
feeling of years ago that she might make a human being out of him had obviously not

81
worked. Both of us however were more and more drawn towards each other and became
in due time romantically involved.
For the person I am it was the worst time of my life. I cheated on my wife and
knew at the same time that I could never leave my children. They were the most
important thing in my life. I am also a man who always hated dishonesty and could
therefore not live this way. I decided that I had to go back to my family while Corrie would
stay behind with her children as she had no desire to go back to Peter. So Corrie and I
decided to put a stop to our newly found happiness.
When I arrived in Aldgate and knocked on the door, Wil opened the door and I
told her I was coming back to my family but when she said to me that she never wanted
me to see Corrie again, everything that had happened flashed through my mind. It was
Wil herself who had made me feel the need for someone else. Corrie had been the result.
With my behavior I had given Corrie hope for a better future and now the cause of
all this demanded of me to never see Corrie again. Corrie had no other choice but to
leave her husband and go on alone and needed therefore all the help I could give her. My
wife loved me so much that she could not embrace me, but only make me face an
ultimatum. As a result I left the house and never returned as a husband and father. For
my children I was hoping that I could make the right choice and Wil and I would have
learn to live with each other until at least all children were more grown up, but I could not
leave Corrie in the lurch without giving her at least some support! So Wil in actual fact
made the choice for me but my children became the victims.
I found a house for Corrie and her three children through Rob Endenburg and
moved into the big shed that we had build on our property in Mylor. The caravan had
been sold. I also left the land agency, as I did not agree with their practices.
The owners were so greedy that if a customer of mine wanted to have another
look at a property and I was not in the office at the time, Pat or Clive would take them and
even if I had taken them around for a couple of days in succession, for that half an hour
they expected half of my commission. Mind you, they already received most of every sale
I made.
But as I had been used to this treatment in Holland for quite a few years, I had
made up my mind not to let that happen again as this was the reason we migrated to
Australia in the first place.

82
I told them they could stick it and left. As I had become quite a good salesman
however and liked my job, they did not want to lose me and tried their best to make me
stay, but as they also interfered with my personal life, I became more than sick of them
and there was nothing more for me left to hang around for.
Financially it was the best job I ever had but I had to walk away because of my
own feeling for fairness.
Rob Endenburg who had started a Real Estate business in the meantime asked
me to go in business with him as a partner, but as I knew that his wife Sanny was too
much of a nuisance, I declined.
Jake van Elk needed someone to give him a hand, so I started to work for him for
the time being because I was without an income and now had to support two families. As
you probably remember, he bought our cleaning business. To support my first family we
send them every month $ 350 for a period of three years. After that Wil rang Jake and
begged him to tell me that she did not want the money any more. She could not afford to
accept it because of the bad stories she told everyone about me and I paid far more than
was acquired by law as I wanted to help my children as much as I could. Mind you, this
was a very bad deal for my new family as it had to be taken out of the housekeeping
money.
But Corrie and I had made our choice and we had to do as much for both families
as we could. Corrie never complained!
You know, Corrie and I were the bad seeds in what had to happen as far as we
were concerned, but Peter Broer never paid a dime towards the bringing up of his
children besides a few feeble dollars that the law made him pay and even that came in
drips and drabs so Corrie told him not to bother any more after a couple of months.
At the time of the break-up, the house in Mylor was nearly finished and I
suggested that Wil and the children move in. I knew that the price of the properties would
double within 2 years. I would look after the payments and after all, there was only $
25.000 to pay on a property that would be worth $ 125.000 in a few years. I knew how
things were going because of my time in the Real Estate. Wil declined, she did not trust
me anymore. As it came about I misjudged the price by a $100.000 in our favor.

83
That was something I still cannot come to terms with. She had been my wife for
twenty years and had no idea about the person I was and as a result she had to ask
other people’s advice about me.
Yes, I cheated on her, but not without any reason and I gave her more chances to
come back than she deserved, even though I tried this only because of the children.
The house was put on the market and we soon had an offer way below the market
price. Wil wanted to sign, but I knew how our friends Pat and Clive worked. If a couple
were having marriage difficulties, they would inform any potential buyer of this fact and
tell them to put in any offer. Pat and Clive were favorites of quick sales, did not work for
their clients but for themselves. I was furious and went to see those people myself. I
managed to get $ 4000 more. Wil threw a tantrum when I did not want to sign the first
offer. She never told me how happy she was that I got more. At the divorce proceedings
she demanded 2/3 of the profit on the house. I did not want to fight for my rights in front
of a court as the lawyers would then end up with a lot of money that we needed
ourselves. So Wil ended up with $ 24.000 and Corrie and I with $ 12.000. In 2 years time
it would have been $ 100.000. Even though Wil took a lawyer against my advice because
I could never fight someone who was the mother of 5 of my children.
It may be somewhat confusing for others that I keep writing that I still love Wil.
What I mean is that I still love her as much as I ever did. After all we have been married
for 20 years and she had given me five children. Our problem was that she was not able
to love me and I was too young to be able to accept that. Mind you, now after 42 years I
still have nightmares about the fact that in order to get some happiness for myself I left
my children behind to deal with Wil. Even the fact that Wil left me no choice, I still cannot
forgive myself.
The bill of Wil’s lawyer was sent to me afterwards. Of course I refused to pay this.
Everything we owned between us, I left behind. I was hoping that Wil would sent my
personal things to me, like clothes, in due time. It never happened. My clothes were sent
to friends of us for sale in their second hand shop. I heard that a long time afterwards.
For years I have done my best to stay a father for my children but Wil stayed bitter
beyond believe. If I was to feel sorry for the way things have turned out for her, her
behavior prevented such a feeling forever.

84
On second thought I may be a bit harsh on her as the world she knew came
crashing down and even if I was only a very small part in that world she dictated. She has
always been the way she was and that was the person I had married. That she had lost
the feeling for me as I deserved, is also not completely her fault as it was part of the
ignorance she was born with and for which the both of us have to suffer for the rest of our
lives.
For a long time to come I not only lost all my friends, but my children as well! Wil
told me on parting that she would ruin my relationship with the children and she nearly
succeeded. On the one hand she kept telling everyone how much she loved me and how
badly I had treated her, while on the other hand she tried to destroy me. I don’t know
what she felt for me, it certainly was not love. May be I should not tell all those dreadful
things, but they happened and it was something I had to deal with. It has been a long
time past now and I think that it is fair enough to explain at least a few things in my own
defense. If it upsets my children, so be it.
Jake sold the cleaning business in the meantime and wanted to start an
earthmoving business with me. When he first came to Australia he worked for one and
thought he knew enough about it to be able to start his own earthmoving firm.
He knew that I got the $ 12.000 from the sale of the farm and thought it a good
idea to use that to start with. I should have known Jake well enough that he knew what to
do with someone else’s money, but at the time thought it was a good idea.
I had no idea what to do and was without an income. I also thought that Jake
knew enough about earthmoving in order for the both of us to start together. Not knowing
at the time of course that he had only been a truck driver in this business. I must have
always been the slowest learner as far as it Jake’s character concern because with the
brumbies years ago I took him as a partner because he let me know how good he was
with horses. So, there you go!
Corrie and I put the $ 12000 towards the purchase of a backhoe and we were off.
Wil and I split up in 1974! Corrie and I went to live in Edwards’s town at Crosier
Ave. Corrie had found a job in a private hospital close by and supported us while we were
getting onto our feet in the Earthmoving business. We lived at that address for about half

85
a year and afterwards moved into the house of friends of Corrie’s, Anne (male) and Betty
van der Harst at Marino Rocks. They went during that time for a holiday to Holland and
we looked after their house.
Corrie was pregnant at the time and gave birth to our youngest son Gene on the
13 th of Dec. 1975. The first thing I said when he was born: He looks like Mr. Magoo!
Corrie was not very impressed but Jake, who was also present, has never forgotten that
and mentioned this on a yearly basis afterwards. His name was however not decided and
when we were sitting outside; Jake, Andre my eldest son and I, pondered about this and
decided on Gene Douglas, Gene for Gene Kelly and Douglas for Kirk Douglas. They
were my favorite actors. Corrie also liked the name and the poor buggar is still carrying
this.
In the meantime we looked around to buy a house as we could not see the sense
in keeping on paying rent. Corrie had also received her settlement money from Peter
which we could use as down payment.
We found the only house we could afford in King Street, Pennington and moved in
after Anne and Betty had returned.
The backhoe we had bought came with a contract and that turned out to be a
perfect start for us. We had to dig trenches for a plumber in Nepabunna, an aboriginal
settlement north of the Flinders’ Ranges. The only problem was that neither of us could
operate the machine sufficiently, Jake only marginally, I not at all.
Jake was the first one to go and as such, he practiced as much on the machine as
he could before we had to start.
We were going to work alternately one week on and then a week off. He was
doing quite well by himself, but I dreaded my first week as I only knew slightly how the
controls worked and had no experience whatsoever as I had never any time to practice.
The time arrived too soon and my first morning in Nepabunna had arrived.
On my way there I encountered something disastrous. It was completely dark
when I went past Hawker and on a dirt road I came across a herd of cattle. I could not
avoid hitting one of them and stopped after I did so. I got out of the car and walked back
in pitch dark to see the affect of this collision as I did not want to leave an animal in pain
behind.

86
So I felt my way around and suddenly came upon an animal that seemed to be fit
enough to attack me. Of course I was hoping it was the animal I had hit. I left it therefore
and to my chagrin I discovered on my trip back a dead animal and I am sure it was the
one in question. I have never felt as disillusioned about myself as at that moment. I
should have made sure that this animal was out of its suffering. But so often we take the
easy way out. Now Nepabunna!
My first job was digging a hole for a septic tank. As I could not let anyone know
that I had never worked the machine before, I could not make obvious mistakes and
therefore had to think twice or may be even three times with every action I took. I must
have been enormously slow and within minutes I was drenched in sweat. When the hole
was dug, I had to lift the tank into the hole and to my horror the plumber let himself down
into it and started to direct me from there. I have never been so nervous in my life. Any
wrong move from me could mean death for the stupid man. Of course he did not know
this, as I could not tell him.
The most ridiculous thing I ever heard came from the man himself that night. “You
know,” he said: “I never trusted a backhoe operator well enough to do what I did to-day.
With you I had no fear to be in the hole when you let the septic tank down into it.”
I could not believe my ears. How was it possible that I could have shown such a
confidence while I was just about peeing in my pants? Obviously he did not know the
difference between a good and a bad operator but I obviously had underestimated my
ability to adapt to circumstances.
I just realized that by now I have been living with Corrie already for a few years
and never written what Corrie was like and where she came from even though I
mentioned a few things when we met her at first. I will do so now.
Corrie left Holland in 1958 with her parents and a little stepbrother. The name of
the ship was Subajak. Her mother and two year old brother Benny were killed during the
last days of the war by, most probably, one of the last shells of that 2 nd world war. She
was born on the 24 th of Dec. 1943 so when she and her family migrated to New Zealand,
she was 14 years old. As you already know, I met her when she was married to Peter
Broer. They had an adopted son Michael. She is blond with blue eyes and a picture of
health. On the 31 st of August 1971 Justin was born and Ilona on the 8 th of January 1973.

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When she decided to leave Peter and I became more involved with her, she was 31
years old and a nice open person with not a mean bone in her body. Over the years my
love for her has grown, even though I don’t always understand her. But then of course
that is her complaint as well about me, so we are even on that score.
Corrie’s little brother was born with a congenital growth decease and needed all of
her stepmother’s attention to survive. Because of this Corrie has never been able to have
the care of a loving mother and is therefore very distant from her stepmother. No mother
and daughter closeness. But for me she is wonderful. Her brother died when he was
about 11 years old.
-.-
Our contract in Nepabunna had come to an end in the meantime even though I
thought I could help the Aboriginal Community by developing a soap stone mine that they
owned in the area. But unfortunately they did not trust a white man enough to be their
partner. It never eventuated and another possible vein towards a better future as far as
Nepabunna was concerned closed.
In the meantime Chapman Meat works in the Adelaide Hills needed a pipeline of a
couple of kilometers to get rid of their waste far enough away from the factory and asked
for tenders. I went to see the general manager and what he asked for was a contract with
the drain pipes underground. In the meantime I had already contacted a firm that
specialized in that sort of thing and discovered that some pipes could be laid above
ground. It would cut the cost in half. I suggested this to the fellow and as a result we got
the contract and with the price we quoted we have never made, since or afterwards,
more money than during the short time we worked on that job. We were very lucky with
our first two contracts.
After that we became involved in digging swimming pools and did that for the rest
of the time we operated as a partnership. It was however very poorly paid and made very
little more than just wages for ourselves.
We stayed in the earthmoving business till 1989. That meant 14 years in all.
Jake and I parted after about ten years. The last 4 years Corrie and I ran Klomp
Excavations. In this business we never seemed able to make it financially. Of course, this
was my own fault, as I never became a good businessman. However, we went through
this part of our lives without too much trouble. The kids were healthy and so were Corrie

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and I. All I had were a couple of minor accidents which left me with a crooked arm and a
bung knee. The chronic back-trouble I had since I was 12 years old did not stand in the
way of any quality of life at that time in my life. The crooked arm (elbow) I managed to
achieve when we were loading the tailboard of our truck onto the back of the truck. To
make it somewhat easier to undo the steel cable from the welded hook on the bucket of
the backhoe, I climbed on the bucket while Jake maneuvered this action from behind the
controls of the machine. Unfortunately, when Jake gave Cliff who was driving the truck
the sign to move the truck, he did not lift up the bucket of the back-hoe I was standing on
high enough and it swung against the tailboard holder when the truck shot forward. As I
was standing on the bucket with nothing to hold on to, I was slung to the ground from a
height of about 4 and a half meters. My elbow was completely smashed and is now after
40 years still useless. Who was at fault? Of course I, who should never have been up
there in the first place and the other two just made misjudgments. But what was even
more stupid was the fact that Jake had himself insured for accidents like this and never
mentioned it at the time. It would have made a very difficult time for me a lot easier and
certainly for Corrie who always had to pick up the slack.
My bung knee was completely my fault. Cliff and I were digging a swimming pool
in Blackwood, a suburb in the foothills. As we could not drive the truck into the property,
we had to use our little dumper truck and ramp to load the truck. To get to the loading
ramp was a long way and to make this somewhat shorter I had to climb a very steep hill.
This I could not do going forward so I had to do this in reverse. I got up half way and then
the back wheels lifted off the ground and the engine stalled. To stop the dumper from
tipping over I climbed on the back and tried with my weight to bring it back onto 4 wheels.
No dice, it kept going and to safe myself I had to jump off. Unfortunately for me I could
only jump forwards and that meant a jump of about 25 ft. I came down on my left leg and
I completely dislocated it. But as the dumper truck also kept coming, I had to get out off
its way. As I had no idea that the dumper truck was following me, it was Cliff who jelled
and warned me. Just in time I could roll myself out off the way. Hoping of course that my
knee was not that badly dislocated I got to my feet and pulled it more or less into place.
But when I tried to climb the backhoe again to keep on working, my knee dislocated
again and I knew I had to go to the hospital. The surgeon fixed it up well enough for me
to keep using it with not too much trouble, but now, after 22 years, it starts worrying me

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more and more. Strangely enough I was still not insured, so it was Corrie again who took
the brunt.
=.=.=
Before I go any further I believe that I should explain more about Jake van Elk
even though I intended to leave it like this as he has always been the one to keep contact
in one or other way and as far as he is concerned I am sure that he is entitled to a bigger
role in our lives. I may have mentioned already a few things before as far as his behavior
was concerned, but I owe it to myself and also him that I elaborate a bit more as far as
his character is concerned.
So here I go! I have already written how we got to know him and will continue
from the time of us starting the Earthmoving business. When we started and he
approached me after my divorce was settled, he let me know that he knew all about
operating earthmoving equipment. It turned out that he only had driven trucks and was
also good at mechanical work as far as machinery was concerned. When we started with
this Nepabunna contract he needed a week with our backhoe to become acquainted with
the machine so he would be able to do a sufficient job and to his credit he was a fast
learner and made a success of our first week in Nepabunna. But it, as I probably already
mentioned before, left me high and dry as far as my first week was concerned as I had to
start without any practice. But I am also a fast learner so I was also able to make it work.
But it was my first inkling that Jake was not completely honest. He could have let me
know that he had never operated earthmoving machines.
Furthermore, as soon as we started to dig the swimming pools, he announced
that he wanted to go for a holiday to Holland did so and left me with running the business
by myself and only after we had started this at the most 3 months. Of course I really
cannot blame him because I let him get away with this.
When my time arrived for a fortnight off, the next day Jake rang me that they were
having some trouble and needed my help. That happened again afterwards and I said to
Corrie: “They cannot do without me”: and went back to work. So I realised that Jake was
only for Jake and even though he appeared to everyone like the one you want as your
best friend, this was his character.

