Mom and Dad emigrated to Canada in 1953, a month after they married. At that time, I'm sure their parents never expected to see them again. Canada was a distant place and travel between the continents was out of reach for the average person.
It wasn't until 1962 that Mom and Dad saved up enough money to take the entire family (5 children, 7 years old and under at that time) on a 6-week trip to visit their families. As the eldest, I still have many memories of that trip. When we arrived at Beppe Teijema's house, she had the Christmas tree up and decorated.... with real candles! She even lit them one evening so we could see what candles on the tree looked like, with the warning that we were not to get too close and it would be the only time. It was magical!
At Beppe VanderWerf's, I remember that we girls, 4 of us, slept in a bedstee, basically a bed closet. While the adults gathered in the living room one evening, Beppe allowed us each to have a cookie, with the warning that we shouldn't crumble or the mice would come looking for the crumbs. We made absolutely sure there were no crumbs!
Before we left for home, Beppe gave me a little pair of klompen (wooden shoes) that my mom had given her. I found out years later that the klompen were part of a good bye gift that my mother had purchased for her mother. Mom was not happy that Beppe had given them to me but, years later, she admitted that she was happy I still had them.
I recall, too, that I was allowed to stay with Beppe Teijema while the rest of the family spent a week with the other grandparents. It was during that week, when none of the other kids were around, that I was allowed to play with my aunt's old doll and carriage, which had been stored in the attic and was put away when my parents and siblings returned.
We never did get to meet Pake Teijema; he had passed away by the time we made the trip to the Netherlands. Eventually, Beppe Teijema made the trip to Canada; she visited twice, once on her own and once with her son, our Oom Ale.
I don't know if other children of immigrants felt the same but I always felt that, by leaving their homeland, our parents denied us our extended families. We grew up without those roots. Don't get me wrong; I'm not blaming them. From what we were told, they felt that they had a better future in Canada than they did in the Netherlands. And so, here we are.
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