The Memoirs of J.G. Kerlen – Part 33

The wedding took place on the 18th September at the Townhall here and was followed by a lunch in our house, after which the just married couple left for their honeymoon to Valkenburg in Limburg.
The day was spoiled by Henri, who fell ill and after the ceremony at the Townhall went straight to Delft to bed, he had contracted angina badly and it left him with rheumatoid pains, of which he still suffered for some time.

After his arrival Gerard had soon established an office for the benefit of the Assahan business and young Carey who in the meantime had also quit her studies in Delft, had been employed as secretary typist for this business, in which function she made a trip to England with Gerard and Jop and enjoyed herself very much there.

The Assahan business showed itself beautifully in the beginning and in England already half of the capital had been allocated, which would be running into more than f. 50 million; also a Dutch syndicate with the great Aalst as chief showed himself not unwilling, whilst the association of sugar planters for whom Gerard held a lecture of the business donated an amount of f. 10000 to research the business a little further locally.
So when Gerard returned to the Indies at the end of July he was full of illusions, which later on proved to be in vain, to his luck as well as that of Johan.

Both his sons stayed behind in Holland and were living with the family Pik where they received an excellent fosterhome and very good guidance from Mr. Pik for the education, who had been a teacher at the H.B.S. himself. The eldest daughter Marijke was taken in by Mrs. Enthoven, widow of the Resident of that name with whom she also experienced a loving home and the daughter the house Rudy became a nice friend.Before his departure Gerard made a trip with me to Gheel to pay a visit to Lotje who I hadn’t seen since April 1914. she had stayed during the entire war at the home of Mr. Liekens and last year he had written to me that she was doing so well, that he hoped to be able to deliver her cured, which unfortunately was obviously soon contradicted through very pessimistic news, since she had gone through a crisis, which had not passed when we came.

The railway connections with abroad weren’t running properly yet and to make the visit in one day we were obliged to travel to Breda and from there by car to reach Gheel, this way we could already be early at our destination, if it wasn’t that the ordered car wasn’t on time at the station in Breda and we did have a tragic accident on the way.
Close to the enclave Baarle-Nassau, Baarle-Hertog we had to pass a caravan which was pulled by the owner; notwithstanding the continuous blowing of the horn by our driver, the caravan didn’t go out of the way and the driver tried to pass by going half over the verge of the road, which succeeded, though with the unfortunate result that the 10 year old daughter from the caravan shot out at the very last minute from in front of her father’s van and was run over by our car. Of course we stopped and saw the child with a bloodnose and mouth lying unconcious on the road; since she came round a little after she’d been washed up, we decided to take the whole family with us in our car to Baarle-Nassau to ask for a doctor and left the caravan on the location.

Luckily we found the local doctor at home who examined the patient throroughly and diagnosed that there was no bodily harm of importance noticeable and he hoped that it all would fizzle out. As a salve for the wounds Gerard gave the caravanner a 10 guilder bill and we had the whole family taken back by car to their caravan; since then we have heard nothing of the case anymore and so all was well.With all of that our trip had a 2 hour delay and we only arrived at half past 12 in Gheel, where we found Lotje in a rather excited situation; she had broken the washstand in her bedroom, had pulled off all the wallpaper from the wall and had cut up all her photo’s in little pieces; on top of that she was so busy apologising for all she had done, that we couldn’t get a word in edgewise.

So we didn’t enjoy our trip too much, only that is was lovely weather for September; at 10 o’clock in the evening we arrived in the Hague, I was dead tired, whilst i still had to drag along a huge box of apples, present from Mr. Liekens.

Shortly before the departure of Gerard aunt Marie also left for the Indies, enabled to do so by her son Barend, who gradually had known to achieve a good employment in Soerabaja and with whom she could take up her permanent accommodation; she would then also be close to her daughter Joh, who lived with Augustijn in Lawang and felt very happy there.
This joy wouldn’t be for long for this bird of ill omen; arriving on the 11th of October Barend had to have all his teeth pulled out in the beginning of December with the unhappy result that they couldn’t stop the bleeding and died on the 6th December in Soerabaja; so after a short time aunt Marie had to return to the Netherlands and for the rest had to look after herself completely.

Daan, who had accepted employment as a mechanical engineer with Hellendoorn & Co in Soerabaja, left with Renny on the 22nd of November; they had a terrible journey mainly because Renny couldn’t keep any food in during her pregnancy and had to ly flat in bed nearly the whole time. Once they were at their destination she recovered somewhat.The period 1920 – 21 indeed was the most expensive we had experienced during and after the war, despite Carey and I clubbed together we didn’t have enough and part of our savings had to be touched.
As long as Renny, for whom Piet paid a meagre boarding fee, was still with us we were still all right, but after her departure we had to find a solution to expand our income somewhat.

