Column | The happiness of the old farmer

Durk Tuinier (72) parks his car on the roadside of the Harichstertyk and points to a red brick house away in the country. « In addition, I was born, » he says. « And on that farm there » – his finger goes to the left – « I started working when I was nineteen. Mighty I thought it was beautiful. Máchtig beautiful. I was completely crazy about being a farmer.  » The farmer of the farm had a brain tumor and Durk Tuinier had 'a little bit of dating' with his daughter. So.

The Harichsterdyk connects the village of Harich (520 inhabitants) with the neighborhood of Westerein-Harich (80 inhabitants) in Gaasterland, the southwest corner of Friesland. No meadows here to the horizon, but boulder clay ridges from the penultimate ice age, covered with drifting sand and oak forest. Until the 1950s there were almost no paved roads. Almost no roads anyway.

Durk Tuinier and the daughter of the farmer married young. Too young, he says. He thought that at the time. But unmarried cohabitation and seeing if you fit together was not there, not in Harich, where everyone went to church on Sunday. In 1993 he fell ill. It was rheumatism. The doctor who treated him said he had to leave the farm. « Make sure you never see him again. » His marriage broke down. « And in a village, » he says, « you don't always feel understood. In any case, I experienced it. « 

He found a white painted workers' house in Ruigahuizen, two and a half kilometers away from the Harichstertyk, on the edge of the forest. It felt like an emigration. But Ruigahuizen (128 inhabitants) took care of him 'very nice'. It has become his village. And Harich? « My village too. You should not get stuck in your grief about the past. I have such beautiful memories here. Sunday mornings in the summer! Then I left there  » – he points to the grassland for his old farm – » The cows graze and I sat down on a bench.  » Two of his children live in Westerein-Harich. He is chairman of the foundation who manages the cemeteries of Harich and of Ruigahuizen. He is, or sat, in many other boards. Everyone who passes him raises his hand and shouts: « Hi! »

Now his love life. He found a new woman. Unfortunately she got cancer. She died after seven years. After that he didn't want a woman anymore. Better that he stayed alone. His children thought differently. Heit Moast Just Allinnich Wêze. It was not long before he got to know Annelies from Utrecht through a dating site, three years older than he, formerly doctor's assistant and saleswoman at the Kaasboer on the Markt. She loved sailing. He also loved sailing. They sailed together and since then they have been together. « Twelve and a half years, » says Durk Tuinier. « Never thought I could be happy again. » She has moved in with him, in that white house near the forest. The window sills are full of flowering plants. And the rheumatism? « It came to rest. »

Jannetje Koelewijn replaces Gemma Moving this Wednesday.

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