Germany

Staying with relatives on the German border allowed us to visit Germany a few times; by foot and op de fiets (on the bicycle.) Where we stayed is by Ijzerlo which is between Aalten and Dinxperlo; both about 5km on each side. The interesting thing is that each of these three towns has its own distinct dialect. Not huge, but the locals know which town you are from.

We rode our bikes to Dinxperlo and went to a store to buy a good Dutch knife. Janet wanted to buy one for each of our four children. I told her I wanted two for myself. She didn’t think I needed two (my (Janet’s) comment – “what does he need 2 little knives for? I’ve never seen him peel a potato in my life!) but decided to also get two for herself. So €100 later, we walked out with 8 good Dutch knives. They are actually made in Germany and can be difficult to find. They are definitely a staple in most Dutch-Canadian kitchen. The funny thing is that they look so cheap and they rust, but they are razor sharp. The blade on Janet’s old one is half the width it once was because it is so worn down from usage. She also uses a second one that she got from Tante Gerda 3 years ago, but she doesn’t ever want to be without a Dutch knife.

Dinxperlo is right on the Germany border with one side of one street in the Netherlands and the other side in Germany. I am not sure how this worked during the war but my understanding is that it was this way before the war.

We have a relationship with 3 young Germans; Mark Wehrmann, Julius Se and Matthias Schuster. Our son Joshua went on a German exchange program in high school. During that time, Mark stayed with us for three months. Then Josh went to Germany for 3 months to stay with Mark. On Josh’s last day, he somehow had a “last day party” in which Matthias and Julius attended. From what I can figure out Josh had some contact with Matthias and Julius was Matthias’s cousin who met Josh for the first time, on the last day. Well, being hospitable Josh announced that “If you ever want to come to Canada, you have a place to stay.” A number of months later, Julius and Matthias took Josh up on the offer, bought their tickets and announced their arrival. The only problem was that Josh was now working in the oil fields in Alberta Canada and was about a 4 hour plane ride away. So Janet and I had the privilege of receiving them into our home.

They stayed two weeks and just somehow got sucked into our whirlwind of a life. During those two weeks, we were headed for St Stevens New Brunswick and dragged them along. They had a great time hanging out with all the youth and got to see a lot more of Canada than most “2 week” visitors.

A few years later, Matthias asked if he could stay a couple of months in the summer. We were delighted to have him and it ended up being a pivotal point in his life. He ended up becoming a Christian on that trip along with some other life shaping experiences. Again he just got sucked up into our whirlwind and we dragged him along. One memorable trip was when he went with us on our annual wilderness camping trip.

We met the 3 long lost friends in Xanten at a Roman archaeological park. We also met Melissa Hettinga and her new love Carlos (él es de España.) She had met the Germans during their two week whirlwind stay at our house and also went with us to New Brunswick. Melissa has been living in Germany for the past year and has kept up some relationship with our German friends. It was great to see her and meet Carlos. We liked Carlos and seemed like a nice decent guy.

After the park, Mark had to leave for home. The rest of us ended up at Julius and Matthias Oma (Oma is Dutch and German for grandmother.) Apparently they “requested” the contents of the meal that included 5 different kinds of meat and stamppot met wortelen en uien (potatoes “stomped or mashed down with carrots and onions”). We then were treated to an apple pie and coffee.

Their Oma (who is 83)lives about 50km from Aalten, where Janet’s relatives live. Janet’s relatives speak a dialect of Dutch called Achterhoek or Plaat. Janet found it really interesting that she could converse with their Oma in Plaat as their Oma spoke a dialect of German that was also called Plaat. While not exactly the same,”” Janet was in there “like a dirty shirt” praten(talking)away with Oma. Oma was a very nice person and it was great to see that Matthias and Julius had a great relationship with their Oma. When we said good-bye to her, we said “hartelyk bedankt” for the great meal (translates “a big thank-you from the heart) and she sweetly said that she glad to do it and that she did it from her heart. You could tell that she just loved to have her grandsons over and was so happy to be able to cook a meal for them and their friends.

She lives only a half a kilometer from the Rhine and we ended up talking a bit about the war and the trauma that everyone went through, including the Germans, who didn’t like at all what had happened. It was made clearer to us how the average citizen there was also a victim of what was going on. They spoke about the fact that all of a sudden, in one day, they had to be enemies with people who were their friends for years. It is not something that the people chose to do, but it was chosen for them. It felt good that we could sit around a table together and be friends and feel love and affection for each other, where there has been a lot of pain in recent history with the 2 people groups. Our three young German friends, Mark, Matthias, and Julius, hold a special place in our hearts, that’s for sure!
It somehow even felt like a time of healing for us, as just days before our visit, I stood before my uncle’s grave in Bergen-op-Zoom where all the Canadian soldiers who died in the war are buried, and cried tears over what had happened to him. I am named after him and am honoured to own his war medals and personal paraphernalia.

Well it was time to head back to the Netherlands as we had to be in Apeldoorn the next day to meet people who were going to help us market the product in the Netherlands.