First we had Piem Oost Lievense as a paying guest, who had become secretary of the committee for distribution of barley for the breweries and as such enjoyed a decent income whilst his wife and children lived in a hotel in Bergen aan Zee; he was a good and joyful boarder, however this didn’t last long, sothat Carey was pleased when  my sister in law Louise Stibbe suggested her to take over her two boarders. These were the sisters Annie and Mien Tels, who liked to have the company of homely traffic and together they used our largest room as bedroom.

Both the girls had East Indian blood and more or less had artistic tendencies; Annie was at the Drawing academy and could paint quite nicely. Mien tried all kinds of ways to do so but ended at the theatre, however she only performed in some very modest roles there.
Of course they got called on by a lot of youngsters, resulting in Annie soon becoming engaged to a certain Jan v.d. Linden, who originally also was a student at the mentioned academy, and who later on developed into a good actor.  

They didn’t get married too long after they left in 1921 and nowadays live happily together with their only child.
Later on Mien also got married, however how he’s going, we don’t know. So much is certain that she would have demanded much of her husband’s olfactory organ, because she always had a penetrating perspiration smell with her, which was the reason that the children and Carey couldn’t stand her.

After both girls left, we didn’t have any more boarders, because the pensions were raised in September and so we were a bit more comfortable, besides the schoolfees for Carey as widow were lowered considerably.Since it kept going well with Lotje after Gerard and my visit to Gheel, she got permission to come and stay home with Anneke at the end of May; she could then celebrate her birthday here and also be present at mine; in general we found her quite good, although she was often very excited and we were convinced that she was nowhere better in her place than in Gheel.

Meanwhile in the colony there Director Meeuws had been replaced by Dr. Sano, a man who was very optimistic by nature and he took care to get his patients back in the community as soon as possible, in which he often gave in to the  expressed wishes of patients.

This happened also with Lotje, who after her return from the Hague started to change and complained to Dr. Seno, that she had been treated by the son of Mr. Liekens in a very unrealistic way. The director investigated the complaint without notifying me and I was standing for an accomplished fact, that they had been looking for a new foster home for Lotje and this was with the widow v. Regemorter, where also the mentally ill woman of the retired director post director van West was boarded; I would certainly not immediately have agreed to the arrangement, because I was convinced that Lotje had exaggerated greatly with the incident at family Liekens as this family had always been full of care.

It was remarable what a good impression Lotje could make to the outside world in her calm periods, sothat they sometimes blamed me that I unjustifiably made her stay in Gheel.
Two successive clergymen, who assisted the very old Ds. v. Dissel wrote to me about it and I was obliged by a long explanation about Lotje’s history to convince both gentlemen; the first Ds. Swart sent me an answer full of excuses and  mentioned that he now felt the same way as I, the second Ds. Boenders in this respect also agreed with me, but was despite that a supporter of Dr. Sano optimism.Although he therefore sometimes debated with me, I had to recognise the justification of his point of view and I cannolt say anything else then to praise him for his huge help at times in giving the right advices.

The most severe critisism to my attitude however came from the side of the just mentioned Mr. van West, who behind my back wrote a rediculous letter to my son Johan, who offered it to me asking if Mr.v.W. himself was not crazy.

In the meantime Dr. Sano had thought it desirable in his optimism to put Lotje to work and so she was with his reference placed as a  nanny with a diamond dealer in Antwerp; there she only lasted about one month and got sick, disappeared suddenly from Antwerp and returned to Gheel, where she after been re-admitted in the institution for a while luckily returned to Mrs. Regemorter’s care.
A long correspondence developed with Dr. Sano about the case, of which I at that time sent copies to Johan, though I cannot remember the details clearly. In short I ended up asking Dr. Sano not to take any special action in view of Lotje before notifying me first.

On the 25 th March 1922 Piet returned from the Indies as a retired colonel and after a few days rented a furnished flat diagonally opposite us, whilst Milly already immediately took over the position of her sister Renny. Logically Piet walked across every day and had his meals with us; so I must have been blind not to have noticed that between him and Carey something was going on; at least I was highly surprised when soon enough he told me his plans.
Of course I had nothing against it since Carey had taken on the motherly care for Renny the last few years and I imagined that a marriage would be beneficial for all involved.Now the children and son in laws to be would be reunited in the evening to hear the joyful news.
Young Carey however was with future her father in law in Rotterdam whilst both grandsons to be were at their studies in Delft. I then offered to warn all three and after coffee I went immediately to Delft, where I found Herman in his room and I told him the news; logically he had the right to know, because after he had studied for 2 years he was publicly engaged; to Henri who was working at the bureau of mining we asked him by phone to come straight away to the social club Phoenix and I could tell him that he was future a father in law richer.

To give Carey the message in Rotterdam wasn’t that easy as when Henri phoned she was shopping and the message which was given to the maid didn’t get transferred properly. After much signalling the three of us went in Henri’s car to the Hague, who after having dropped off Herman and myself at the Laan van Meerdervoort, returned to the station to pick up Carey, whom he actually didn’t find there since she had arrived with another train and only arrived home half an hour later by herself, nervously waited for by her mother.

