Luky;
"In 1914, when I was ten, my music teacher had to go and fight in the first world war, so that put paid to my lessons," he replied. He showed us how his mother had to pick up her trailing skirts when going down stairs. And he'd have us in stitches telling about the reactions to the first radio programmes in the Netherlands.
One of my cousins told me how he'd been known as one of the 'motor devils of Amsterdam' in the twenties. Though admitting he'd owned a Harley-Davidson motor bike, he never said much about that part of his youth. And I did see him dance the Charleston once, and he was no novice.
Fifteen children
He had one story about his father's mother that I used to love and I only wish he could have told it to you himself.
"My grandmother was left widowed with fifteen children", he recalled. "She was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis and recited fifteen decades of the rosary daily. She possessed great fortitude. Her elder children helped her raise the younger ones. One of her sons was very intelligent and wanted to study. He started working for my father in our bakery, but before decisions could be made regarding his future, he developed a mental illness and was admitted to an institution."
Daily prayer
"My grandmother accepted whatever befell in her usual phlegmatic fashion, but she prayed every night for the rest of her life that she might outlive her son, so sadly struggling with illness. She went very regularly to visit him at the institution, bringing him little presents and taking a lot of notice of him.
"She was a true matriarch, and all her children had tremendous respect for her. She was very gentle with her children-in-law, but one day a year all her sons and daughters were rounded up from their various homes to visit their brother, on the Sunday closest to his birthday."'
Did the rounds
"My grandmother would hire a cart with horses. You didn't see many horseless carriages around in those days, and certainly not one sizeable enough to accomodate the fourteen children. She and the coachman would ride from house to house, collecting her children.
"My father was not scared even of the devil himself, but on that morning he'd be dressed in his very best, his collar starched, his golden watch chain shining on his coat pocket. My mother stayed with us children because on that one annual occasion in-laws weren't invited."
Gladrags
"We all stood with my mother as the cart, already half filled with uncles and aunts dressed in their best, came down the street. My grandmother sat in front, determined and dignified. What wavings, what jokes passed before my father alighted. My mother and we children watched and waved until the cart had turned the street corner."
"Was my great-grandmother's prayer answered - that she'd outlive her son?" I asked.
"Oh yes, of course", my father replied. "My uncle died peacefully when he was sixty-three. My grandmother died the following year, aged ninety-four."
Catherine Nicolette;
I dearly loved and deeply respected my Dutch Oupa who used to babysit my younger brother and myself when we were very small. I read this blog with deep interest. So my Oupa was a pioneer Harlay-Davidson biker who used to roar along the streets of Amsterdam, and dance the Charleston, considered an avant-garde dance at the time... how exciting.
And Mom and Dad never even let me get on a motorbike when I was in my teens... life just isn't fair sometimes, is it?
Mental illness is a psychological pattern generally associated with distress or disability
Psychiatric services - services offering skilled and compassionate healing for those
suffering psychologically
Oupa is the Dutch name for my grandad, a deeply affectionate name meaning 'Old Dad'. So I had three dads - Dad, my old Dad (Oupa) from Holland and my Grandad from Ireland. Lucky girl
*Photograph taken by Rev. Catherine
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