By exception, it is brilliant weather in Holland and our siblings have called the troops together and we have family reunion on Saturday with the Ouwerkerk clan and Sunday with the Jager clan.
Never known that we are so popular, these events each drew a crowd and were practically sell-outs.
As if Dagobert Duck had come back from America and was dispensing gold coins!
Niece Esther, who lives in Dordrecht, had first arranged a guided tour of the old city of Dordrecht (the oldest city in The Netherlands which obtained city rights in AD 1220). The tour ended at a house on the Wolweverskade named 'Rotterdam' that belongs to a friend of the family who gave our tour group a rousing reception. From there we drove, a little lubricated, to the fabulous home of niece Esther and her husband Albert on the outskirts of Dordrecht, where we saw the sun setting over a very animated gathering of kinfolk. Just like at the home on the range, not a disparaging word was heard. The art of conversation is still very much alive in Holland and texting is reserved for messaging, not exchanging thoughts, impressions or feelings. There is so much to talk about, since so many of our relatives have spent significant time in America and know exactly what we are talking about.
It is flattering to see several generations of family members come together from deep corners of the country for no better purpose than catching up with the American branch of the family, in this case represented not just by the two of us but also by our daughter, son in law and two of our grand daughters who had been vacationing on the British Isles.
The Jager clan got together, a sacred tradition, for coffee and cake at my twin sister's house in Rotterdam and moved from there for lunch to a river side restaurant with a view of three windmills, once used to pump the water out of the polder in a land situated well below sea level. We walked the dike after lunch and talked, and talked catching up for time lived apart. Here too, we had three generations represented and celebrants ranging from 84 to 4 years old.
There is no denying that our social life would have been richer and more demanding had we decided to stay in Holland. There are no distances in Holland (in two to three hours you drive from West to East and from North to South), it is the size of the State of Delaware and no friend or family member ever lives too far away for regular contact. In Holland we re-familiarize ourselves with the art of a dinner conversation over dinners that stretch out for hours (and no smart phones allowed).
We decided, in the early eighties, to make America our home in large part because we believed that our children and grand children would have a better chance to succeed there than in the Netherlands. It looked that way before the Berlin Wall fell and communism collapsed under its own weight. Looking around now in the old stumping ground, I am not so sure that the facts justify that assessment. The children of our siblings are extra-ordinarily successful, both personally and professionally, in fields as wide ranging as the theater, the medical profession, the judiciary, the military and business. Little doubt in my mind that our kids would have fared equally well in Holland as they are doing in the USA.
We feel blessed to have come from such strong and caring families who have never treated us as errant children and continue to cherish the precious moments that we have together. At occasions like this, there is no distance between Europe and America.
No comments:
Post a Comment