Trijn had finished school and thus we were both home with mother. Trijn was small and finely built and was close to mother, while I was much closer to my father. That’s why I loved going to the field with him. In the evening Trijn and I sometimes went to the village where we played wild games with other boys and girls. But they were so different from us, and we felt we couldn’t continue. Trijn and I never fought with each other.

Jan was already eighteen and very mischievous. Pa had acquired more land, being advised to do so by my mother [Stientje Stuit]. She had more business sense and was more daring and it always went well. Pa was a man who liked meetings. He was an elder in church and chairman of the school society. He also was a member of the local political party and was often asked to be an adjudicator at farm shows.

But Jan was terrible and often hit the horses. Once, the “Bruine” lost an eye — that was so sad. The poor animal suffered a lot. Pa was very angry and kicked Jan off the field, but did not say anything. Soon after that, Jan went away and worked on a riverboat and saw many other countries. Pa so longed for him then. But Jan wrote many beautiful letters — he was good at that. He noticed everything in nature. Often Pa was reading Jan’s letters during the evening hours — he had a cigar box full of them.

After a long time, I think it was one year, Jan came home, his sailor’s bag slung over his shoulders. We sent Pa, who was working in the field, a message. He sped home and the two of them embraced — I can still see it! We were all so happy. Jan first stayed home, working here and there. He loved and understood machines and thus he became a foreman in a factory in Veelerveen. By then he was already married and had built his own house. (It was torn down in 1990.) But Pa and Mother were very sad because Jan never went to church anymore.

Before Jan got married [1928], father and mother often had words about him — especially mother was very strict. But even though Jan married a woman outside the church community, aunt Geertje never held him back from church and would even go with him. But it wasn’t real. Much later, when Jan became very ill, we feared for his life and prayed much for him. Then the Lord so opened his eyes that he saw and felt his salvation, in Christ alone. When he came home then, for the first time, he prayed aloud at the table with his wife and children, confessed his sins, and thanked God for His great love. His daughter Dina has told me all this and how happy they were then. That was during the time that Rika was in the hospital with a broken leg [~1950].

My parents did not have as many troubles with the other boys. Meindert was a happy boy, full of jokes. Albert was quieter but was always ready to help. Not so Meindert, who talked his way out of it. Trijn could do that too.