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=.=.=
During 1983 we bought a horse-farm in Currency Creek with the intention to breed
Anglo Arabs. This is a crossbreed of thoroughbred and Arabian horses and even though
we had the best intentions, it never took off. We wasted a lot of money on horses and
improvements, but as always I seemed to have more guts than brains. It simply did not
work. The prices for horses never came to a point where they made a profit.
Wow, I suddenly realized that I skipped a couple of years of a very important time
in our lives. As an investment and still during the time I was with Wil, we had bought a 9
acre property in Aldgate Valley.
Wil and I bought those 9 acres for 10.000 dollars and up till now I still cannot
believe that I ever sold it as I knew then already that the land values and certainly in that
area would increase a hundred fold in the years to come.
After we acquired the land I thought we should do something with it and when I
saw on TV one day a program on the fate of the Australian brumby I decided to save at
least some of them.
Actually I did not do this all by myself as old Jake used to ride horses in a Circus
in Holland and when I talked to him about brumbies, those are out Australian wild horses.
He very enthusiastically wanted to become my partner in this venture. That suited me fine
as I knew nothing about horses and he would be of great help to break them in, train and
ride them.
So we went to the horse auctions at Dry Creek and bought 20 beautiful mares.
We were ecstatic as they looked to us like a million dollars. We engaged someone to
transport them to Aldgate Valley and I expected the truck to be there at a certain time so I
could meet the driver. By the time I arrived however, all the horses were already off the
truck but for one. I just saw this last one being chased off by brute force and without a
ramp.
It was horrendous and by the time I arrived on the scene I abused the hell out of
this callous bastard. I am sorry he said, but this is the way we do things around here;
after all they are only brumbies.

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The horses seem to be alright though at the time, but what I did not know was the
fact that they were in foal and all but one aborted pre-maturely. What also may have
been a factor is that they roamed in the hot centre of the country and arrived at Aldgate in
the far colder climate we lived in and it was winter on top of it.
Actually our daughter Yvonne owned a horse already when Wil and I were still
together living in Bridgewater. A skewbald gelding 14 hands high called Bronco. A
beautiful even tempered horse only quite stubborn and possibly a bit too clever. We also
had a horse called Sultan. He was another gelding and as it turned out, I did not know
enough about horses to treat him the way he deserved. The poor horse was such a
mental case that he needed someone far more educated on horses than me to put him
right. We took him back to the place of purchase and replaced him with a two year old
grey gelding named Paddy.
This horse was skin and bone and full of lice as we found out later. But he was the
only one we were allowed as an exchange so we had no choice. The 9 acre property in
Aldgate Valley became the perfect home for them. After we de-loused and de-wormed
him, within a couple of months he turned into a beautiful proud animal and after that he
was broken in by a newly-found friend down the road from the property. He happened to
be a farrier and horse trainer and his name was David Farmilow. With him we had also
made a deal that he would break in the brumbies after they arrived and share in the
profits after their sale.
This whole exercise turned into a disaster as the costs completely outgrew the
going prices. Jake also turned out to be a disappointment, as he never showed any
interest towards working with our horses and when he came over, all he wanted to do
was having a pleasant ride.
But very rewarding was the fact that all our children learned to ride and had their
own horse. I also started learning to ride and Paddy became my horse. So, not all was
lost. But as I started this as a business, horses had to be sold and Paddy was the first
one to go. He also was not strong enough for me as I had become quite heavy.
Later on I bought myself a beautiful chestnut gelding named Sir James as he was
a half thoroughbred. Already broken in so all I had to do was to ride him which I did on
regular trips with all the children on weekends, around the area. During the week one day
I decided to take him for a longer trip on my own. I rode him all the way to Mylor and

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when I was very happily riding on the road, a motorbike came roaring past and that was
too much for Sir James! He bolted right then and I was very lucky to be able to stay in the
saddle. Before he was just about ready to jump the railing of a bridge I was able to
control him again. After that I had to dismount and walk him a couple of 100 meters
before I dared to get into the saddle again. Boy, what an experience but I was after all
very happy that I managed to control the horse.
In the meantime Wil and I had bought 25 acres of farmland in Mylor and to be
able to effort this we had to sell our 9 acres in Aldgate Valley and also our horses of
course. This all sounds like a simple exercise, but it was a hell of a lot more complicated
than that; however I want to leave it at this at the moment.
-.-.-.-
Now back to Currency Creek!
Besides wanting to use the 40 acres as a stud, we also had in mind to start a
riding school for people of all ages. We intended to build cottages for future pupils where
they could stay over weekends and holidays and go for long rides after lessons. The area
was perfect for such.
The first horse we bought when we started was Bianca, a beautiful 13 hands
Dunn. She was extremely stubborn, but when she liked you, she would be perfect and
run her little heart out. If she was indifferent to you, she would find the nearest low branch
to unsaddle you. After her we bought our full-blood Arabic stallion Racketeer (El Kamil
Racketeer). He was a beautiful 15 hand chestnut, proud, domineering but gentle when

93
needed. He was a dream to ride but I was unfortunately not a good enough rider to give
him the exercise he should have had.
Together with him we bought his half-sister Kate (Golden Feather). She was also
a full Arab and the most gentle of animals one could ever come across.
Thinking back about this time in our life I should never have been allowed to even
think about looking after horses because I was far too inexperienced.
To support us in the meantime, we decided to grow proteaceae. They are a
beautiful South African flower and grow very well in South Australia. As we have never
been scared to start something new, it has always been easy for us to do so, but this
venture also turned sour. By the time we had planted a few acres, the prices of the
flowers had dropped and we were not financial enough to continue. In the meantime we
had spent most of our money and as the earthmoving part of our existence had come to
a complete stop the only income we had, came from Corrie.
At Pennington Primary School she already worked as a caretaker and during that
time my dear wife obtained a license to drive a bus. Therefore she became a school-bus
driver at Mount Compass High school and also worked at a hotel in Goolwa. Later on she
worked on board “The Murray River Queen”.
But as Corrie had been trained in the nursing profession after she left High
School, she found a better job at Westpark; an old folk’s home in Goolwa. She has been
a nurse there for nine years. Between that and her bus driving she kept us afloat.
However, back at the farm, I still tried to make our horse venture come to some
success but to no avail. In the meantime, already during the time that Jake and I worked
together, when Jake and I could not dig any swimming pools because of the weather, we
had started to work during that time in Andamooka with our equipment digging for the
allusive opal.
We have had some success; at least it got us through some bare patches as far
as income was concerned. (My Andamooka adventures I have written in a separate
essay)
As I still had all the digging equipment, I decided to go back to the opal fields and
try my luck again. One day I loaded the back hoe onto the Commer, put our Volkswagen
Van behind it on an A frame and took off the next morning at 5 O’clock. I had just kissed

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Corrie good-bye and let our children sleep. At least that what I thought! Looking back in
the mirror I saw Ilona waving me good-bye and I waved back enthusiastically and could
not stop because my eyes were streaming with tears and I was not in a habit of showing
my distraught at any time and I felt extremely vulnerable at that particular time. Poor
Ilona, I had no idea that she loved me that much because I have always been so very
strict with her.
As I said before, my Andamooka adventures will be told in a special addition and I
will continue now with our life after that episode. We had to sell all our equipment after I
had come back in order to pay the bills and as I was close to 60 and therefore at an age
where it is hard to find a job, something else had to happen. I did not want to go on the
dole as I thought that was for people who did not want to work.
That was until Corrie made me see sense as she could not make enough money
to support us all. She was right of course and I should have swallowed my pride long
ago. So, I went on the dole.
Only for a short time mind you as because already for a very long time I had a
terribly bad back and could actually not work for someone because of it. I went to a
specialist to have it checked out. My back was so bad that I was immediately put on an
invalid pension. At long last we had some income from my side again. For me it was an
enormous relieve as I felt like a freeloader.
=.=.=.=
Again I must intervene in the way I am going, because besides the children we
had, we have always owned dogs, cats, birds and even a kangaroo. Already in
Bridgewater we had umpteen aviaries with cockatoos, parrots, finches and some
pheasants. They had to be sold when we left Bridgewater.
Our dog skipper we had already in Brayville and he moved into paradise when we
took him to Bridgewater with two cats: Mitzy and Tiger. Later on we adopted a German
shepherd bitch called Sheba and a boxer named Brigalow. So you see we were not only
interested in children and horses.
When I lived with Corrie and the children in Pennington we had besides the
Cockatoos, umpteen cats that just arrived on the doorstep, the dog Bella who was a
pointer and inherited from her first family. Through a roaming German shepherd she soon

95
fell pregnant and became the mother of a litter of pubs. We kept one male pub and called
him Chester. Mother and son had to be destroyed at some time for reasons I don’t want
to get into. Afterwards we gained a stray dog and called him George; a Staffordshire bull
terrier. He walked in one day, liked what he saw and stayed. He was a most remarkable
dog. Each morning he used to go for his morning walk which meant upsetting umpteen
neighboring dogs on the way and after that, meeting up with a female German shepherd
who was taken for a walk each morning by her owner. After that he would come home
again.
When Corrie started to work at the children’s primary school, she used to take him
with her and all the children would love him to death because of his playful nature. One
day a little yapper came on the scene and attacked George. It was the end of the little
dog and the authorities decided that George had to be put down. Not as far as the
schoolchildren were concerned, they went on a strike and as a result; George was
allowed to live on.
He was still with us when we moved onto the farm in Currency Creek and was
later on joined by Lucky, a black kelpie I took over from a family for whom I was digging
pools.
Soon afterwards George was killed on the road and our fondest memories of him
were when he sat next to us in our Ford LTD. He was sitting up straight with his front paw
on the armrest and it always reminded us of Winston Churchill smoking a cigar on the
passenger seat of his chauffeur driven car!
Our Lucky being a sheepdog at heart, used to love rounding up our horses and
the donkeys we had at the time. The horses did not take any notice of her, but with the
donkeys it was a different story. She used to herd them into their shelters and I am sure
that one day the donkeys got sick and tired of this exercise and as one man they turned
around and kicked the hell out of her. Unfortunately they were no sheep and as a result it
took a lot of money to repair her splintered elbow.
We had plans to de-sex her, but I had for some reason had the belief that it was
no good for a bitch to do that before she has had a litter. As we were looking for a
suitable partner, the dog next door beat us to it. He was a blue heeler and his name was
John Wood. Bloody John! Just a little joke as John Wood was the main actor in a cop
show called “The Blue Heelers”. I forgot the name of the father of Lucky’s pups.

96
The other day and with the other day I mean Febr.2010, Ilona, our daughter put
me straight on the story of this happening. Corrie and I went on a cruise on the Murray
River with the Murray River Queen. Lucky was on heat and we told the children to make
sure that she did not get out. Ilona’s story was as follows: Lucky was dying to get out and
yelping on her hind legs in front of the open window at the blue healer from next door. In
desperation she took a flying leap through the fly-wire screen and made herself available.
Luckily she did not break any bones during this exercise but we called her Lucky after all
so maybe we were somewhat clairvoyant.
The result was 8 pubs and 4 of each sex. It took quite a long time to get rid of
them but one female. Her name was Lucy and she stayed with us to her end. Lucky had
already departed.
We also had ducks, geese, chickens, Wally a male sulfur-crested cockatoo, Lottie
a female of the same kind and Charlie a male galah. As I have always seemed to have
infinity with birds, I wanted to be close and felt at ease with them, but first I will tell you
about the geese we had.
They roamed free and at dusk they would fly to the dam at about half a kilometer
distance. It was a sight to see. First they became restless and then suddenly they would
take off with a lot of squawking down to our dam. In the morning they would return for
their meals.
With one of them I had a lovely contact. When I would get close to her, she would
squat down and look at me with full anticipation. She wanted me to pick her up and
fondle her. This was quite amazing. With the ducks I never came close. Both, the geese
and ducks were in due time finished off by foxes and hawks.
The chickens were a different kettle of fish. They were Suffolk and Rhode
Islanders with a Suffolk rooster called Wilbur. Boy was he a character. He stood about
three foot tall and ruled the roost for as long as he lived and whether his wife was of the
same kind or a Rhode-Islander, his offspring was Suffolk. That is what I call genes! He
used to walk around with his girls and they had to walk in line; if anyone had the courage
to get out of line, she would be punished severely.
By the time he was too old, his younger girls started to make a mockery of him.
When he pursued them in order to do his duty, they would run around a bush until he was
too buggered to be able to do anything and you should have seen the triumphant way in

97
which those hens shook their feathers. At long last he had to give up after a long life of
being the king of his roost and we will never forget him as long as we live.
We were also always looking for eggs and the new places the hens hid them.
Some of them used the same nest all the time and gave us no problem. But sometimes
from nowhere a hen would come on the scene and triumphantly show us her new
chickadees. So I kept a good eye out for any hen trying to sneak out to a new nesting
place.
One day I was watching a hen whose actions looked a bit suspicious to me. She
kept watching me in such a way, that I became a bit more aware of her. As soon as I
looked at her she would look away pecking at the ground, but as soon as took my eyes
off her she would race away to a certain distance and start pecking again, looking at me if
I had noticed that sudden rush.
I was completely entranced by this as I felt she had something to hide. Fair
enough, she disappeared out of sight towards the roadside and it took me quite some
time before I discovered her nicely tucked away in a beautiful hiding place, sitting on a
dozen eggs. Matter of fact, it are those things in life that are of importance so we can stay
in touch with what happens around us.
Wally always was and still is a little buggar. For as long as we looked after him; I
have been feeding him, always taken notice of him and therefore been very close to him.
But I have never been able to be the person close enough and could never really relax
around him and never knew why. It was always Corrie he took to. Who knows why, may
be because she was a female and never took me in his confidence!
The saying is: Don’t bite the hand that feeds you, but Wally had other ideas.
Funnily enough, Corrie could do anything with him even though she had very little time to
spend with him.
When we had him on the farm, he could open the door of his cage and roam
around all day. At night he would let himself in. This was OK, until our neighbor started to
complain that he would undo her clothe-pecks when she hung her washing out to dry; so
if we would please keep the bird in on washing day. He would also destroy her grapes,
upset her dogs etc. So when Charlie and Lottie arrived with their big aviary, Wally was
condemned to captivity.

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Charley was a galah and Lottie was a bird like Wally, sulfur crested. But it was
not completely like that for Wally, because when Corrie and I went for a long walk we
took Wally with us and he accompanied us beautifully; that is besides the fact that he
used to dive-bomb me. Just to scare me. He is still such a devil.
Kanga, our kangaroo arrived on our doorstep when I sent Gene home with it after
a stint with Gene in Andamooka. When I rang Corrie that Gene would come home with a
present, she was very curious of course and naturally hoped that it would be a beautiful
opal. When Gene came home with Kanga, a Joey, which means a male kangaroo baby,
she was terribly upset as she had already enough mouths to feed with the little money we
had.
However when she like me was confronted with this dear little thing, her
resistance disappeared like snow for the sun. Mind you, it kept her awake during the
night because it was winter in our area and this creature came from a warm climate.
She could not really go to sleep as her mind was on Kanga, the name we gave
him and whatever she tried, the poor thing kept shivering. At long last she put a pair of
nappies on him and took him with her to bed. That was the end of both their suffering.
As it was a male red kangaroo, it would have been irresponsible to let him grow
up intact so we decided to de-sex him. We had a farrier at the time, which did that kind of
service also, so Corrie approached him and he said as all Australians do: No worries!
She was however worried sick never the less and was happily surprised that after a few
seconds Kanga was vigorously grazing again.
We had a good time while this beautiful creature was alive, but when someone left
the gate open one day we lost him as he went onto the road and a speedy car hit him.
This was such a sad happening as Corrie has done so her best to keep a creature alive
that was condoned to a certain death as its mother was killed in a similar accident and it
only extended its life for a couple of months. But during Kanga’s life we have learned to
love this creature and will never forget him. Now back to where we were!
-.--.--
As we were sitting on a 40-acre property with still quite a few horses to feed and
not making any money with them, something had to be done. We advertised our

99
paddocks for agistment and rented out the stables to a horse trainer for some time; but
this was still not the answer.
In the meantime something very terrible had happened to our wonderful Arabian
stallion Racketeer. One day a girl came to the farm with a mare and asked us if
Racketeer could mate with her.
We had no objections and actually were very proud that she chose our stallion. So
we put Racketeer in with this mare into a vacant paddock and left them to their task.
The next morning our stallion was standing forlorn on a spot and when I saw him
try to move, I saw to my horror, that one of his hind legs was broken. That bloody mare
must have kicked the hell out of him when he mounted her.
I raced down to the paddock and I could see that the poor horse was in terrible
pain. We rang the vet immediately and when he arrived and inspected him, this lovely
horse put his beautiful head under my arm in distress. He had never done that before and
I cried like a baby. My poor darling had to be put out of his misery and I wished the vet
shot me instead.
It shows again that we don’t always have the right to do things because we feel
we can do it. An aware person would never have put a stallion like Racketeer in such a
dilemma. I, in my ignorance, agreed very happily and as a result this beautiful creature
had to be destroyed.
As a monument towards his value I must tell you something that happened some
time ago. I led him from one paddock to another and when crossing a creek which ran
across a couple of boulders, I stumbled and fell. He could have trampled me but instead
tucked his front legs under his chest and jumped across my body. He had not panicked
and stood very patiently waiting for me to grab his lead. That was our Racketeer and
really I did not deserve him.
-.-.-
Then one day, old reliable Jake came with a proposition. Mind you by now his
propositions should have made me stay away from them. But he said: “Why don’t we
start a mushroom farm”?
I answered him that there were many reasons. One of them being that we knew
nothing about growing mushrooms and we had no money.

