Forward by Henry de Jong (Henry van Herman)
When Herman de Jong wrote this short memoir in 1991, it was as much for the sake of a good story as it had been for all the other stories he’d written. He loved being a character and didn’t take himself too seriously. Perhaps he even took some liberties here and there to be more entertaining, and for sure he inserted himself into many other stories that were not supposed to be about him. There were too many interesting details and happenings floating around in his mind not to put them down somewhere or other.
In his Tom Sawyerish way, contemplating the spectacle of his own funeral (only 13 years later), and the delicious thought of great-grandchildren opening a time capsule stuffed with revelations of his past, Herman frames this as a letter to his descendants in 2050, when even his own children were likely to be gone. I have mercifully left out the details that he offers about them.
What’s left is a short romp through Herman’s achievements, the story of his upbringing and his reflections on life.
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