So finally the whole family was gathered and Uncle Piet gave a heartwarming speech and the engagement was cheered upon, of which we at once telegraphically notified Johan, who was aboard the SS. Insulinde on his way to Holland and arrived here in the Hague on the 28th April.
There was no reason for Piet and Carey to postpone their wedding for long and although some ado developed about the formalities which had to be followed everything still was ready in time and the marriage was solemnised on the 20th of May.Much ado wasn’t made about it: we had a quiet hot lunch at the end of which the youngsters (?) went on a honeymoon, which would take more than a month.
The weather had turned out really nice and so the people staying behind decided to jion up in Scheveningen on the boulevard. Whilst we were sitting there nicely enjoying our beer Johan suggested to end the day dignified with a supper at Saur in the Houtstraat, which thus happened and we enjoyed ourselves till late in the night with well filled stomachs with crab and champaign.

The journey of Johan in 1922 was a businesstrip; not until 1923 he would be getting a year’s leave; however he had taken his wife and children with him and to let them profit of the European climate for as long as possible he had beforehand given mama Jut and myself the order to rent a suitable furnished house for him.  We found this in the Weede van Dijckveltstraat no. 5. However in the long run Johan and Muis found that house too small and before his return he ensured a roomier house in the Laan van Oldenbarneveldt for him where they then could live comfortably with Mama and sister Jut; however the house could not be moved in until September and so the ladies had to look after the furninshing, whilst Johan already halfway July returned to the Indies via England, America and Japan. From England he made the journey with the welknown SS. Beringaria, of which he sent us a nice description.

When Piet and Carey returned from their honeymoon they heard the great news that Miel had passed his final exams at the H.B.S. The study of the boy was in the first few years not particularly succesful, during the last years he had done his work the right way and on his request was allowed to enrol as technical student in Delft.
They brought a souvenir for everyone from their trip; I received apart from a small silver lighter also quite a few bottles of pancreon, which the bridal couple had smuggled across the boarder, sothat I would have enough for some time; how they had hidden this in the train I don’t know, on the contrary I do know from Henri, who for his mining engineer often had to go to Germany, that he hid the smuggled bottles during the journey in the toilet of the D train.When Milly arrived she was placed in the 3rd A class of the H.B.S. for girls at the Beeklaan, would according to Miss van Aken be conditionally and with a lot of trouble go over to the 4th class, for which she would have to be coached on a great scale. On top of that they didn’t see any advantage in it for her and decided to let her follow the language side; although she did have to follow the 3rd class completely again, but still would get her graduation diploma in 1925.

Did Carey before often have trouble with cramps, sothat fearing for appendicitis I one everning called Dr. Maasland for advice, who didn’t think it adviceable to operate, shortly after her return again she began to have trouble with those cramps and since Piet and Johan were insisting she’d consult the East Indian surgeon v. Delden, who in contrary to Maasland certainly thought an operation would be neccessary and claimed that C. carried a pistol with her in her gut; so then decided to operate, which was performed by Dr. v. Delden on the 12th of September in the Red Cross hospital with very good result, sothat she was cured after 12 days and could go home.

Wasn’t it a coincidence that Jop v. Heel on the 11th also was operated on in Semarang? We only heard of that some time later, when Gerard telegraphed us:”Jop recovered back home”. An abcess on her breast made an operation also neccessary with her and so both sisters were lucky.Before I note down my memories of the year 1923, I have to go back some years, even to before the war when I omitted to note what I had to do with the Colonial Exhibition in Semarang. I received a letter about this from Gerard to research in how much the old engineer officer and engineer N.I.S.  A. Molinger would be willing to act as director of the exhibition.
He obviously grapped this business with both hands and told me that he found it so particularly considerate of Gerard to think of him. It is difficult to understand the way in which he later on acted to my son in law and which gave reason for me to ignore him completely after his return in the Netherlands.
Later on I received a beautiful bound memorial book about the past Exhibition to which he certainly would have giving a lot of work; his services later on were rewarded by the Government by appointing him to Officer in the Order of Oranje Nassau.

The second point I forgot to remember refers to the inauguration of the large office of the fertilizer factory in Semarang, which took place in 1922 and of which I only got to know from a telegram which was sent to me and signed by all guests, who were invited at the festive dinner. No matter how pleased I was that it was going so well with the business of my son, I still regret, that I didn’t know anything about the party beforehand, a telegram from me at the dinnerparty would have been more in it’s place. Meanwhile I herewith wish the Limited liability company & Industrial association fertilizer factory Java all the best.

Finally I still  have to mention a last partymeeting, which was held in our own building of the Royal Institute of Engineers on the Prinsesewal for the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Insitute. With my former neighbour Ir. Paul who nowadays lives in a large house in the Sweelinckstraat, I visited the morning meeting and lunch in the new building where all members were photographed in the garden;  for dinner in the Twee Steden, which Paul didn’t attend, I had joined with the major of the engineers O.I.L.A. Pasteur who was on leave.