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I also was not all that keen on starting a business again with Jake as a partner,
as I had my experiences with him in the past.
Jake had his own answers. He said:”You have the property; I will look after the
finance. I take an extra mortgage on my house and that should be enough to get started.
Furthermore, we can get all the information about mushroom growing by milking existing
farms for information.”
As I have always been a glutton in making bad decisions, I did not think that I
could lose, as financially I would have no responsibility and furthermore I had run out of
ideas of what I could do; so we started our inquiries. We visited a small farm in
Melbourne and were quite impressed with the way they operated. It did not seem all that
complicated even though the man in charge warned us not to start because of the
difficulties involved. The words he used were: “If I had to start now even with the
knowledge I have gained over the years, I would not do it. However if you still want to go
ahead, I advise you to buy a book from Holland on mushroom growing! This book has
become my bible.”
To make a long story somewhat shorter, we did start and even though the money
borrowed on Jake’s house did get us nowhere, we had our property to borrow on and that
was a big mistake as again I was lured into starting something with a plan that had
already changed its whole structure. But unfortunately, when I have made up my mind
about something I don’t easily give up!
We started a venture, which was to become the second to last in our lives. We
received the book from Holland through Jake’s brother Johnny and after we borrowed the
money from the bank with our farm as collateral, we started to build most of the
equipment we needed. What we could not afford, we improvised.
Now we had begun, I put everything I had behind it. Those first weeks of getting
things together were very exciting; I must say that Jake did more than his part at the
beginning and it looked that it was going to be the right choice this time.
We filled the first room with compost that we had organized through a mushroom
farm called Adelaide Mushrooms situated in Morphet Vale on the third of July ’88. The
mushroom spawn we ordered from a Melbourne mushroom farm that also produced this
spawn for other farms.

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The farm in Melbourne where we got our information grew the mushrooms in
plastic bags, but the farm in Morphet Vale from where we received the compost grew
their mushroom in beds and I decided to choose this method for us as it seemed to me
more economical. As I thought that timber would cause a lot of problem with infections
through mites, I had made our beds from galvanized steel tubing. When I write I did this
and that means that I had the run of the place as Jake himself left ideas over to me.
Our horse stable shed was our first room that we made ready for our mushroom
growing and in due time the beds were ready to receive the compost and afterwards the
spawn. That was a very exciting time especially because we were so ignorant as far as
growing mushrooms were concerned.
When the time arrived that the mushroom spawn would pin, it became extremely
exciting and important enough as though one was expecting the first child. One morning
at five o’clock when entering the growing room I could not believe my eyes, all shelves
were covered in white. I raced back to the house and dragged everyone out of bed to
have a look. It felt as if we struck gold! When we started to pick the mushrooms and were
finished with one bed, looking back to the beginning of this bed we could have started
from where we had begun as they grew like mad and we had 12 beds to pick each 40
meters long.
Mind you, there was a hell of a lot more to it than that because the compost we
imported from Adelaide Mushrooms was cured, but not pasteurized. For that we had
manufactured our own idea of how to do things and if I may say so; my own brainchild.
Other farms put their green compost onto grates build in to a floor where they could put
steam under pressure from the bottom into it.
As this was too expensive for us to be able to do, I thought that if we could steam
the area from top and sides with the compost in reinforced wire cages, we should have
the same result. As we needed 12 ton of compost for the growing rooms, I designed 12
cages on wheels that could hold 1 ton each. A welder from Goolwa, named Bill Anderson
who became later on a friend, welded the cages together. It worked like a charm and we
needed less room and a smaller boiler. At one time the people who ran a huge farm in
Melbourne and from whom we got our spawn came to our farm to see what we were
doing. They were very impressed with the way our pasteurizer worked as it was

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something they had never seen before. I probably should have gone there one time to
see if they had adopted my idea.
When Jake and his wife went into business with us, they were going to settle in
our area so the two families were able to spend equal time on our farm. But that never
eventuated, Jake and his wife changed their mind on that idea and as soon as the farm
was of the ground Jake went to Holland for a holiday. He did the same when we started
our Earthmoving business and again we were not really ready for him to do so.
This meant that our family had to run the business, plus that we could have used
Jake’s expenses of his trip to Holland very badly. After he came back from Holland he
arrived at work in the morning and left at two in the afternoon to take the mushrooms to
the market.
I started at 5 o’clock in the morning and finished most days at 12 O’clock at night.
So one morning when Jake appeared even later than 10 O’clock, I confronted him with
this fact and told him that I could not take this any longer. As we had enormous expenses
because the interest on our loans went up to 25% and over if we were late, Corrie who
was still working besides the mushroom farm was again the only one who kept the family
afloat. She and the children were also working on the farm without being paid as the
income would not allow this while Jake only worked half days and Diana never did
anything. After my talk to Jake he spent a lot more time on the farm but Diana still stayed
at home. I believe that at that time she still was giving dancing lessons at home to
children.
Our main downfall was in the end that we never had enough money to install very
much needed air conditioners to be able to control the temperature during the summer
and mainly because of that our beds became infested with mites which halved our very
much needed crop.
In the meantime we also lost the firm that provided us with the unpasteurized
compost so we had to find a way to make our own. This became also the time that Jake
became in full worth because he took charge of this project. We were able to borrow a
front-end loader from a man, who grew at one time mushrooms in Myponga and got hold
of all the ingredients needed for the making of our compost. It was also the time we
bought the insulated container and boiler to pasteurize the compost after Jake finished its
first stage. Every new load of compost was tested by the firm that delivered the spawn

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also. We had to make sure that everything went according to plan. For about a year
everything went alright until the lack of finances prevented us to install the air
conditioners we needed so badly to fight the infestation of the dreaded mites.
When the time arrived that we needed a miracle to survive, I came in contact with
a firm who assured me that they could shortcut the time needed to get the compost ready
before pasteurizing and as it was my last hope in saving our business I tried my best to
give it a go. It did not work as I should have known as the straw stayed far too green, but
when you are desperate; you need a miracle and grasp for straws.
Unfortunately we could not keep up the payments and the bank wanted the only
blood we had. Our farm! It was sold for a pittance at auction to a Polish lady with only
money on her mind.
Corrie and I had to apply for Bankruptcy as we had no hope in paying our debts.
Funnily enough Jake went never bankrupt because for some reason nobody felt him to
be accountable for the disaster or may be nothing was to be gained in pursuing him. Mind
you even now he insists that I was at fault because of the way I insisted to grow
mushrooms. He may be right in a way because when we visited this farm in Melbourne at
the start, they grew the mushrooms in plastic bags and I thought this would be too
expensive and time consuming so we went for the beds as they also did on the farm in
Morphet Vale only instead of hardwood I used galvanized tubing and wire. But afterwards
it could have been that the mite infesting might have stayed more local in bags. That the
interest on the money borrowed went up to above 25% in our case and that we never had
enough to install the right cooling system was very happily ignored.
The person, who bought the farm, wanted us to stay on and look after it until she
knew what she wanted to do with it. We declined the offer, as we wanted to make a clean
break. Our spirits were pretty low by then.
As always, my beautiful Corrie found us other accommodations; a dairy farm, not
far from us, had a house for rent on their property. We moved in shortly afterwards.
In the meantime we still had quite a few horses and we had to look for homes for
them! First we tried to sell them and if I remember well, we sold a few for very little
money; some of the others we gave away and for the ones left, we looked for properties
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The agreement we had with the dairy-farmer was that I would do the milking over
the weekend and during the time they went on holidays. The money I made that way
would be taken of the rent.
It would have been a good arrangement if the fellow were not such a bastard. He
did not like me and I certainly did not like him. I had never done any milking before, but
things like that don’t take me very long to pick up and very soon afterwards I did quite a
good job. I must also tell you that before we moved in we had to paint the house from top
to bottom and do many renovations. We supplied our own paint and materials and did not
mind to do this all at the time, as we were very grateful to have a roof above our head.
My nephew Anton had come over from Holland with his wife Ceciel and son Tijs.
They helped us enormously with painting and settling in. We will be forever in their debt.
Our landlord never deducted any of our efforts from the rent or thanked us at any
time. So our situation was Holland all over again. We soon had quite a few problems
between us. The cloth-line stood in the middle of very swampy land which he wanted me
to mow on a regular basis. I still owned a ride-on mower and for a couple of months
during the summer I had no problems. But the rest of the time it could not be done. After
my ride-on broke down, I asked him if I could use his mower; which was a very broken
down old thing.
“OK”: he said; “But you have to fix yours as you cannot use mine all the time!” Fair
enough, but when I got hold of it, everything was wrong with it; but as I could fix it, I did
so. However I soon gave up on it as it was too old and the grassland had become
swampland in the meantime.
The septic discharge had also become blocked and when we had a shower, the
sewerage would run back into it. I prodded him to fix it, but after two weeks I had enough
of waiting and dug the lot up. After I broke some of the pipes I realized they were blocked
with tree roots. I made a trench in order to get rid of the sewerage and left the rest to our
landlord. At least we could have a shower again.
He never fixed it as long as we lived there. I had the best time when he went for a
couple of weeks on holidays and I had the farm to myself. I saw a lot of things that
annoyed me terribly and this was my chance to fix them. Quite a few cows had milking
sores on their teats and even though I put ointment on it over the weekend that healed
those sores.

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By the time he came back all the sores were gone, all the walks to the milk shed
were cleaned of a foot of manure and I thought he would be quite impressed when he
came back. Mind you he had taken all his tools on this trip and I had to do with the ones I
owned myself.
Two cows had milk fever during that time and I used to sit up half the night with
them to make them comfortable. For some reason our friend used just to give them the
injections needed and left them to it after that. I never lost a cow during that time.
When he came back he complained to me that I was stupid in cleaning that walk
into the milking shed and that was the only compliment I received.
Why is it that when I try to do the right thing with what I am asked to do, this is
never appreciated and I am always left disillusioned? Probably I am too forward in my
approach and therefore always seem to piss them off.
We also had an arrangement that I would receive a certain amount for each
milking, but after the buggar came back and his wife came to settle the account, it came
down to the fact that he had changed the rules and only wanted to pay half. The reason
he gave me; that as unskilled labor he was only obliged to pay me the lowest rate.
Unfortunately for his perception of me he had made the wrong move.
When I figured out that this lowest rate for the hours I worked was about $200
dollars more than our original arrangement because instead of being paid per milking, he
wanted to pay this low hourly rate. He did not realize that this changed the whole set-up
in my favor because the hours were a hell of a lot more than he anticipated. He quickly
capitulated.
After he tried to cheat us a couple more times, we had enough of him. This
honorable fellow is now the mayor of his counsel and as such fits his calling.
Around this time we received a phone-call from the woman who bought our farm.
She wanted us to come back and look after it without paying any rent as she did not want
the place to be vandalized. We decided to take her up on that.
We stayed there for another year even though we could never be sure of
something durable. The reason that she wanted us was actually very plain. She bought a
mushroom farm and as I had run this for some time she must have thought it was time for
me to be softened up enough to want to run the farm for her.

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When I told her however that we went broke through the lack of funds and that
she needed to cough up at least $100.000 to have a chance at success, she became
terribly upset because after all she bought a mushroom farm. She was not going to throw
good money after bad money and it was also the end of any possible good feeling
between us.
As a result one day a van full with young people showed up on our doorstep and
they told us that we had to move out as they were moving in. I looked at them in
amazement as I thought them to be out of their cotton picking mind. I told them to piss
off!
But they insisted that they had the right to move in as Mrs. So and so had given
them the authority. I decided to give the woman a ring. She said it was all true and that
she had send the boys. I asked her why she had such a strange way in handling this and
why had she not informed us first so we could look for something else. Her answer was
that; as we were not paying any rent, she could do what she liked. On that reply I just put
the phone down.
We let the boys have a room and told them that we had to look for something else
first, before we would leave.
Obviously she did not feel the need to treat us with respect anymore and as a
result, within a week we found a granny flat in Tottenham Court Road on the property of
Michael and Chris Smoker. Even though it was a bit small for our family, we made do.
From the moment we met Chris she has been one of our best friends. As it has
always been very hard for me to make durable friends through my antics, I have never
succeeded in pushing Chris away; after many years she is still there and what is more,
she still appreciates me for the person I am.
Chris has three children, two boys and a girl; all younger than the children I have
with Corrie. Matthew is the oldest then Jason and Stacey. About Chris I will write a
special essay and will include that later.
That must have been the end of “91 or the beginning “92. Justin was 20 years old,
Ilona 18 and Gene 16.

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The boys who moved into the farm were arrested within a short time for burglaries
and drug use. Obviously they had moved from town hoping they would have easy
pickings.
As I mentioned before, after we had gone bankrupt, Corrie rang the Agricultural
Department, as at one stage during our mushroom growing we had borrowed $20.000 to
build more growing rooms. Corrie rang them to say we could not pay any more.
By accident she was put through to the Legal Dept. and when she started to
explain the why’s and what fore’s the man at the other end was incredibly sympathetic
and after he told her that she was actually at the wrong department; he also informed her
that we were eligible for a re-establishment grant. We could not believe our luck. It took
some doing, but in due time we received our cheque. $ 32.000 in all! Even though I
thought that we could use the money to start one or other business, Corrie insisted that
we should put it towards a house. Of course I could not blame her as the first thing we
actually should have was our own roof over our head.
We decided to buy a block of land and put a house on it. The block of land was
situated on the corner of Tottenham Court Rd and Water port Road and on the same
road we already lived on at Chris’s. Of course we did not have enough money to build a
new house, so when a friend of ours, Bert van Oostveen, saw a transportable house for
sale in the paper at Woomera; Bert took us there to have a look and as a result we
bought it for $4000. Mind you, Woomera is approx. 650 km North of Adelaide and not just
next door. Now again I have to go back in time because I don’t think that I have
mentioned Bert van Oostveen before and he has been a good friend to us since many
years before so forgive me this interlude.
Bert van Oostveen!
As a matter of fact it is very strange that I don’t recall having mentioned him
before and his wife Truus. We met them already when my first wife Wil and I lived in
Brayville through Jan and Wil Reiman. Jan being the one who fell to death at Morialta
Falls!
We became very good friends and stayed like this for many years. After Wil and I
broke up, they were the only ones who wanted to stay friends with me after I suddenly

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appeared on their doorstep and confronted them. They accepted me as they knew the
person I was and we re-kindled our feelings for each other. We have been friends for
many years after. Now back to where I was!
As it was a transportable house, we first tried to have it transported in one piece
and put on the block as it was, but that was too expensive. The cost of it came to $
15000. As the whole thing was steel framed I decided to demolish it on the spot and cut it
into pieces of 8ft. wide so it could be transported on a semi-trailer.
This exercise became a real adventure all in itself. As it was far too much work for
one man, I went to look for labor in Andamooka; the opal-mining town I was very well
acquainted with. I knew a very good business lady who has been investing in the place
by building houses and made a lot of money out of this. I was sure that she would know
some people who wanted to make some extra money. She put me in contact with two
Poles. They agreed on an hourly rate and we started on the Monday after.
As I had made camp on the lot, I expected them to do so also, but they insisted on
going home at night. It was a 240 km round trip.
The Monday arrived and boy, could they work. We had actually quite a good time
together. During the demolition I lived in the house, but when the last room had
disappeared, I had to move into the small tool shed at the back. Not very comfortable, but
I had no other choice and I was only once disturbed during the night and what it was I
never knew.
Something quite heavy ran over my chest and woke me up. I grabbed for my torch
and shone the light all over the place and even went outside to see if it was lurking there.
But nothing alarming moved about. It took some time for me to settle down again but
when my heartbeat started to slow down, I went back to sleep.
We had a good laugh when I told the boys in the morning and of course they
teased the hell out of me for the rest of the day.
After a week the time had arrived that we were ready for loading up the semitrailer
as all the gear that was usable was ready. When it was far more than fully loaded,
there was still a lot left and as I did not want that to be left behind, I had to do a few more
trips afterwards with a large trailer I hired.

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But I had to do that by myself as I had already paid my helpers and we needed all
the money we had left very badly. There was also a lot of concrete left to be taken to the
dump and before I could do that it had to be broken up. Also the plaster walls and ceilings
had to be moved. I used my trailer to take it to the dump, but can you imagine what this
all took out of me? Don’t forget I was already on my invalid pension and if any person had
checked on me to see if I was cheating, I would have had to pay back every cent I had
received so far. It was however something that had to be done and bad back or not it was
me who had to do it. Plus of course the fact that I was far away from home and the
chance to be caught out next to nil!
Of course I am still paying for it as for the past ten years I can only do something
for a quarter of an hour and then have to rest for two hours. But it was done even though
the cost came only to my attention just now as normally I don’t think of it.
It also became obvious that I should build the house myself and even though I
knew nothing of building houses, I started with this bliss of ignorance.
However, even before we had bought the house, Corrie and I had build a
corrugated galvanized shed of 20x50ft. That already was quite an undertaking but I had
already learned a hell of a lot with the building of our mushroom farm.
Our plan was first to build the shed in such a way that we could live in it while we
were building the house, so when we poured the concrete floor I had already fixed the
plumbing for toilet, bathroom and kitchen. We however decided not to move into the shed
and stayed in our flat.
It suddenly came to me that something like this happened before and that was the
time that Wil and I with the children were going to move into the 30ft caravan when our
house was being built on the 25 acre property in Mylor.
It is strange how things repeat themselves in someone’s life. But of course both
times Wil and Corrie were right as we would have no room to put our belongings and I
was pretty stupid to even suggest it. As the address of the building block was in the same
street, I could walk to my boss.
As far as the house was concerned, we went first to a local draftsman to get the
plan ready for Council approval. We used the original plan of the house to get the right
measurements as I wanted to use all the materials we had brought from Woomera.

