Today, June 14, 2017, is seventy-one year since my parents got married. The following paragraphs are the words of dedication taken from my book —My Tapestry — Experiencing the Love of the Designer
For My Parents
With Thanks to GodDuring World War II, my parents lived in the Netherlands, which was occupied by Nazi Germany. It was a very difficult time, and hard choices had to be made. Near the end of the war, my parents were engaged and working in the Wieringermeer polder, which was low-lying land reclaimed from the sea. Dikes and pumping engines kept the land dry.
In the beginning of 1945, under German command, Dutch workers dug deep holes at the bottom and at the top of the dikes. Each hole was loaded with unexploded bombs from British and American aircraft. On April 17, 1945, at 12:45 a.m. the explosives were ignited. The seven thousand people who lived in the Wieringermeer and the estimated one to two thousand refugees had to leave the polder. Within forty-eight hours the entire polder was filled with water. The people living there had been warned and there was no loss of life.
On April 22, 1945, my father, then twenty-four years old, wrote in his diary that he and my mother went to look at the polder from part of the dike. He wrote, “It was a sorry sight– water all over with here and there a rooftop and tree showing. If we didn’t know God cares for us, we would be devastated… The Lord is right in all His ways and works.”
After my father died, my brother Len wrote Afterword — the final words about Dad’s life– as an ending to my father’s autobiography, A Life of Grace and Blessings. Len wrote, “In his book, Dad talked about his engagement to Mom years before. He said, ‘We loved each other dearly.’ For sixty-two and a half years their love for each other grew stronger and deeper. It was at the heart of the family, and it blessed everyone they knew.”
My parents’ example of trust in God and their love for each other greatly shaped my life. I thank God for the parents He gave me and for the example they were to me and my children. I dedicate this book to the special memories of my parents.
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