Happy News
Monday night, for the first time in a year, we went to see our family without masks, with hugs instead of distance, to celebrate the 16th birthday of our middle grandson. He pooled his Christmas money and birthday money from everyone and bought a beautiful desk, a tower computer with which he can do flight simulations, and a very special leather office chair. His bedroom looks fantastic, and, perhaps you guessed it: he wants to be a pilot. He gave his old, small desk to his younger brother, who was delighted to have a good spot for our old computer. We “catered” dinner for all, picked up at the local Thai restaurant, and everybody was delighted and had a good time.
One Page at a Time
Another of my projects, a long time wish, became a reality. With the help of a cousin, whose existence I had no idea of just a month ago, I published a page for our great-aunt Dina Becht in Wikipedia.nl. Cousin Bob and I had the same grandmother and great-aunt, and he lives in the Netherlands, so he was willing and able to publish the page. I had written Dina’s bio and had a glamour picture ready many years ago, and at the last minute I thought of some sheet music I have, over 100 years old now, that her husband, famous composer Daniël Ruyneman had dedicated to her. To check out the page of this very special lady, Dina Becht, click on this link: #https://Lnkd.in/diYEkcD.
I have a wonderful Indo friend, who survived the camps as a teenager, Hannie Blaauw. If you have read my book Survivors of WWII in the Pacific, you have read his story. But I figured that, especially for other Indos, his story would be interesting and, honestly, how many people have read my book? There are two Indo publications: Moesson International, new since January 2021, and TIP (the Indo Project), promoting Indo legacy and heritage for many years already. I approached the editor of Moesson International, and the sad she would let me know if there was room for personal Indo stories. Well, Hannie will be 94 on April 1, and I wanted to surprise him for his birthday. So I contacted TIP and sent them the story. They liked it and promised to publish it before the end of March. Well, they did! Go to https:theindoproject.org and find the story of Hannie Blaauw under Stories on the front page.
Three weeks later, the editor of Moesson International responded to my earlier request and said they would be interested in Hannie’s story for their second edition. I neglected to tell her that TIP already took it, and when she found out she admonished me kindly, but to my delight Hannie will also read his story in the printed copy of Moesson International which he will receive a week after his birthday! I received several phone calls from Hannie when I sent him the TIP issue: he was on cloud nine! Had shared it with all his friends in his town and had forwarded the email to old friends and his daughter. And he happily reported that his friends were going to do something special for his birthday.
And all those things have kept me busy this week! It is so nice when you can do little things for other people with a lot of love and the results make such a difference in their lives.
It’s a Wonderful Life!
Until next time
Ronny
