« My father was only 13 years old when he started working at the farmer ‘

‘In the photo are my parents and three’ refugees’ from Germany/Austria. My father had picked them up from the station in Delft. At the end of 1950 and early 1960s, children from Germany and Austria came on holiday to the Netherlands for six weeks. I think it went through the church. One of them, the girl, came to stay with us. The doll she holds my mother had given her as a welcome gift.

Our family already consisted of six children, but according to the coordinator, the children are best in a large family. I was eleven years old and I liked to play with them. My parents didn’t speak a word of German, but my sister who was on the mulo grabbed her dictionary and could then translate.

My father came from a family of twelve children. After he had completed seven classes of primary school, he started working at a farmer. The farmer wanted him to start at 4 o’clock in the morning, but his mother said: « He is only thirteen. » The farmer thought it was good that he started at 5 am. But the following year he had to start at 4 o’clock. My father actually wanted to become a farmer, but it became a horticulture.

My mother came from a family of ten children. She was a girl of fourteen when she started working as a maid at a grocer. She worked from 7 in the morning to 7 p.m. On Monday morning she first helped at home with the laundry, who was already hanging outside before she went to work. On Sunday she was a lady at the Sunday school.

After getting married she was a housewife and had three children in a short time, later she got three more. At that time she did not yet have access to devices such as a washing machine and vacuum cleaner. In addition to the household, she also helped sort tomatoes at the horticulture in the morning, so that everything was ready for the auction on time. She was also active with church work for years. It was a stable family that I think back to with a warm feeling.  »

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