Let me start with my first day in school [~1910]. School then always began on May 1st. My mother had no trouble getting me to school, because my sister Tietje took me along. I remember that during morning recess I wanted to go on the street, but my sister called me back. I still see her coming in the narrow corridor between the school and the principal’s house. You may not leave the schoolyard, she said. I didn’t tell her that mother had given me a cent and that there was a little candy shop nearby. This was so unusual that I thought I could go to the store on my own.

Tietje took good care of me those first days. Learning must have gone well, because I didn’t have any problems. We also had knitting and that was really ‘gezellig’. I remember Ms. Magmeyer very well. She loved Tietje who was a quiet girl. Tietje died one and a half years later [b1902 – 1911]. She had appendicitis and suffered a lot. She often thought she would not get better. She talked about heaven and whether she would recognize loved ones who had already died. She said to our mother: it is not so bad that I go, if only you can keep father, because he has to work for you.

I don’t remember the days that she was sick very well, but I do remember the Saturday she died. We were eating in the living room and Tietje was in the bedroom beside it. Father had just played a spelletje (a game) with her. She did not have pain anymore. Suddenly she cried out in pain, and I saw father jump up from his chair to catch her … she was standing on her bed. And so, in one minute, she was gone, she had choked on blood and puss, said the doctor. What a sorrow — mother was very quiet, and father couldn’t stop talking about her.

Now there were four of us left; Jan, I, Trijn and Albert. My mother was expecting Meindert. Tietje died a few days after St. Nicholas. Like me she had gotten a very nice bontmofje (a handwarmer) which Trijn would wear later. In my thoughts I still see my mother put them on the table, late in the evening … we were so happy with them. She had also bought each of us a beautiful piece of cloth. Now she can never wear it, said mother. But life goes on, although I often felt lonely and took to playing with the little ones when the weather was good. Mother told me once, later, when you were home, the little ones were always with you. I remember well all the spelletjes we used to play, like playing house and store. But never wild games, I didn’t like those.

The schoolyears went by quietly, but there were a few things that annoyed me. For instance, my mother always knitted my socks too wide and too short. At school they laughed at me. At home I kept quiet about it but solved the problem my own way. When I left home for school, I pushed them in the haystack and put them back on when I came home. But walking was difficult then, for now my klompen were too big.

At school I had several girlfriends and got along well with the male teachers. In grade three, I know I could still sing well, because, with Mr. De Vries, I sang in a quartet. I sang soprano. But later, after a long illness with measles and a throat infection, my voice wasn’t pure anymore, so singing in the quartet was a thing of the past and I felt really sad about that. I liked going to school because everything seemed easy. Once I won a first prize for a composition, a story called: ‘How a Nickle Can Roll’. I kept that paper for a long time, but now it is lost. I often told that story. When I was ready with my schoolwork, the teacher allowed me to fetch milk from his house or play with his children.