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From the start we were already in big trouble because I wanted to put a concrete
slab down as foundation. But the council would not allow this and because of the way in
which the plan was drawn and the way in which the building had to be done, the floor
level had to have the same height as the crown of the road. It meant that we had to drill
holes to a depth approx. 1 meter X 600mm diameter and fill them up with concrete; on
top of that we had to brick up the 36 supports the house needed. Mind you, that we had
to bring the floor of the house up to such a height became very useful as after a flood at a
later date we would have been flooded completely. Our next door neighbors were proof
of that.
I did as much as I could by myself, but very often I needed a good tradesman to
do a specialized job like welding, help with the roof, the flooring and plumbing.
The first one to help me was Barry Sampson. We got to know him through a
mutual acquaintance and became quite good friends. He had a hole-drilling machine and
he was our first choice to be employed. However his machine could not do the job and
we had to ring someone else.
Then, after the concrete was poured and cured, I bricked up the pillars and put in
the bearers and joists for the floor. The next man to help me was a young carpenter and
a friend of Michael and Chris Smoker by the name of Mark Finley. We had ordered a load
of flooring sheets and those were neatly fastened on top of the bearers and their joists.
So, that was our floor and really beautifully done.
But before I go any further, I must tell something about the way in which we got
hold off and transported the bearers.
The house in Woomera did not rest on bearers but only on joists, so when I read
the plan I realized that we had to acquire those very necessary bearers. We went to a
Murray Bridge timber yard and found what we needed. But some of them were over 7
meters long and the length of my trailer was at the most 4. However, we got the lot
loaded on and went on our way.
My car was an automatic Holden Torana and when I looked at the load, it was like
David carrying Goliath. So off we went. Believe me when I tell you that the 100 or so km
were the worst kilometers I ever had to drive. Each time I went over 20km. per hour the
trailer started to swing from one side to the other and took the rear of the car with it. I was
sweating blood to keep the car on the road and if we had encountered any police, we

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would have been in trouble. Poor Corrie was probably worse off than I, because she
could only sit there powerlessly. It took us hours to get home and I was completely
wasted.
-.-.-.-
So the floor was fixed and now we needed to find the right marked 8 ft. pieces of
frame to fit together to be welded!
When I cut them, I marked each piece in order to find them back in the right order,
but by the time we started to build, it was a year later and all the marks had rusted away.
As each cut was different because it was done by me, a very inexperienced operator
which was actually very fortunate because each cut was different and it became a lot
easier to match up the right pieces. We also had to fish oil each piece as they had
become very much rusted. What a mess!
Of course I needed a good welder and our friend Barry Samson who could also
weld, welded the outside frame together. The inside framework could be unbolted during
the demolition of the house in Woomera and I had saved all the bolts needed to put that
together. This part of the building I did by myself. I can still remember when a curious
passer-by asked me a question; I sometimes invited him in to give me a hand holding a
certain frame in place for me so I could bolt it together.
Barry got himself a fulltime job in the meantime as he could not do any more work
for me and when at one stage I needed another welder, Corrie found one for me. A fellow
nurse of hers from at Westpark, the Old Folks Home she worked for had a partner who
needed a job and he happened to be a welder. The nurse’s son was also looking for
work, so we employed them both.
They helped us with the building of the posts of the verandah and only when we
came to putting on the roof, did I have to let them go as they were both petrified of
heights. The rescue came from a most unexpected person. Michael Smoker, Chris’s
husband. I could not believe my luck. We did not do a bad job either and he taught me
enough so I could finish the roof of the verandah sometime later by myself.
The building inspector came past on a regular basis to make sure that the house
was build properly and actually years later I was very thankful for this as I had to change

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quite a few things that I thought were unnecessary. Through his advice we live in a very
solid house even though at the time I could have rung his neck with pleasure.
-.-.-.-
We moved in on December “93. Only Ilona was still living with us.
When we did move in however, the house was still very bare; the kitchen for
instance was not build yet and lots of other things had to be done.
It meant that for a long time I had a lot of work in front of me but as I had the time,
it was for me, work wise, a life safer. Corrie in the meantime was still working at
Westpark and in 1996 she followed a course in tactile therapy. By July ’97 she had
acquired three certificates and became a qualified masseuse.
It meant that after she retired from Westpark, she was still making money with her
massages. As far as that was concerned, she has always been a person of great action
and values for us a family.
In the meantime we had acquired quite a few woodworking machines and the
ones I did not have yet I borrowed from our good friend and neighbor Ken Brindal living
opposite our house. He was a remarkable person and I wrote was, because he died on
the 29 th of Dec. 2013. When he was younger, he played in a band and also sang. He was
also a painting artist, specialized in ancient sailing ships and was a very competent
painter. Besides this he did woodworking, making children’s toys and furniture, made also
jewelry and was an avid reader. During the Second World War he sailed on a mine
sweeper and as he was a self confessed coward, we really must admire those efforts. I
am sure that he did many other things but these were the ones I remember best. When
we first became acquainted it was after we started to build our house. He owned an art
gallery that he ran with his son Stephen. On the way there or sometimes coming back he
used to stop to have a yarn with me. He invited me to have a look in his workshop and

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when I saw all his machinery I mumbled something like: I can use some of them in the
future. His answer was: I never loan out my tools! Fair enough I thought but sooner or
later I will get my hands on them. Coming from our mushroom farm I had many usable
bits and pieces that I was sure of he could use as he owned quite a big property and on a
regular basis I asked him if he could this or that and he never said no. In due time he
himself approached me with the comment: It is lovely to be good neighbors and help
each other out. So it was settled and from then on I was able to use his tools. Mind you,
sometimes I had to fix them before they was usable because as far as Ken was
concerned; if it did not work, it was ready for the green bin. So, we became very good
friends. He also had a girlfriend or partner who became later his wife. She is a wonderful
person who we took to our hearts immediately. Her name is Betty and we still see her
each morning for a cup of coffee when she is not visiting her daughter in town 80km
away from Port Elliot which is quite remarkable because she will be 90 years old in 2017
on the 26 th of January to be exact.
In 1997 Ilona who was over from Canada on a holiday, wanted to visit Holland on
the way back to Canada and we decided that Corrie should go with her to Holland to visit
her family and mine. If I remember well, Ilona spend a week over there and got to know
most of my family and I am not so sure that she saw much of Corrie’s family during that
week. But she had a good time as they all took to her. Corrie stayed there for three
months and had an incredibly good time also. Mind you, she had left Holland in 1958 and
had never seen her family since then and that was 39 years ago.
As Corrie is an easy going and pleasant person, my own family took to her from
the start. As Anton had already been with us some years before, not everybody was a
stranger to her and she lived most of the three months at his place. Personally I was
extremely happy for both of us that she met my family at long last and reacquainted
herself with her own family.
Matter of fact, what I am going to write now will of course sound very conceited,
but it happened and even if it might put me in a shady light, it is still the truth. A cousin of
Corrie by the name of Gerda Dooijewaard wrote to Corrie at one time and as Corrie has a
habit of not returning letters, I took it upon myself to do so and from then on we reacquainted
again ourselves with her family, to the delight of Corrie I may say and also
that she was able to have such a good time in Holland. As a result Gerda visited Australia

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afterwards with her brother in law Jan Dooijewaard who was married to Gerda’s sister
Coby.
So, there you are it does pay to keep contact!
________
We are now halfway through June ‘2000 and of my three children with Corrie,
Gene is the only one who is married. That has very much changed in the meantime as
we have arrived at 2007. He married Tammy Marshland on the 31st of Oct.’99 and they
have a delightful little boy who was born on the 15 th of Febr.1999. His name is Cooper
and he has a brother Zack who was born on the 7 th of July 2002.
You see, those are the choices we tend to make. Justin has made a world trip and
Ilona has been in Japan, Holland and Canada. She also worked a long time on Hamilton
Island. Gene chose to be married and is finding what he wants in that direction.
Mind you during those 7 years since 2000, Justin has found a partner in Jasmine
Ressom with a daughter Coco from an earlier marriage and has become the expected
father of a twin. They were born on the 17 th of August 2007 and called Jude and Lula. He
now lives in Brisbane and has started his own business in selling beds. I hope that he is
doing well even though I could not see him as a person to have his own business. In this
I was wrong because he is doing very well as such even if he has started something else
in the meantime.
He went into solar powered electricity and is doing very well. It is actually
incredible the way in which he runs his business, all business like and certainly a lot
better and more successful than I ever did. He is now importing
Of my first family Andre, who is by now 53 years old (not at the time that I am
rehashing this in 2016) and a gynecologist, lives with his wife Sue and two daughters
(Kristy now 26 and Lauren 23) in Crafers! I love them as much as all my off-spring, but
unfortunately I am not part of their lives. Mind you, as I keep reminding, I am not a very
easy person, but I am still the one who started it all and as such I have to still explain
myself.
Robbert Jan, who is now 52, (also older by now of course) lives in Melbourne with
his wife Tracy and two daughters, Amy and Amber. As long as he is married to Tracy, he

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will be lost to us. Of course I don’t just blame Tracy, it has also to do of course with my
inability to accept things as they come across and Robbert’s own choices. If I disliked a
person from the start, I would let this person know and I have done Robbert a lot of harm
acting like this. Through some act of mine I must have let her know this and that was
enough to strengthen her hold on Robbert. Even so, Robbert still keeps in touch with me,
but I have lost touch with his offspring.
Yvonne, my daughter of 48, whose birth was of such a delight to me, has lived
with her partner of many years, Gary Verran, and two sons, David and Andrew, in
Whyalla. After the breakup with Wil, she has turned her back on us but must have
changed her mind about who we are since, as we have regained far more contact over
the last years. She has divorced herself from the no-hoper Gary in the meantime and
hopefully finds someone in the near future with whom she can be happy with and I only
hope that her two male experiences ( before Gary she had another partner whose name I
have forgotten) have not destroyed her ability to find a possible good husband.
In the meantime her two sons are the only ones who have produced great
grandchildren so far. David has a stepson called Brody Lee and Andrew has a daughter
Hannah. They are both very healthy and hopefully have a good life ahead of them. It is
only that as with all my offspring, I am not part of their lives. With offspring I don’t mean of
course the children of my second marriage.
Kim, who is 46, lives with his wife Julie and two children Jarryd 18 and Brittany 17
in; at this time Pasadena. Through all kinds of wrong choices he has ended up by losing
everything they both have worked for so hard and at this age had to start all over again.
The choices he made were because of the person he is and hopefully he has learned
more about himself through those disastrous choices.
John is 43 and married to Sonja; lives with his two children Samantha 15 and
Cameron 13 in Brisbane, where he is in charge of a department of Stegbar Industries.
This is something of the past again as he has changed employment in the meantime.
Their children seem to be doing well, but unfortunately as when Tracey got hold of
Robbert, we lost John in the same way.
In the meantime I have become a very disillusioned person in so far as the result
of what I am about and cannot find anything of what I have accomplished in the past that
even comes close to my expectations.

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As what happened to Kim, I also have made many bad choices and can only
blame myself. He has always been a very caring person and when our break-up occurred
he was probably the one who took it the hardest.
At the moment I spend a lot of time thinking and write about those thoughts and
even with this I am able to upset most people around me. My writing is not good enough
to write home about, but I just like it and keep on doing so until I feel that I have said
enough and for that to happen, I have at least another 5 years. In this I was wrong
because at the time I write this I will be 86 in a couple of months and still going strong.
In the meantime also 2 of my siblings have died. My youngest sister Annie passed
away on 27/12/2004 at the age of 76 after a very unfortunate life and my brother Bert on
27/9/2006 at the age of 73. I have written their stories in separate essays as with all my
family as far as my children are concerned.
John Klomp, 2007.
On Reflection!
Now we have reached 10/2/10 and I have just read through all the above again
and realize that I have done many people a disservice in not making them part of my
life’s story.
About some of them I have made separate stories, but of many I have become
more aware during the time I became somewhat lonely and tried to extend my interest
beyond the ones who were closest to me towards the ones who were not so close to me
but still interested in keeping contact.
Through this effort I must mention my nephew Anton van den Brom, a son of my
eldest sister Jenny and even if it took many years to accomplish, we have gained a
certain satisfactory understanding at some times but somewhat more difficult at other
times. However I have always been very interested in him and his family and at the
moment his son Tijs is here in Australia and just left us after having spent 6 weeks with
us.

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We had lots of good talks between us and through them I realized the connection
he had with his father that I missed with my own children and even if I know the reason
why, it must be hard for anyone else to be able to comprehend this.
Anton, Tijs’s father has never been the product of his surroundings and only
because he realized from a young age what was and what was not and followed his
instincts. As a result he was never loved for the person he is, but always had to battle for
any recognition of his own person. But he did not relent and kept doing his own thing.
I have always tried to be honest with him in letting him know what I thought about
him and when Tijs came here I was happy to realize that he loved and respected his
father.
Unfortunately, even though I have always felt that I was able to read people, I
must have been too trusting towards my perception of Anton, as when he rang me on my
85 th Birthday to congratulate me, he also let me know that he despised me after all the
time that I thought we had such a good relationship. It floored me completely and it
reminded me of the relationship I thought I had with my daughter Ilona. Looking back
upon my life I have always wanted the best for the people with whom I felt close and
gave them my honest opinion when I thought this warranted. What I did not realize at the
time was the fact that when people ask for help, they only want to be assured that they
have made the right choices and every suggestion away from that was looked upon as
unwanted criticism.
First Ilona and now the person as I always looked upon as my friend, showed me
up as the person I certainly am not, but obviously not perceived as such in their eyes. Of
course I know that I have upset many people over the years but I always thought that
with friends one should be able to talk this out, but I was so wrong in that respect as I
realized later that I had no idea about the impact I had on even the closest people whom I
thought of as friends and never were as I found out later. I never realized that the way in
which I showed myself was such that it interfered with the possibility for a warm and close
contact. It was only after the way in which Anton attacked me on my 85 th Birthday that I
became aware of this and realised that through my behavior I must have been my own
worst enemy as far as my ability was concerned to make friends.
We have also had the pleasure of Babette being here, Babette is the daughter of
my niece Ineke, who is the daughter of my eldest sister Jenny. Even though Anton had

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advised her to visit other parts of Australia first and see us afterwards; through that
advise he did his niece a disfavor as he must have forgotten what his niece was about or
what we were about. During the time she was in Australia she spent only about 14 days
with us and felt sorry that she did not come to us from the start of her stay because we
have quite a big family over here. But we still had a very good time and she got to know
our family in Adelaide very well as also Justin and his family in Brisbane.
We kept contact by email and a few years later Babette came again with her
boyfriend Joost Laarakker. She wanted to follow an educational course in Adelaide
which we organized for her but that turned out to be too expensive and when she heard
that a girlfriend of hers followed the same course in Indonesia but more affordable she
went there.
-.-.-.-
Now something about me as far as my health is concerned, physical as I know it
to be and mentally as I hope it still is.
At this moment it is the second of February 2018 and in a couple of weeks I will
be 87 years old. Physically I am in a mess even though I have been fighting to give into
this for many years. Through cycling, walking and exercises over the years I have been
trying to stay fit, but because of a chronic back ailment over the last fifteen years those
efforts became shorter and less and now I have come to accept very little movement.
Corrie is 12 years younger than I am as this cannot change and very full of life.
Therefore I must be a drag on her quality of life and even though I have nothing against
her enjoying herself, I sometimes feel that she blames me for not being part of this, but
the pain in my back is often so excruciating that it is impossible for me to act as a regular
husband or even companion.
I can understand it all, but I have no idea of how to make her aware that I am not
able to do the things that she certainly deserves, but not able to perform. Mind you, I am
not writing about any sexual prowess because that has ended already a very long time
ago, but just normal day to day marital enjoyments as going out for this or that and Corrie
had to do this by herself.

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We often talk about the depression many have to suffer and when I think about
the time that I physically had no boundaries to do the things I could do and the moment in
life where I have landed myself, I could have been one of those people and give up
because I had nothing left to live for.
But fortunately I have always been a person who was able to see things in
perspective and still remember the valuable parts of the past and therefore able to
recognize the value of those. So I still plod on and try to make sense of my life so my
offspring may be able to discern who that old man was.
Strangely enough, last night I dreamt about my life with Wil and remembered the
times in which she brought our children into the world. During her labor she really needed
me as a participant in her struggle to have her children and that was the time that I felt
the closest to her. She clasped my hands and I really felt part of the births.
It is very strange that those memories come forward so vividly and the reality of
our future turned out so completely different. I feel that through my guilt feelings of the
past those dreams plague me very often, but when I wake up and think about it I realize
that it is all that it is, guilt feelings as at the time my waking up to the fact that Wil did not
love me as a wife should and actually only saw me as one of her sons, made me look for
someone who was able to accept me as the person I am and love me as such. So after
all did I make a mistake in choosing Corrie as my future partner or did Wil deserve more
from me?
Have I been too selfish by leaving and letting my children bear Wil’s antics for
years to come?
I did not rehash this all for the sake of being able to make sense of it, but it comes
never the less down to the fact that we all make our choices and most of the time those
choices are made because of the lack of trust in the person we are supposed to love.
Because of this lack I realized that Wil for some reason did not love me and after all those
43 years with Corrie I am still not at peace with what I had to do.
Corrie and I are as happy as we are allowing ourselves to be, but from my side I
have so many regrets because I never wanted to lose my children’s respect. So there
you are!

