Last Sunday I was invited to a concert in the village of my childhood days to commemorate all villagers who passed away between the dates of November 2017 and November 2018.
The reason I was invited was because of my mother. She passed away on December 7, 2017. The local undertaker from the relatively small community where my mother spend most of her 83 years, organizes a gathering like this every year at the local church, so family members and friends can share their tears and laughter and commemorate their loved ones. One of the advantages of old and smaller communities.
It so happened I was seated next to the lady who sat next to my mother for 3 full years at high school, from 1945 to 1948. ‘Days back when’ girls wore ribbons in their hair, television and telephone in each household were non-existant, food was still simple and nutritious and candy or other extra’s were only consumed on Sunday.
As co-author of two genealogy mystery novels, interest in family history comes natural to me. Also in the Genealogy Research Guide my co-author and I wrote, we advise family history researchers to talk to old friends of the family, as they sometimes have stories to tell, you would otherwise never hear about. Yet in spite of all this natural interest and well meant advise, I myself sometimes overlook the true treasure chests of learning about my ancestry.
In present day society we are so busy manifesting ourselves, that we hardly think about what brought us here. This while life is really a pilgrimage, in which we follow the footsteps of our elders.
As my mother’s school friend pointed out to me after the concert; my mother and she shared all big events of a life time. Not only did they sit next to each other at school; they also attended their weddings; witnessed the birth of their children and supported each other after the death of their husbands.
I vowed I would come to her house soon to look at old photo albums and listen to her stories.
To myself I vowed to stick to that promise. It is regrettably easy to forget about these kind of promises in the turmoil of daily life; until suddenly…it is too late. I was grateful to realize the commemoration had ‘forced’ me to take some time out from my busy life and stand still at the lifetimes of my mother’s generation and the things they did to pave our way so we can do our thing here now.
A thing to remember and be grateful for while manifesting ourselves in the world…
Ingrid Schippers, November 13, 2018
The abridged spoken version of this blog, features as end note on ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals, every Tuesday from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM’ and can be found in the Programme Archive of the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated November 13 2018
Ingrid Schippers, November 13
The abridged spoken version of this blog, features as end note on ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals every Tuesday from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM’ and can be found in the Programme Archive of the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated November 13, 2018.