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However, this was my life till 2007 and now we are at the sixth of January 6, 2017
and I hope that this will be the last extension on the story of my life as I want to have it
printed before I kick the bucket.
Corrie just booked a plane ticket to New Zealand in order to visit her stepmother
who will soon be 94 years old. Her name is Alice and even though they have nothing in
common, Corrie feels that because she has been in the family for such a long time,
keeping some contact is necessary and even if Alice is not her blood relative, she has
been a big part of her past.
People often think that life plays tricks on them, but this is not true as it are the
choices that people make and their outcome that are the cause. Life itself has nothing to
do with this as each person carries the responsibility of their choices.
Today is Ilona’s 44 th Birthday and she is celebrating this with us at home in Port
Elliot. My story about her I will add later as in an essay, but when I congratulated her this
morning I also told her that she had reached middle age now. Of course she was taken
aback when I told her that, but 44 is half of 88 so it is exactly in the middle and at the
present time 88 has become the average age. But I softened it a bit by adding that by the
time she has reached 88; through all kinds of new developments her age of now could
only be a third of life expectancy. It made her a bit happier.
The girls have been away for some entertainment and just arrived back so I have
to continue later because I don’t want to exclude myself completely from their presence.
At this time in my life and at my age, I have no idea how my writing can be
appreciated by my descendants and I don’t even know if any of them is interested or
willing enough to go through this because I must always have been somewhat strange in
my behavior towards what was looked upon as the norm and therefore often regarded as
a nut. But that is the person I am, I don’t like bullshit and when in company people were
not able to talk about nothing else but bullshit, I would be able to give them more crap
than they could even think of with the only intention to steer them towards a different
plane of conversation. But this has very often been misconstrued, because for that to
understand the company at large had to do some thinking and that was not always
possible. The easy way out was then to look upon me as the nut they had always thought
I was in the first place.

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I am not sure that I will continue on this path, because when I write I like to drink
some wine and get often a bit tipsy as I feel I am now and then I start to write even more
nonsense than I have already done.
However, a couple of weeks ago I went to the doctor for a check up on an
infection on my arm. He also checked up on my blood pressure (which had not been
done for quite a few years) and blow me down, it was quite high and I am not used to that
as my blood pressure has always been very good.
I certainly did not like that and asked myself: How can that be? As I mentioned
that I often drink some wine when I write, I thought that this might be the reason: so I
stopped drinking as I have my next check up on the sixth of February, just to find out if
this is the culprit. Who knows!
I went on that date and everything was OK. So obviously I have longer to live.
Coming to the end of my life’s story I don’t think that I have more to add as far as new
experiences are concerned, but my mind is still active in the thinking part and as far as
that is concerned, I still have plenty to say.
Corrie is on holidays to spend 10 days in Brisbane with Justin and his family. She
wanted to celebrate Justin and Jasmine’s birthday of their twin’s 10 th Birthday. Last year
we went with the two of us and we had a good time over there as I had never been to
Brisbane yet and could therefore experience for myself the way in which Justin has been
building up his life and is going into a good future. I hope that Jasmine will understand
that I did not include her in his success if she gets to read this, as I don’t want her to
share in Justin’s accomplishments because in my opinion she does not deserve this. But
those are my observations and only Justin can tell me that I am wrong with those.
I also have come to that point in my life that I have lost the bit of contact that
Andre and I seem to have had since my break up with Wil. In getting to the age I am now,
things have changed as far as his feelings towards me are concerned. For some reason I
have never been able to talk to him when we were alone so when I saw him there were
others around and I was unable to express or even come close to my worries about his
feelings about me.
Even though in the past I thought that I would be able to connect through an
email, but he always cut that short. I always thought that we had so much in common and
for some reason we never connected.

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Now my son Kim! Of all my children I thought that I knew him best because of his
vulnerability. He is the most sensitive and because of the way he was he had to fight for
everything to get his place in the order of things. Even after he received his place in the
SAFL as a formidable captain and player for the North Adelaide Football Club, he never
felt accepted by his brothers as the person who had fought so long for this acceptance.
To me he has always been the son I admired the most because of the way he handled
himself and therefore became my hero.
I have let him know this on several occasions and even though he should know
me a bit better through those feelings, I feel that I am also loosing contact with him. To
me it feels as if I am already dead to them.
I am still frightfully alive however and go through these observations with also a
sane understanding that it is me and my antics that has caused this. Where do I go from
here? I cannot make up for my past choices and therefore must accept the reactions of
the ones at the other end of those choices and therefore also accept the place in which I
find myself today.
How is it possible that I can understand so much about the actions and feelings of
others and so few are willing to understand the place I come from?
This I am writing on the 25 th March 2018
My mother Gezina Egberdina Maria Wildeboer – Klomp! Sientje.
As I promised before, I will write about the people who have meant a lot to me, in
separate chapters. This is the first one.
My mother opened her eyes for the first time on the 21 st of October 1905. She
was the daughter and third child of Lubbert Wildeboer and Jentje Erkelens. Two brothers
preceded her; the oldest was Lubbert and the next Roelof.

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During my growing up years until I was about twelve, I remember her just as the
person who was my mother. I cannot recall a very loving person. As a matter of fact I
don’t think that she ever showed any affection towards us kids. Looking back, I realize
that I came from a family that did not show any feelings of that kind towards each other.
Anything coming even close would actually be frowned upon and looked at as something
silly.
I loved my mother however very much and I am old enough now (14 years older
than she was at her death at 56) to realize that we have missed an enormous amount of
warmth in our relationship during our growing up and even as grown-ups.
It is probably the reason for my own inability to show much affection towards the
ones I love. This chapter is however about my mother and it are the things she did that
made me feel about her as I do. I remember that she had a great sense of humor and
when she smiled or laughed, her face would wrinkle up and her eyes would be ablaze
with animation and vigor. Her own mother died by giving birth to her last child and my
mother had to look after the family from an early age. Even when her father remarried,
this job did not cease, as her new mother was a lazy, good for nothing and made life a
hell for the existing family. It must have been an escape for her when she fell pregnant
by my father at, I think, 21 years of age.
It was an escape from a dreary way of life into (as it turned out to be) another
dreary way of life. My father was not a person with the love and understanding my
mother certainly deserved. He was young also, 1 year older than my mother, and not
the person to nurture a family. Of course, he was the man he was and could therefore
only act that way, but he could have learned to love my mother somewhat beyond the
selfish need of her. Instead he became a dreadful husband and father.
As I have written before he was the man he was and when he met the person
my mother was, I don’t think that it ever dawned on him how lucky he was.
Our mother was there always for us. If I think of all the work she did and the little
recognition she received, it was no wonder that she only lasted till the age of 56.
The first thing I really remembered about my mother when I was about five
years old. It happened in the kitchen one morning. I was sitting on the potty doing my
business, when the baker knocked on the door to deliver our daily bread.

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As I was a very shy child, I quickly scampered with my potty under the table.
It was a good hiding place, as the sides of a large tablecloth nearly came down to the
ground. It hid me quite sufficiently. My mother did not let me get away with it. She must
have let the baker know where I was, because he lifted up the tablecloth at one corner
and asked me what I in heavens name was doing there. I don’t remember how I
reacted, but it must have been worth seeing.
That was the person my mother was like, she would never let a moment of
mirth go past and at the same time teach her children to face the world. Another fact
was that I never seemed able to hide something from her. Whatever I did or thought,
when I looked at her, I realized that she read me like a book. She never said anything,
but from a very young age I learned not to lie to her or keep anything from her.
By the time it dawned on her that her husband was cheating on her and had
become or already was an alcoholic, she was too set in her way of life and took the
situation as she had done in the past: burying the hurt deep within and live on as best as
she could.
As long as I have known my mother, she has suffered migraines and later on
this would be accompanied by rheumatoid arthritis. If I think of the work she has done to
keep the house and her children as clean as she did without the help of machines, I feel
very humble towards her. Even though I know what work is all about, I could not come
close to the hours she spent on working and that under the pain and agony of her
existence. I also cannot remember my mother being idle at any time.
But, whatever her sufferings, I remember her as a humorous and strong
person, who guided me constantly into the values I still hold today.
When we were still young, she sometimes used to play with us. We used to
invent our own games and were very rarely bored. She laughed a lot when we were
playing and sometimes that much so that she had to hold her stomach, because it hurt
that much. Tears used to stream down her cheeks then and I think that those were the
happiest moments of our childhood. At night, if she was not too ill, she told us stories
about her youth and most of the time they were very funny stories. Through them I
realized that this woman could never buckle under pressure as she could see the funny
side of even the most stressful situations.

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The most vivid memories of her I have from the Second World War. To be
able to survive, everything had to be done clandestine, as there was no food to be
gotten through regular channels. As a result, we had often lots of black-market stuff in
our house and as there are always jealous neighbors ready to squeal on you, we often
had a razzia at our house. Under those circumstances my father was like quivering jelly,
but you should have seen my mother. Orders were flowing left right and center and
before the last sound of the doorbell had ceased, with my mother panting from
exhaustion in an easy chair, watching a fruitless search.
I remember one day when she was lying in bed with rheumatic fever, when
again we had one of those searches. We had no warning beforehand and when my
father opened the door he turned white as a sheet as soon as he saw the German
uniforms. He knew that the bedroom my mother was in, was full of black commerce, so
after he had shown them the rest of the house, he pointed at the door of my mother’s
sickroom and said: “I am sorry but you cannot go in there because my wife is very sick
and as she might be asleep, I don’t want to disturb her.”
This was enough to make them really interested and they insisted on
searching the room. To their dismay and to my father’s utter surprise, the room was very
tidy and no sign of any contraband.
As soon as my mother realized what was going on, she had thrown
everything that was of interest to the Germans, out of the window onto the flat roof of
our kitchen. No one thought of looking for something on the outside.
As sick as she was, she must have been busy for at least half an hour to clear the
room and dive back under the blankets with her teeth shattering. My father looked with
an expression of complete disbelief on his face and must have asked himself where it all
went.
This was my mother; she would act first and leave the panic for later.
The first time I did not follow up her advice, was when I courted my first wife Wil. Wil
and I had some trouble with her parents when we were courting! For some reason they
did not like me, mainly I presume, because they were Catholic and I completely
abstained from any religion. Anyway, I went to see her one-day and her parents refused
me entry into their home and Wil coming with me for a bike ride. I took my bike and was
ready to leave as I did not want to make a scene. However Wil escaped through the

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back door and ran after me. Her parents in pursuit! It became quite a scene after all with
pushing, shoving and tears.
home.
I managed to drag myself free from Wil’s desperate embrace and went
My mother noticed my distress the minute I went through the door and wanted to
know what had happened. After I told her the miserable story, my parents promised me
that they would have a talk with her parents the next day.
When they arrived at their place, Wil and her mother had a very heated discussion
while they were there and when they came back home my mother told me quietly that
Wil was not much different from her mother as far as her character was concerned. “I
actually would think twice, if I were you, to keep her as a girlfriend,” she added dryly.
Even though she proved herself right many years afterwards, I did not agree with her
and stayed together with Wil for more than twenty years. I will never say that I regretted
this choice, as it was a relationship that produced five beautiful children, but never the
less as far as Wil was concerned she was right. By the way, I never liked her mother.
When we decided to migrate to Australia, my mother was very much against it and it
was on the day of our departure that I had a bit of a glimmer why. I am not quite sure, as
she never really showed any special love towards me, but I believe that she had a soft
spot for me. When we boarded the Southern Cross and looked down at our relatives, I
saw my mother standing behind everybody else with such a forlorn and lost expression
on her face, that I suddenly realized what my leaving meant to her. If at that moment I
could have changed everything, I would have done so. We went however, but that
moment of insight has never left me. Without knowing it, I had done her a lot of harm.
But life goes on however and the excitement of our new adventure soon dampened,
this (what must have been a terrible impact on my mother) interlude!
We lost more or less contact over the next 6 years as my mother was no writer and
over the phone neither of us was able to communicate much.
After those six years I got a call from my father telling me that my mother was dying
of cancer and did not want to go before she had seen me once more.
That Friday I obtained my passport, injections and air-ticket. Monday I arrived in
Holland. I have to say that my wife moved heaven and earth to make this possible even

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though this move has nearly cost us everything that we had built up so far. But I was in
Holland with my mother and even though it was a hell of a time for me, I hope it has
been something of value for her.
At that time, every sacrifice would have been worth it. You see, without a person like
my wife I would not have given in to the urgency of this situation and the realization of
moments like this make me feel so terribly sad towards our inevitable break-up.
I know that this sentimental rehash is not fair as far as my wife Corrie (wife of
the last twenty-five years) is concerned, but that is how I feel and the kind of person my
first wife could also be. I know as well, that if my mother had known Corrie, she would
never have advised me to think twice before marrying her.
The moment my mother died I was standing at the foot end of her bed and
she was gazing into my eyes. Nothing was whispered or said and the light went slowly
out off her knowing eyes. I will regret forever not having known her, as I should have.
J.Klomp 12/6/2000

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The sweet fruit on the other side of the fence!
This is a true story and it happened when my mother was only a little girl. It
was probably 1922 and the family of which my mother was a member, was big and very
poor. It was the time of the year when fruits like apples and pears were ripe and even
though they had no fruit growing in their own yard, the next door neighbor had plenty.
My mother and her younger sister Aaltje had been eyeing those beautiful
apples and pears with great desire and when it became too much, they decided to climb
the fence and get some. The neighbor was a grumpy old man who did not like children
so there was no chance of getting some by asking.
The moment had arrived for this act of defiance and Aaltje was going to climb
the fence while my mother would stay behind, standing guard. Sientje, who was my
mother, helped Aaltje over the fence and Aaltje crept very stealthily towards an apple
tree with beautiful big, red apples. As the branches were too high off the ground, the
little girl had to climb to reach the fruits.
My mother in the meantime, being the big tease she was kept harassing her
sister with false warnings like: He is coming! The first time Aaltje would slide down in a
flash and race to the fence to the delight of Sientje. But afterwards Aaltje refused to be
intimidated again and even after continuous warning whispers of my mother, she would
not budge and kept picking apples. She put them in her skirt that she had lifted up into a
kind of a pouch with one hand.
When she was ready to come down, the backdoor opened and the neighbor
showed his face and noticed immediately what was going on. He quickly advanced and
my mother in panic whispered again a warning. Aaltje took no notice as was to be
expected even though Sientje sounded terribly desperate by this time.
The neighbor was just about going to put his hands on Aaltje when she saw
him. She let out a yell, let go of all the apples and jumped down before he could grab
her. She raced towards the fence with the neighbor in pursuit.

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She nearly made it and was just about ready, with the help of my mother, to
jump clear, when he reached out and held her by the ankle.
As I told before, the family was very poor and none of the children ever wore
underpants. So when the angry neighbor grabbed her leg, she was so frightened that
she let go of the contents of her bladder.
As you can imagine, the result was devastating as his face was directly in the
line of fire.
My mother and her little sister were never punished for what had happened,
for the simple reason that they never told anyone at the time and the man did the same
as he realised he would never live it down if he did. But you can bet your last dollar that
Sientje and Aaltje had many delicious snickers between them and only included us
children on one rainy afternoon.
J.Klomp. 20/10/2000
My father, Andries Klomp, born 1/6/1904!
He was the son of Jan Klomp en Annigje Vink and born in Groningen. It is the
capital city of the Province Groningen in the North of Holland. If I remember well, he was
the fourth son in a family with six boys and one girl. Klaas, Jan, Bertus, Andries, Jannes,
Jo (Johannes) and the girl Gee!
The last name is of course an abbreviation but I have no idea what of.
I don’t know much of my father’s youth and as a matter of fact I don’t know
much about my father’s life full stop. During the time of my growing up in the family he

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seemed to lead a completely different life from us. But I will do my best to express my
feelings about him as true as I can.
For some reason my father must have been very unhappy in his marriage as
he, already in the very early stages of this commitment, cheated on my mother and felt
at home only in the pub. Of course, we only found that out after we matured somewhat.
He never spent time with his family. Even if we had made a date to go out some
Sunday, he used to cancel this on a regular basis. This is where I probably received the
tendency to mistrust anyone as far as a promise was concerned. I still will never show a
disappointment and might even tell others that I actually did not want to go anyway.
So, from a young age, I learned not to depend on my father and he stayed a
stranger for a hell of a long time. He might have tried sometimes to break through this
shield of indifference, but we as children did not give him much chance as by then we
had formed a family bond without him. It is a bit hard for me to be unbiased as I left
Holland at twenty-five, being nearly seventy years now myself and never really been
able to know my father on an adult basis. But for whatever reason, my father was very
unreliable in all kinds of phases. On the other hand he never left us and during the
wartime, he always made sure we were not hungry. As a matter of fact, on looking back
from where I am now, I believe that we had more a father during the war. That there was
no alcohol available might also have been a telling factor. I am not going to tell about the
terrible things that have occurred as of the real reason why, I have no answer. When I
went to Holland in 1962 during the time my mother died, I heard that the last years of
her life were of a better quality and for that I must thank my father. For a person like him
it could not have been easy to live with a sickly and probably, where sex was
concerned, cold woman. As children one might judge harshly, as an adult one must try
to understand. Therefore I cannot be bitter towards his memory and feel only sad that I
never had, or took the chance, to get to know him better. But this is what life is all about;
you need insights and a willing awareness to get to the bottom of things. Those always
seem to come too late. He married twice after my mother died and the first one, Auntie
Jo, was a very well accepted person by the family. I have never met her as she died
before I had the chance. With the other one, my father completely divorced himself from
his children and after he died around 1980, there was nothing left of the money that my
brothers Bert and Tonny were entitled to. I mentioned Bert and Tonny, because they
spent many years of their working life in the family business for meager wages. The

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reason being: this is your own business; the less you take now, the more you will have
later. This is what I meant when I said that my father was not to be trusted.
Now it would be very interesting to be able to obtain my father’s view regarding
himself. But unfortunately that is lost forever.
J.Klomp. 2000.
Cornelia Gerarda Maria Hulstijn!
Corrie, as she has always been known at was born in Holland on the 24 th of
December 1943. Looking at her pictures as a child, she was a lovely looking blond girl
with blue eyes. It was at the end of the Second World War that her mother and older
brother Bernard were killed. A grenade exploded in the middle of a group of women
talking to each other on the market place. Bernard was holding his mother’s skirt at that
very moment.
Corrie’s father had gone underground and when at the end of the war he returned
home, all that was left of his family was his two-year-old daughter.
It destroyed his life and Corrie’s youth. The first time I met her was, when I heard
that our old acquaintance Peter Broer was married. We were nosy enough to want to
see this woman who seemed to be courageous enough to marry the fellow who we
thought was a looser.
For reasons not important, we called in at their place at approx. 10 o’clock at night.
They were already in bed. Corrie’s recall at a later date was: Here we were sound
asleep and the doorbell rang. She opened the door and there we were old
acquaintances of Peter of whom she had never heard. It must have been quite
disturbing and I still feel uneasy about we went to get to know of his second wife Corrie.
However if we had never done so, we might never have met and may be today Corrie
and I would not be together. If no one believes in fate, this must cure him or her forever.

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I liked Corrie from the start even though the stories she told us we took with a grain
of salt. To live through experiences like those we calculated she had to be 80 years old.
She was only 26.
Years afterwards, I realized she was not telling stories, she has had such
experiences.
From then on we met regularly as I believe that Corrie liked us also from the start. I
don’t know if it was both of us or just me. (Because in Wil’s story I told you how
handsome I was). I hope you realize this was only a joke!
Anyway we became good friends and got to know each other quite well. It took some
time before Corrie got pregnant as Peter’s sperm count was a bit low, but in time Corrie
became pregnant with her first child. It was a boy and he was called Justin Grant.
Everything was O.K. and Corrie seemed to be very happy.
I, on the other hand, had become very much aware of my own unhappiness in my
marriage and divulged such to Corrie in some coffee drinking sessions we had at certain
times. Through those she told me something about her marriage and I realized that she
was not all that happy herself. Peter drank more than he should and she thought that he
was double-timing her. So there we were two people unhappy and we thought that we
would be a lot happier if we could be together.
One might think that this was the moment of truth. But nothing in this life is as
straightforward as that.
Corrie and I kissed once on a catamaran, which I had acquired at one stage. I
invited Peter and his family for a sail on this thing, even though I don’t remember how I
managed this without the inclusion of my own family. What I do remember however is the
fact that I did kiss Corrie on that occasion.
When I met Corrie afterwards, nothing was mentioned about this for me such an
important happening and I could not get myself to talk about this.
Corrie fell pregnant again by Peter soon afterwards with her daughter Ilona that
meant that she had three children to look after.
When Corrie married Peter, he already had an adopted son Michael. But my world
collapsed. What kind of a fool had I been, thinking that someone could be interested in

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me and that something like a kiss could be important enough for anyone to mean
anything at all?
I was devastated and at the same time made up my mind never to even think that
women could be interested in me.
We went to see Corrie’s new baby after it was born and as Corrie never even gave
me a hint of what she thought, things went on as before. Two families and two separate
lives!
After a while Peter and Corrie sold their house in Para hills and bought a block of
land in Aldgate, close to where we lived.
While their house was being built, they rented a place not far from us and Corrie,
being the person she was, became very involved in our family. She took our children to
school, swimming and actually made herself very useful as both Wil and I were working.
In the meantime we had sold our cleaning business. I was working as a land
salesman and Wil worked for a Supermarket.
Our relationship did not improve and I knew that sooner or later I had to make
steps towards a separation.
As a land salesman I was most of the time on the road and quite often called in at
Corrie for a cup of coffee. Even though they were building a new house and had moved
into a new area, their relationship had not improved either and during this time Corrie
and I became closer and closer.
I have always hated to act behind someone’s back and as Corrie also could not
really cheat, our kind of relationship became soon common knowledge and the four of
us decided to come together and talk it out. It got us nowhere and the result was that
Corrie in a huff showed us the door, as she could not stomach any more.
I was terribly upset and stormed off down the road. As I did not want to see my wife
either, I kept on walking and did so for the rest of the night. In the early morning I
returned home and life went on as strained as it was. I could not believe Corrie in the
way she had acted and if she thought that I was not worth a cracker, so be it.
Corrie came back to me later to explain why she acted as she did. She felt that we
did not accomplish anything by shouting at each other and thought it would be better to
take the initiative and throw us out. For me it was the first indication about the strength

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of our females in comparison with the males. The male may be the one who suggests, it
is the female who decides. Of course I am only speaking in general.
So we were back to square one. In the meantime I felt that I should stay with my
family because I was not a person who could easily desert his family and we had five
children after all.
But what I had started with Corrie was not something I could ignore either and I
promised myself that I would not leave her in the lurch, as she was adamant that she
was going to leave Peter.
With this in mind I went back to Wil. However, she only wanted me back if I would
never see that woman again. I told her straight away that I felt responsible for what I had
started and could not promise her that I would leave Corrie to her own devices.
Afterwards I left and went back to Corrie. It was only much later that I realized that
Wil thought that I wanted them both and that she had no idea that I wanted to make sure
that Corrie and her children were all right. But that is part of life; misunderstandings
happen and the future of many people changes because of it.
For Corrie and me it was for the better, for Wil it meant the end of a marriage to a
man she could not love because she did not take the trouble in understanding.
However, later on and looking back on our life I realised that in reality she never loved
me because in the way she treated me. Look, even though I am not a very nice person
and therefore certainly not one of the best, but I have always done my utmost towards
my family and loved all of them even Wil. But, when I realized that when I, because of
whom I am, my wife could not love me back, I had to leave.
Again I feel that I write more about myself than Corrie and I apologize for this but I
explain Corrie through me so I have to do it this way. Corrie and I had a very hard start.
She took three children with her of whom the oldest one was an adopted son from Peter
and his former wife. I just left my own children and felt like a hypocrite when I acted like
a father to my newly acquired family.
It took quite some time before I lost this feeling of being in limbo. It was after the
reactions of my first family towards this dilemma that again, through Wil’s destructive
behavior, I could feel more at ease with my new life. However I could never feel happy
with the choice I made because I left my children to deal with Wil and never gave them a

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choice of who they wanted to be with because I knew that it would destroy Wil if any of
them would choose me. When I rehash this after many times before, I am 87 years old
and also is Wil, but I am still in doubt if I made the right choice because of the fact that I
may have acted selfishly and for my own comfort without any regard for the welfare of
my children. After all those years it still bothers me and of course I will never get an
answer to this question. After the break-up I expected that afterwards things would settle
down and we would be able to get on with our lives as civilized people. But I should
have known better, it turned out the complete opposite.
Corrie of course had her own problems and had to sort those out through this trying
time.
At this point we have been together for 27 years and have been as happy as we let
ourselves. My own life has changed for the better even though there will always be the
shadow of the past. Corrie and I have another son between us. His name is Gene
Douglas and he was born on the 13 th of Dec.1975.
Even though Corrie’s and my character are worlds apart, she is willing to accept
mine and I would never want to jeopardize what we have together. Of course we have
our problems, but so far we have always been able to solve them or may be just
accommodate each other.
J.Klomp 30/10/2000
My son Andre!

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It is very hard to find a reason why it is that after so many years of writing I found
the courage to write about my firstborn.
When Andre was born on the 23 rd of August 1953 it was a run of the mill birth, not so
much for my wife Willy as she did far too much her best to please the midwife and that
with her strength she pushed Andre out whether he liked it or not with the result that he
had a bruise on the top of his head and his head had the shape of an egg. She also had
a tear in her vagina. His head was very big but fortunately he did not turn out Bigheaded.
However, the thing I was involved in was the organization beforehand. He was
a fortnight early and nothing was ready for the occasion. Wil, my wife, started labor a
fortnight before time which meant, that being the husband (and very inexperienced at
that) I had to organize the proceedings. Wil, being a very definite and earthly person let
me know in no uncertain terms that the baby was coming.
I rang the doctor, who was not at home as it happened to be Sunday, so I rang the
midwife, who thankfully was at home. Normally the doctor organizes this as in Holland in
1953 the birthing was done at home with just the midwife attending. In case of
complications the doctor would come.
I still had to get all kinds of other things and when I came home at last, I was more or
less just in time to witness the birth.
The midwife was a nice young woman who knew her business very well, but did not
know my wife. Wil has always been a very strong person, probably one of the reasons I
was attracted to her, and when the midwife said: ”Push”, my wife would do so with all
the strength she could muster. However it did not matter to any of us. We were so
happy.
Will had so much milk that her nipples retracted so Andre could not get hold of this
nipple and to suck and be able to extract any milk. As a result he became very
dehydrated and very weak. It showed in the way he was holding his arms. They were
hanging down when I held him and somehow that did not seem right to me.

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When the midwife came for a checkup, she could not see anything wrong, but I was
not happy with her observations. I rang our old family doctor and told him I was not at all
satisfied with the way things were developing and if he could come straight away.
He told me not to panic, as new parents had a habit in doing so. And why didn’t I
ring my own doctor? I answered that I could not reach him and as I thought he was the
best, I rang him instead.
After some deliberation he decided to come, which made me breathe a lot easier. As
he did not live far away, he arrived within a quarter of an hour. He took one look at
Andre, bundled him up as he was and took off to the hospital.
Later on he told us that Andre would not have lasted another day without some extra
liquid. One can understand how thankful we were that we got hold of the right doctor.
Even though it was not too good a start, after that episode we did not encounter any
more serious problems. At least that is how I remember after so many years.
Andre had a quick mind, hardly ever cried and became the sun in our lives. It took
him over 12 months to start walking, but being a big baby was the excuse we gave other
proud parents who swore that their child walked much earlier.
We were so proud of our little son, which does not mean that we are not proud at the
moment. When Andre started to walk, he did so from the start like a professional. He
grew up with very poor parents, but never lacked anything he needed.
We never spoiled him and I think that because of that he stayed the happy person
he still is.
On the 14 th of May 1955 our second son Robbert Jan was born and Andre had a
brother. It is strange in a way that I don’t have the same vivid memories of Robbert’s
birth, but I presume that a second child has not the same impact as the first and any
child afterwards. As their ages were not far apart, they grew up together and spend
therefore a lot of time in each other’s company.
We lived in a very small apartment, a kitchen, one bedroom and a lounge. With
Robbert Jan and Andre it became far too small as it was just big enough for Wil and I,
so something had to be done.
As nothing seemed to work out for me employment wise, we decided to migrate to
Australia and in January 1956 we deserted Holland and sailed to Australia through the

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Panama Canal. Andre was 2 and half years old and Robbert Jan only 8 months. Wil and
I were both 24 years old.
The children were far too young to remember anything of the trip, but even though
we had very little money and Wil never wanted to leave the children with the carers, we
had a great time. Can you imagine, neither Wil, nor myself had ever been out of the
country and only I had seen the North Sea once; suddenly we were on a world trip and
very well looked after. It was like a fairy tale and I vouched then that I would never be
sorry for having made this step. Even if we did not like Australia, we had this beautiful
experience.
As it turned out we took to Australia as a duck takes to water and never had to regret
anything. I made quite a few mistakes in the beginning, which set us back somewhat,
but once settled down in Braystreet Brayville, as it was still called then, we really started
our new life and also, as for the boys it was the best thing we could ever have done.
When it was time for Andre to go to Kindy, Wil took Robbert Jan with her on this first
day and when the time arrived for them to leave Andre at it, in no uncertain terms did
Robbert Jan let everyone know that he also was going to stay put. To humor him, the
staff told Wil to leave him there for this day, as he seemed to be all right. But that was it,
he started Kindy at 2.
As I worked two jobs at the time, I lost a good deal of their growing up and
unfortunately many incidents during this time. Andre was extremely nice and healthy
looking and his clear blue eyes were not always just questioning.
As his teachers have told us, he was a perfect student. At Highschool he became
prefect of his class with a female counterpart. In sport he was also very good. It did not
matter what he started, he became good at it. Not a real champion, because I don’t think
that this would be enough to fulfill him. On the other hand one cannot be top in
everything as it would take too much time and effort.
Swimming and basketball were the sports I think he liked best and we as parents
made sure that he had the opportunity to practice them. During this period of his life I
took to the breeding of hacks. With a friend I bought 20 brumbies at an auction to start
this venture and of course the children were very much involved also.

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The first horse we ever bought was Bronco. A handsome 14 hand gelding who
became the pride and joy of our daughter Yvonne! She joined the family when Andre
was five years old. At this stage of our life we had already all our five children. The year
was 1970 or thereabouts, Wil and I were 39 years old, Andre 17, Robbert 15, Yvonne
12, Kim 10 and Johnny 6. There you have them all. The reason that I did not mention
their birth through Andre’s life is the fact that I am writing about Andre’s life and I don’t
remember enough as to be able to write about them concurrently.
The reason I mentioned Bronco was because Andre used to ride him and the story
connected with this. It has become a family story. Bronco has always been quite
stubborn and even though Yvonne could handle him well enough, she was a bit too soft
on him with the result that he was used to have it his own way.
When you took him for a ride, he was all right when you were going away from his
domain. But as soon you as you were on the way back, he wanted to take over and
return on his terms. That meant he would go at a full gallop and no further than the gate.
The first time Andre did that, he must have thought that Bronco was the best horse
ever, no urging, and just a nice easy ride. That was until Bronco in full gallop put on the
breaks at the gate and Andre catapulted out off the saddle. Thankfully he did not hurt
himself, but the story is there. I still laugh uproariously when Andre tells the story,
because he does it a lot better than I do with my writing.
With swimming he became one of the best in the State and so with basketball.
Football (Australian rules) was also a sport he relished in and played for years as ruck in
Aldgate/Heathfield United. Actually he was a bit like me in that respect, a very
competitive person in anything he did.
As I mentioned before, he was and still is a very good student and went to the
Adelaide University to study medicine. If I remember well, he became a doctor at 22
years of age. Afterwards he specialized in gynecology and finished his studies in
London.
His wife Sue and he have two daughters Kristy and Lauren and actually after my first
wife and I separated in 1973/’74, I believe that we lost the real close contact between
his family and Corrie and I through no fault of his, but through my own disconcerting
way.

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May be I am exaggerating a bit through my own feeling of inadequacy, but that is
how I see it as we hardly know my granddaughters and see each other very rarely. But
as Corrie quite often points out to me: I seem to be a very hard person to get along with.
So be it.
But I think a lot of my family and as a matter of fact family full stop. Unfortunately I
seem to be the only one as no one is able or able to accept me as I am.
John Klomp, 9/5/05
P/s. I started this a long time ago, but only finished it now.
P/p/s. It is now May 2007 and even though I have not much to add, I must say that
they are all doing well. Kristy and also Lauren have gone back to their studies as they
have realised from their past experiences that life sucks if you only try to enjoy it. As I
have mentioned before, I am not part of their life but that does not matter as I only wish
them the best. The same John, if only after two years!
My son Robbert Jan Klomp!
When Robbert was born on the 14 th of May 1955 it was a lot less
drama, as his birth was easier and there was no aftermath as with Andre’s birth. When I
mentioned easier that was from my point of view as it is very possible that Wil
disagrees! It is also always said that the memories of a firstborn will stay fresher in your
mind and I must say that in my case this is very true. It is not that I love Andre more than
Robbert, but I don’t remember as much of his early days as I do of Andre’s.
But I do recall that he started to walk at an earlier age then his older
brother and did everything else with the same zest and enthusiasm. It has also been
very influential that when he was 8 months old we migrated to Australia and as such a
lot of my attention was drawn towards our new future.
When we arrived in Australia Robbert was still under 1 year old and I
am sure that it must have taken a lot out of him to get used to all the changes he
underwent. But it did not show during his bringing up as he was always easy going and
mentally, like Andre, very alert. I remember very well that when Andre went to primary

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school, Wil took Robbert with them to introduce Andre and when that was done and she
wanted to take Robbert home afterwards, Robbert refused to come with her and
stubbornly sat in one of the class benches and would not move. He was only 4 years old
by then but the teacher told Wil that he should stay if he was so adamant and put him in
with the then pre-school class. Problem solved for all around and we looked never back.
But it was the sign in his character that would show its strength for
many years to come. Besides his intelligence as far as his schooling was concerned, in
sports he also shone. He has always been very competitive with everything he did
physically and when Wil and I decided that the children should join a swimming club,
and as we lived by that time in Bridgewater in the Adelaide Hills we took the children to
the Mount Barker Swimming Club.
But before all this happened we had an interruption of a full year which
the whole family spent in Holland as through circumstances I had to attend the dying of
my mother and in due time our whole family one year in Holland. It certainly was not a
fluke that was instigated by proud parents that their children are so terribly smart as
when Robbert was on board ship travelling with Wil, Andre, Robbert, Yvonne and Kim to
Holland where I already was, one thing sticks clear in my mind that Wil told me
afterwards.
Apparently, as we often played card games at home with the
children and one of them was a very popular Dutch card game, this game was also
played on board ship on their trip back to Holland. This particular game has to be played
with four people and when some Dutch people could not get a foursome together and
Robbert was watching them from the sideline, he offered his service. They looked at him
and thought how a seven year old can be able to fill the place in this game of partners.
Anyway they had no other choice because they needed a fourth player. Suddenly, after
one of the players counted the cards after a game, Robbert said: That was not right, you
had fewer points. Can you imagine the expression on the faces after this comment? I
am still laughing now to myself after 65 years, After counting the cards, as this person
had no other choice, my Robbert was right.
Living in Baarn at the time, we also put Andre and Robbert in the
same school as where the Royal children spend their early education. It still escapes me
the reason for this extravagant exercise, but so be it. But what was of importance to me
was the fact that Robbert as well as Andre were top of the class after a couple of
months.

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Even though I promised my mother on her deathbed to stay in Holland
and take charge of the family business, I could not fulfill that promise and we were back
in Australia in 1963.
But as this is about Robbert and I already wrote the story about
myself, I will continue Rob’s story at the time of his swimming interlude. As I mentioned
before, he has always been very competitive will all kinds of challenges and certainly
swimming was one of them. Wil and I realised that Robbert as well as Andre needed
more than the Mountain Pool at Mount Barker and we joined the Unley Swimming Club
as the alternative. It was the right move towards their betterment, but even though they
were good enough as far as South Australia was concerned, nationally they never
reached further for the reason that other things were more important to them.
This is of course my point of recollection and may be completely
different from theirs. I know, this is Robbert’s story and I seem to intermingle his with
Andre’s and may be only because Robbert revealed to me at one time that he was sick
of following Andre’s path and even though he wanted to study medicine, he chose
chemical engineering course as a result because he was sick of following Andre’s
footsteps. Unfortunately this is where he lost track of his own destiny and suffered of this
ever since.
He dropped his studies as far as chemical engineering was concerned
and concentrated on his football career. He became one of the best, but unfortunately at
the time the financial rewards were not high enough to set him up for life and at this
moment of his life he will have to accept what life has given him because of the way in
which he made his choices.
As a result he lost what he had built up in the beginning of his
professional life and that must have been very hard on him. I don’t want to go into
details as that serves no purpose.
I love you son, even though I have never been allowed to be a part of
your family. The reason being that Corrie and I did not straight away fit in with your
choice of partner Tracy and because of that we lost a normal relationship of father and
son. When you became involved with Tracy and at the time I am writing this I had to
make an effort to recall her name, when you introduced her to us and at the same time
informed Corrie and myself that you were going to be engaged, I remembered my own

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past and advised you to make sure if that was what you wanted, as you had known
each other only for six weeks or so. Tracy took offence to that and wrote me a letter
afterwards in which she let me know that because I did not give my blessing straight
away she would make sure that my advice of that moment was the end of a father and
son relationship.
Tracy did not completely get her way because Robbert still comes in
touch with me to let me know that he is still my son. But even though I appreciate his
sentiment, I have still lost my contact with his children and cannot forgive him for this
because of the influence Tracey still has on him and still refuses to acknowledge the fact
that Robbert is my son and we should be able to act as such. As it is, too much is lost!
Why is it that that Tracy must have felt so threatened by me when all I
was trying to accomplish that they gave each other some time to get to know each other
a little better before such a serious commitment?
The answer is very simple; as far as Tracy is concerned I have no
place in their lives and only because of the kind of person she is. But obviously Robbert
is very happy and if it was not for the break between Robbert and me, I would also be
very happy. As it is however, none of his children know me really as their Opa, because
all they know of me comes from their mother and that is only bad news. But life goes on
and I felt that I had to write down my feelings about Robbert before I am too late to do
so.
It took me a long time to start this story about Robbert as it is now
26/9/2017. Jan Klomp.

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Gene Douglas Klomp
He is and will always be the youngest of my children. When he was born on the 13 th
of Dec. 1975, my first reaction was when I saw him to shout out: Mr. Magoo!
His eyes were closed and it was the first thing I could say. Corrie, my wife, still
resents this. My beautiful baby she thought and to compare him with Mr.Magoo is
terrible! But that is the way it was and nothing could be done about it.
As a baby he was already very enterprising and moved around in the district he grew
up in as if he owned it. That was the legacy he inherited from his mother as she had to
be tied to the clothes line to stay put when she was a toddler.
At a very young age he befriended the people working in the builder’s yard next door
to us and spent a lot of his time with them. They build a swing and his own belt with
tools for him to use and loved him to be there.
He grew up to be a child with no problems and was always a delight to have around.
May be not as far as his sister Ilona was concerned, because they were always fighting!
When growing up he was very much interested in the mechanics of things and in my
mind he would be an engineer in the future. But that was only my own idea.
It was when I was suddenly confronted by him when he was 17 years old and in the
last year of High School, telling me that he was not in jail when I pressed upon him to do
his home work, I realised that for some reason he had lost his desire to pursue his ability
and at a later date I realised that my drive towards the best for my sons was interfered
with the mindless use of marijuana of which I was sure my children would never be
affected through our continuous warnings for this weed.
However this son of ours has proven to be a person of value and overcame this
hiatus in his growth and is now married to Tammy Marshland, has two sons and is
financially already far better off than I have ever been. That is at an age of 31. This is of
course not only as a tribute to him but also to the enterprising nature of Tammy. She
has been running a dance school for quite a few years even though later on Gene told
us that its profit was only used for herself.
The only thing I regret is the fact that he left home at seventeen and I have not been
a part in his progress from then on. Being the patriarch of the Klomp family in Australia it

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has always been important to me to play this role in my children’s lives and I am sorry to
say that this was not even a thought in my offspring’s awareness.
As a result I feel cheated in not having been able to be much of value in the lives of
my children not through their fault but obviously mine and only mine because I have
very little contact with any of my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Through this unfortunate flaw in my character I feel that I have lost a son instead of
gaining a daughter, but as this is only my flaw this is certainly not shared by my wife
Corrie. She is very well able to accept things as they come and even if I can do the
same in many ways, I fall short towards any expectations my family must have from a
father and grand-father.
This of course has nothing to do with Gene as he has to live his life according to his
character and so far he is doing fine.
Even though we cannot look into the future, from where I am standing he will be able
to continue on his way. His two sons Cooper and Zack are doing very well (except as far
as we are concerned food wise) but otherwise excellent. He has started his own
business a couple of years ago in profile cutting of metal of all sorts and besides that,
working at a full time job. At this he has been learning to do as much as he could and
when he could go no further he changed employer. He is very much appreciated with
his work and is steadily climbing the ladder of success. At the same time he is still Gene
and takes his success matter of fact.
We wish you the best son with everything, J.Klomp. 13/8/07
P/s. That was all at two years ago and in the meantime things have changed
drastically in the family Klomp-Marshland.
I have never elaborated in this story about Gene on Tammy, because the way I
really felt about her did not matter and as long she made Gene happy, I kept my feelings
about her as much as I could to myself. Of course not always as I am as a person often
a pain in the neck.
It is with regret however that I have to convey that my feelings about her were not
just the ramblings on of a mindless old man, but have unfortunately or maybe not, come

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to the surface in their marriage. I mentioned “may be not” because if it had to happen,
this is better for Gene at this young age than later as he still has most of his life ahead of
him and some more experience in looking for a better partner.
What was however very bad is the fact that when Tammy let him suddenly know that
she had enough of him and wanted a separation he was completely unaware of any illfeeling
from Tammy’s side and it hit him hard when it happened!
Of course he should have known that the things Tammy had been complaining
about in their relationship were far more important to Tammy than he could ever
imagine, but obviously he did not know Tammy as well as I expected her to be and must
have looked upon those complaints as many a husband does; the complaints of a
nagging wife.
I am not going to elaborate on my feelings about Tammy as that is of no
consequence towards what is happening other than one thing I like to mention. Tammy
and her family always wanted her to have another baby, preferably a daughter as they
have already 2 sons. Gene was adamant that the two boys were enough and stuck to
this.
Even after Gene was doing his best to bring the family together again, mainly for the
sake of their two sons, Tammy does not want a bar of this idea and pushes her wishes
through no matter what. There must be more to this pressure on Gene than just this
sudden wanting to finish it off as far as Tammy is concerned.
After I heard that Tammy had already another boy-friend and therefore I knew that
she did not have a mental break-down as everyone expected, even though I did not
think of it at the time, it suddenly dawned on me when my wife Corrie said to Gene when
they were on the phone: “I cannot understand why Tammy is not willing to give it some
time”.
I said to her on an impulse: “Ask him when the baby is due”. This came like a bolt
from the sky and may be utter nonsense, but suddenly the boyfriend and wanting
another baby fell into place. I hope that I am wrong but when my wife said that our
daughter Ilona had already suggested this, this possibility became more plausible. She
had also mentioned before the existence of a boyfriend and was also right in that
respect. But as Ilona always expects the worst we did not want to go there as things
were already bad enough for Gene as it was.

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So we will have to wait how things turn out but as Tammy’s demands become heftier
and heftier, I am afraid that a reasonable divorce is out of the question and it will have to
be settled in front of a judge. This of course means an unreasonable expense! Plus the
fact that it will be less friendly and therefore not good for the children. But, Tammy is
Tammy and she always got what she wanted. That is how I have always perceived her
and I am very, very sorry that I was right. John Klomp, 30/5/09.
That was then and in the meantime we have reached 27/11/2010. Gene rang me
this morning for some advice and matter of fact he is the only one of my 8 children who
does this so now and then. Very much appreciated from my side as I can only exist if I
am being needed.
It brought me back to the story I wrote about him at an earlier date and gave me the
drive to continue and to make it up to date.
He and Tammy are divorced now and after the devastation it caused Gene at the
time, he has come to the conclusion that in reality it was a life saver. After she left and
the initial shock, he suddenly realized the pressure she had put on him during their
marriage and this realization, when it came to him made him look again as the person
we knew before his marriage.
This break-up did not only profit Gene, but also his sons Cooper and Zack. Because
now they spend one week with Gene and one with Tammy! Even though she is
interfering with phone-calls, when Gene has the children to undermine Gene’s influence
on the boys, they get enough love and attention to their well-being from Gene that, even
if this attempt is very annoying, that the boys will sooner or later understand that life
goes way beyond being spoiled to death. That is of course if they are, character wise,
able to distinguish.
However, the world at the moment is in a down-spiral economically and as a result
his steel-cutting business is nearly coming to a total standstill. His divorce has cost him
dearly even though Tammy was the cause of it. The property they both owned also was
the place of work for Gene and in order to be able to have the boys on a weekly basis
and to do his work, he had no other choice than to keep their home and pay Tammy out.

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This meant another loan to service her demand and bringing him into a debt he may not
be able to service.
Gene rang me this morning to ask my opinion about him taking up a franchise on a
cleaning business. His sister Ilona was willing to give up her job to do this together with
him and I advised him not to involve her in this way because he would get himself
married to his sister and his troubles would start all over again. I did not mention it in
that way, but it came down to this as my reality.
In the meantime Gene has started to live again and is catching up on the things that
were important to him before Tammy came on the scene. But before I get into this, other
opportunities have also come up.
His brother Justin, who resides in Brisbane, is running a solar panel business. He
asked Gene to work for or with him in South Australia and as it seemed to be a very
lucrative business; Gene was very interested and said yes. However, after many months
of trying to install any solar system, he was only able to do one job and that was one
with a lot of trouble.
As Gene already knew that he was not a salesman, another son of mine from a
previous marriage, who is a good salesman, was willing to join this venture. His name is
Kim and I am sorry to mention him as slightly as he means far more to me, but this is
Gene’s story and as such I have to be somewhat discriminatory.
I don’t know son where to go from here because I have opinions that don’t always
make sense to others.
As I mentioned before Gene went back in time and started to enjoy again the things
of the past and was able to connect again to the freedom of that time. But son, no one
can go back and start again from that perspective as you have gained two sons who
need far more from you than you are able to give when you want to relive your past.
Tammy set you more or less free, but you have lived in that time and are responsible
for what you created during that time. This has nothing to do with Tammy but all with
you. Your choices, your responsibilities!
This means that your life is not your own and that with every decision you make,
your children are a part of those.

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As far as my kind words about are concerned, because Gene never complained
about anything as far as his marriage was concerned, it was only many years later that
Gene told us that the money Tammy made with her dancing school never was put
towards the welfare of their family, but kept by Tammy in her own bank account. Gene
always supported her in her efforts to build up her enterprise; except at one time when
he complained that it would be better for her to find a job as the school seemed to cost
far more than they could afford. As a result Tammy found a job in a bank and did this
until she fell pregnant of their son Cooper. Sometime after the birth she continued her
dancing-school again and this time it flourished.
Gene realized its benefit and helped her as much as was needed but still never saw
any profit, but as he made enough money himself, this really did not bother him greatly.
From Tammy’s side, even though she helped him with his paperwork and bookkeeping,
she never fully backed him up and supported his efforts.
This may all come over as being very small minded and the ramblings of a father in
law, if it is not for the way this break-up unfolded.
Even though Tammy’s School had over 120 children and must have made therefore
a lot of money, when she declared her income, there was no income and she more or
less broke even as far as this income was concerned. Gene knew of course better but
got nowhere in proving this. As a result only his income became part towards the court’s
decision and you already know the outcome.
But what price can one put on the birth of awareness? He is now from underneath a
very heavy burden, his children will benefit through this because Gene will be able to
show them a reality of life where Tammy only can show the suffocation of a selfish love.
This is his legacy of a faux pass and with the help of the people who love him, I am
sure that he will come out of this in one piece.
John Klomp, 29/11/10.
My son Kim Klomp!

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The reason that Kim is not spelled with a “Y”, comes from the fact that at the time of
his birth, Wil and I, when registering him we did not know that Kim was a girl’s name.
The poor boy had to live with it for the rest of his life.
From the moment he was born, he was different from our first three children,
he did not look as sturdy and actually we always thought that he was somewhat sickly.
But how wrong we were! His mindset was extremely strong and if he wanted to do
something he kept at it until it was done. As far as his physical prowess was concerned,
even though he was always a lot smaller than Andre and Robbert he was extremely wiry
and tenacious in proving to us that he was not going to be beaten by anyone or anything
until his last breath. This must have made it very hard for him growing up as he was
always battling against the odds as his competitive mind was bigger than his body.
From a very young age we took our children to the swimming pool, at first just to
teach them to swim and later on when it showed that they had, because of their
competitive nature, enough promise to start swimming in races we took them to a club
and later on to a swimming coach. For Andre, Robbert and Yvonne this was OK, but for
Kim it was a different matter as I found out later. Water was not a natural environment
for him as through the lack of body fat he felt the cold much more and that must have
taken a lot pleasure for him out of this sport.
But he never complained and kept at it and actually we never realized the effort it
must have taken him to keep going until one day during private lessons they were
swimming laps, and on one of the turns I realized that he was crying his heart out. I
knew that he was feeling the cold more than the others but I did not realize that it came
to this extend. Through his determination to be as good as the rest of them he kept
going and therefore I did not know that it was too much for him. I don’t remember if we
took him out of the pool and the swimming altogether, but I do know that we were able
to make life a bit better for him afterwards.
However, our little lion heart became the best AFL football player ever, may be not in
the eyes of others, but in my eyes! His competitive nature strengthened his body over
the years in such a way that he became my hero. Not because I am his father, but
because I know the obstacles he encountered on his way up.

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He captained the North Adelaide Football club for a couple of years and took them to
two premierships. May be not both times as captain, but then certainly as a very
valuable asset!
After he retired from football and married (but I believe that he was already married
before he retired from his sport) we lost close contact and mainly because his mother
and I divorced when he was only fourteen and this split was enough to cause a breach
in our father and son relationship.
As a result his wife’s family became closer to him than I as I must have lost his trust
in me. Fair enough and I understand. But he has been making choices afterwards and
never included me in seeking advice.
I don’t mean that because of this he made the wrong choices, I only felt bad for him
and maybe I could have helped him. OK only my sentiment, but never the less I felt that
I, again, let him down.
Even though, after his football career and being married with two lovely children,
Jarrad and Brittany, there was much for him to be thankful for as he was able with the
help of his father in law and some help from me, (his father in law was a builder and I
ran an Earthmoving firm) to build his own house in a good suburb of Adelaide and as he
has always been a hard worker, a good job. Everything was set right for his and his
family’s future!
But unfortunately, through quite a few bad choices things turned sour and everything
he had worked so hard for disappeared and must have left him disillusioned even
though he never showed it. He has been making good money while working in the gas
fields of Moomba and at the moment he works as a Security Guard at the new Adelaide
Hospital.
I also have very much admiration for his wife Julie, who besides looking after the
family also worked a job to make extra money for the family. As far as Jarrad and
Brittany are concerned, they have a special place in my heart because they were
allowed to spend a week’s holiday with Corrie and I so we got to know them somewhat
better and I think that this time has also for them been a good memory. The only other
two of my grandchildren spending a holiday with us were David and Andrew, the two
sons of our daughter Yvonne. But unfortunately we never became very close to them

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and mainly they were living in Whyalla at the time and they did not take to me as well.
But that is another story and this is about Kim.
In the meantime we have reached the sixth of August 2017 and Jarrad is getting
married to Alanah, a beautiful girl from Perth whom he met while being in the NAVY,
studying as a Helicopter Engineer. Alanah follows the same course.
Brittany is working as a air-hostess and lives with her partner Steve in the house
they bought together. She is a beautiful girl, 27 years old and I wish her all the best with
her future. But as she has everything going for her, I have no doubt that this will happen.
I am so happy for Kim that he has at long last seemed to have arrived and able to
look forward. You see, he always had to battle the odds; his older brothers looked upon
him as the little runt when growing up and may be even afterwards. Mind you, at the
time of this happening, I was not completely aware of such, but happenings later in life
showed me the reality. It is possible that Andre and Robbert have no idea of what I am
writing about if they read this, if they ever come to read this.
Jan Klomp. 26/9/2017.
My daughter Yvonne!
When Yvonne was born on the 1 st of June 1958, especially for me it
was a nice surprise because she was a girl and also very beautiful. Of course being a
healthy baby was the most important, but after two sons she was extra special!
From the moment she was born she was an easy going baby and has
always been that way. From an early age already she has loved animals and as my wife
and I have always been very fond of those, there was never a shortage of them around
the place.
After we moved into the Hills in the place called Aldgate, we soon
became used to village life and I think it was the best move we could have ever made.
Wil, as the person she is became soon acquainted with school, neighbors and other

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people she met and as I soon became used to travel to town for my Window cleaning
business, we were set for a good future!
Yvonne also blossomed into a lovely easy going girl and life could not
be any better for Wil and I. Of course, I worked from early morning to late at night so I
missed out on a lot of her growing up, But that was to be expected and therefore
accepted. So Wil took the brunt of the children’s growing up and because of that
situation it may be that things already went wrong between us of which I had no idea it
did.
All the children have always been good at sports, some better than
others, but they actually did have no choice as Andre and Robbert set the norm and the
others just had to follow. Swimming and basketball for Yvonne! She was never as fast
as Andre and Robbert, but that never worried her as she was very dedicated and
solemn towards everything she did. In the Unley Swimming Club competition she was
never first, but when it came to school competitions, she was the heroin in every stroke
and you should have seen the expression on her face. No one can tell me that I am not
worth this even if I am not an Australian champion. I never will forget this time of glory
for her and it still makes me feel so proud of her.
As I mentioned before, she was very fond of animals and as a result of
this fondness, we bought her horse called Bronco. We could never have done anything
better than doing this for her because it was all she wanted. For Wil and I this was very
gratifying because it is never very easy to make life worthwhile for a teenager. In buying
Bronco however, I became very interested in horses and when I saw on television that
brumbies were sold on the market for dog food, I was determent to safe some and as
we already owned 9 acres of land in Aldgate Valley, I bought 20 brumbies with my friend
Jake, as he told me he knew all about horses.
From then on not only Yvonne was horse mad, but I was also. It was a
very good time for all as long as it lasted, but unfortunately it did not turn out as it could
have been expected. Between Wil and I things turned sour and we lost our way as a
loving couple. I have written enough about this in my life’s story so I leave it that in
Yvonne’s story, but as a result my lovely child Yvonne told me at one stage that she
hated me. My world collapsed around me when she told me that and our relationship
has never been the same after that.

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It was a decision I had to make at the time, but it must have disastrous
for a girl like Yvonne as she lost everything as far as she was concerned and most of all
her trust in men. Her life went into a turmoil, she found someone who cheated on her,
afterwards found Gary Verran with whom she had David and Andrew. All these
happenings come back to me on a regular basis and as a result I ask myself: Did I have
the right to cause so much upheaval in the lives of my children just for my own
salvation?
I know that we are responsible for our own choices and must live with
those, but if those choices come to so much agony for the people we love the most, who
is responsible for the outcome?
Do I regret now for what I have done? Certainly not! I cannot because
through my actions I have caused things to happen that are part of an ongoing thing
which is called life. Mind you, I am very sorry that my daughter Yvonne was caught
when making her choices without the help of a father’s input, but my darling Yvonne you
had to make those choices without me and without your hate for me at the time and with
the memory of me as the person I was, you could have made the right choices. Your
mother let me go because she had no idea about the person I am and now you have to
suffer for that. My darling, I love you as much as from the beginning, but I am afraid that
you again have gotten yourself the wrong person. When you wrote to me about Ivan, I
thought he was a young man he was a young man who was able to see the beauty in
you as the person you are and at long last found someone of value. When I saw Ivan in
the pictures you send to me and when you told me that you would use the money we
sent for your birthday towards a trip for the both of you to Bali, I realized that Ivan had
joined the other men of your choices, in order to use you for their own comfort. If not, he
would have been here already with you to introduce himself. If I am wrong, he can still
do this.
I know that I am writing this story about you and I will be dead when
you read this, but it does not mean that I hope so much that I am wrong about him and
that he does not use you as some meal ticket.
You are so much part of me that it aches me that you had to suffer so
much because of me. Your father who lost his way as far as you were concerned! I love
you, your dad.

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My daughter Ilona!
Ilona became my stepdaughter after Corrie; my second wife and I got
married on the third of Sept. 1976. But from the start I never looked upon Ilona or Justin
other than being my children. That was until they felt that they thought to be treated
unfairly by me and blaming me that I did this because I was not their real father and
favored Gene as he was the son I had with Corrie. This really upset me as I never
looked upon them other than being my children and now they looked upon themselves
as not being my children. This made me aware that it does not really matter how you
look upon things or people personally, but how even the closest one’s around you
perceive you and obviously I must have given out the wrong signals.
From early on in her life Ilona has always been very willful and knew
what she wanted. As I am also a bit like that, we quite often had from the start some
disagreements as I did not easily gave in to her demands. Years afterwards when we
reminisced about the past she would remember that she, if she wanted something,
waited until I was gone and then ask her mother because Corrie was easier to
manipulate. Through those conversations I realised that Ilona could look upon those
memories with some fondness as she remembered that I was not all that bad. But this
still did not bring us any closer together and I found this very hard to take as I have
always wanted the best for my children and so far I have never been able to make her
aware of that part in her character which will prevent her to have a chance on a happy
life. If she will ever read this she will only come to the conclusion that I must always
have hated her and never understand that I have only acted and spoken out with her
benefit in mind.
Besides all this negativity about her as Corrie would perceive this,
Ilona has enormous confidence in herself and as far as that is concerned will always do
well in a business sense. Even though she has been married and lived for ten years with
Garret Gentle and spend all that time with him in Canada, this marriage never had a
chance to survive as they were two completely different people. He is a very selfish and
spoiled person and all he wanted was a good life and let Ilona work and pay for such.
They divorced and Ilona returned back to Australia. It has cost her a lot of grieve and

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money, but even though she is not the person to give up on something she had started,
after 10 years she called it a day.
During the time this all was happening, I felt extremely bad for her as
she was alone with her troubles in a foreign country and had to work things out on her
own!
Stupid papa, again he tried to help her through well meant emails, but obviously
used the wrong language. When she arrived back in Australia she let me know in no
uncertain terms that she hated my emails and never ever wanted one again. For a
father who had stood behind his daughter in her time of distraught, thinking he has done
his best, it came down like a bolt of lightning. I was devastated, went to my bedroom
and cried my heart out. If she only had been honest with me of what she thought of my
emails at the time, we may have been able to clear the air, but of course I had
misjudged her again, Ilona does not make mistakes and when I advised her to do this or
that for things to work out better for the both of them, she could only look upon them as
criticism as she knew it all.
Fair enough, so I made a mistake in forgetting why I worried about
Ilona in the first place, but as a result I have no warm place in my heart towards Ilona
and as everyone around me looks upon me as a KNOW IT ALL and even Corrie will
never back me up, I fight a losing battle in my effort to make life better for our daughter.
So, there you are! I always have felt responsible for the care of
anyone and anything I look after, but if some of them don’t want this, I must learn to
leave them be. However, even if Ilona will be unable to understand this, I love her just
as much as I do all my children even if I did not like her attitude during certain stages.
Unfortunately I have been unable to help her and believe me darling, like you I don’t
easily give up.
John Klomp 30/7/2017.
P/s Of course I have written emails to most of my offspring and unerringly they must
have regarded those as utterly invasive and unacceptable as I found out later from

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Ilona, so maybe I am very unpalatable as a person without being aware of such. If this is
so I am sorry I ever bothered
My son Johnny Klomp!
With him I have come to the part in my life of which I have dreaded to
write about. He is the youngest son of my first family and born on the sixth of January
1964. The reason that I dreaded to write about him comes through the fact that from the
start of his life we both have never had a chance to get to know each other.
Unfortunately, from the time he was born, I am sorry to say that I have never taken
much notice of him and don’t even remember much of his early years. What I do
remember however is the fact that he often irked me with his behavior. I am so sorry for
the fact this has come to the surface at this time in my life. Unfortunately from that time I
can only remember that he was a very obstinate boy who could only swear about things
that happened to him and as far as he was concerned were unfair. I must admit that I
was unfair to him in the way I approached his frustration because I never seemed to
have the time any more to address his frustrations. Don’t forget that Andre was
attending University, Robbert and Kim excelling in football and he must have felt lost as
far as accomplishment and my feeling for him was concerned.
Anyway, after the separation his mother more or less deserted him
and Kim to find solace somewhere else and left Kim and also Johnny with other people
to look after. I only know this because Kim told me this at some time and not that long
ago. When I heard this I felt devastated because they would have been welcome with
Corrie and me. Again I realized that after 20 years of marriage Wil had no idea about the
person I am, but she knew that I loved my children and would do anything for them and I
would be the best and only person to look after them when she needed time off. So you
see what can happen to someone’s life unnecessarily and with so much grieve. Why is it
that after 20 years of marriage my wife still had no idea how to trust me?
Years afterwards and when Johnny was 17 years old, a friend of my
wife informed Corrie that he was in trouble with the police in Whyalla. That same night I
was on my way to help him. Fortunately I was in time for the court case and promised
the judge that I would look after him and prevented as such a jail sentence. I was a good
outcome for a very awful situation and I was very happy to take him home with me.

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When Corrie and I took Johnny into our care, it certainly could not have been easy
for Johnny as he must have been used to look after himself and did not have any rules
to comply with. Not that we had too many of them and we soon found out that did in his
free time what he wanted any way.
We took him on in our Earthmoving business and even though he was a clever boy
and a fast learner he could not stand being told anything and that quite often caused
some trouble. Especially when I instructed in how best to operate the Backhoe. The
danger involved when handling the machine because of its awful power and the
concentration needed to operate safely and from the seat. As I mentioned before,
Johnny was a quick learner in the workings of the machine but because of his age a
slow learner as far as safety was concerned.
I often found him handling the controls already before sitting down on the seat and I
had to warn him of the danger involved. But obviously this was to no avail as when at
one time I was not present on the job I received a phone call that he had been taken to
the hospital because he mangled a foot while operating the backhoe. He dangled his
foot over the edge of the machine and the arm of the hoe crunched the foot when he
moved the arm of the hoe. At this time he had already moved out of the house and
moved in with a girl.
I don’t remember how old he was by that time, but he must have been about 20.
This episode put also an end to our working relationship after he was able to move
around again as he must have been extremely angry with me because I did not show
much sympathy for him because of the stupidity he showed after my warnings. I am
sure that he has a far different story about what had happened and my lack of
sympathy, but this is still what happened.
During the time however that he was with us Justin, Ilona and Gene adored him and
really looked up to him. Unfortunately he did not reciprocate their feelings. I don’t blame
him for that however because he must always have looked upon them that with the
breaking up of the family they must have taking the place that was rightfully his.
How could I have been so stupid at that to believe that I could not take away any of
my children away from Wil because it would destroy her because I believed that our
children meant everything to her and I leaving her was enough for her to bear. Not that I
have warned enough beforehand before.

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I had the misplaced understanding and feeling that in due time when things had
settled down we would be able to exist as friends. I mentioned before that Wil had no
idea about the person I am, but I obviously had no idea about the person Wil was. How
in heaven’s name is it possible that after 45 years of leaving Wil, my son Kim told me
that she left them and put them in the care of others. I was married to a woman for 20
years and we were able to be strangers to each other for all that time and yet able to
produce 5 well adjusted children.
But wonder above wonder Johnny (I am sorry but for me you will always be Johnny
and not John) has been able out of all this mess to be the most successful at this time of
our lives. I know that at this time in our life he will say that this is too late an
acknowledgement, but it is how I feel!
Because of the person I am I have never been able to get close to his wife Sonja
and of course it will be like that until I kick the bucket. But that does not matter really,
what hurts is the fact that their children Samantha and Cameron, will never know this old
man and are only able to think about him as the old bastard. John’s brother Andre told
me about Samantha’s wedding and the way in which Andre looked at me told enough
about his feelings about me. Fair enough and even though he should know me better as
the person I am, I cannot blame him because I have never given anyone a change to
even come close to the person I am.
I am at the end of my life and at last I have written my story of my feeling about
John.
Jan Klomp, 30/07/2018.

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Babette, the daughter of my niece Ineke!
Jan Klomp, 8/08/2018.
I met her when we were visiting Holland in 2002. Corrie met her before when she
visited Holland in 1997 and told me then already a lot about this, what she thought at
that time was a very precautious, but a delightful girl at the of 10. When I met her five
years later I had to agree with Corrie!
But the reason that I write about her in this way is because she wrote to me when
she was about to turn 21, that she wanted to visit Australia. As we were always
delighted when any of our Dutch relatives wanted to visit Australia we offered her of
course a place to stay.
The start of this visit did not turn out as we expected, as she asked Anton, a nephew
of mine who had been here already a couple of times advise how to go about it. A
girlfriend of Corrie’s who is called Polo and with whom he had spend a lot of time when
he was with us and he liked very much, lived by then in Brisbane. He advised her to visit
Brisbane first and then work het way down to us. From Brisbane she went down to
Sydney to a friend a friend of Polo and by the time she arrived at our place she may
have had only a week left of her stay.
Of course in reality this did not matter as she saw a part of Australia that she
otherwise would have missed, but I invited her to get to know her family here in S.A. and
there was no time left to do this properly. It was because her uncle Anton following his
own desires who organized all this.
But even though she had no more than a week with us, we had enough time to get
to know her as the person she turned out to be. A bright girl, quick of thought, full of life
and a modern view! This is the best way I can describe her as she was at the time.
Being 87 and a half years old now trying to remember the past as well as I can,
forgive me if Babette has by now a different recollection of that time. But this is beside
the point. I am describing Babette to the best of the knowledge I have of her.
The next time she wanted to visit Australia was because she needed a practical
experience in a certain course she was following in Holland. She asked me to contact

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someone in Adelaide so she could get a place in this body of education and I made this
happen for her. When she arrived here and found a place with our daughter Ilona in
town to follow this course, it turned out to be too expensive and she left for Bali because
a girlfriend of hers who followed the same course but then in Bali told her that she
should go there and finish this course. She did this and it was the last we saw of her.
This is however not the last of my story about Babette as before she went to Bali her
boyfriend Joost Laarakker joined up with at our place and even though this is a story by
itself, I will leave it at that. But not before I must say that he was, even though very tall
and with long hair and a beard, a very nice person! After Babette went to Bali, he joined
her over there.
Reading this back I am doing her a disservice as I should write actually a lot more
because for years we have been emailing each other very intensively and through this
were able to establish a very valuable relationship.
Epilogue!
Even though I am not quite finished with the above, because of my age I want to
write this end first before it is too late and because I am still in the right frame of mind.
.-.-.-.
As you must have realised my life has been very varied on many levels, but looking
back, of many things I have never been able to make a success. For some reason I
never pursued anything long enough to make such as a result. The reason has always
been that I lacked the confidence needed in myself and I did not possess enough
desire.
I also don’t know if because of the way I am and acted, my children and grand
children are able to have any respect for me. I write this because I feel that over the last
couple of years I lost meaningful contact.
As far as Wil is concerned every time I tried to explain to my children why I acted the
way I did, they did not want to listen as they had enough of this from their mother and by
leaving them so sudden without any explanation from my side of why, must have been
enough proof that Wil was right in the way she described me after the break-up.

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I however had no other choice but to act as I did because of the way in which Wil
reacted towards a possible break-up. If she had only given me the feeling that she could
love me, I would never have even thought of trying to find happiness with someone else.
I also could not find it in my heart to make the children choose between Wil and me as I
knew her well enough to know that this would break her. What I however never
expected was the way in which Wil tore me down as far as my children and all our
friends were concerned.
I should have known of course because of the way in which she perceived me: not
as her husband, but her oldest son. But at that moment I thought that we still could be at
least friends so we could still act as parents and future grandparents in some way. But
with Wil this turned out to be impossible. Unfortunately her so-called love turned into
hate and she made an effort to turn family as well as all our friends against Corrie and
me.
In due time we were able to set a few things straight, but the fact remained, as far as
the children were concerned, I left them high and dry to cope with their mother and as
she is suffering from Alzheimer’s now, it is actually far too late to tell my side of the story
because after all it will serve no purpose any more.
It is terrible what is happening to Wil now and she certainly does not deserve this
and even though I have been married to Corrie now for 44 years while. Wil and I were
married for twenty years. But as the title of my writing already depicts: It are the choices
that form the path of our lives and even if we feel that we are sometimes pushed into a
certain direction, the choices we are making afterwards as a result, are still ours.
However this still does not stop us at certain stages in our life Wil and I must have
been happy with the five children we produced. However it did not turn out that way, we
parted and divorced afterwards. Now, after so many years and with Wil suffering with
Alzheimer’s she has become dependent mainly on our second son Robbert and I feel
extremely guilty because of my past history with her I should be the one to be more
involved with her through her last years.
As far as all this writing is concerned, I don’t know if I want to print it in book form
myself or put it on disk and if any of my descendants feel it is worth it, they can do so.
We will see.
Jan Klomp, 9/1/2019

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