She stayed with her former landlady and in 1923 could get a month’s holiday at our house in the Laan van Meerdervoort, from where she also paid a visit to Mrs. Verwey ( formerly Mrs. Koot ) in Leimuiden. She knew how to behave herself so well that with Christmas at the instance of Dr. Sano she could get leave again to be present at the party which Johan gave in the Laan van Oldenbarneveldt.
Although one and the other obviously had been too much for her, Dr. Sano in his optimism found her so good, that again he placed her on his own account in a job in Antwerp. The results were clear: soon enough we received the silliest letters from Lotje, which gave reason that Piet and Carey one day suddenly went to Antwerp to check the situation there.
What they found goes above all descriptions: D. Sano had allowed her to hire herself out as a nanny with 2 children, whose father lived with a German tart in concubine in a to him unknown surrounding.
It was obvious that action had to be taken at once; a car was hired and with it immediately driven to Gheel, where Lotje had to be admitted again for a long time in the institution.
Apart from that a new boarding house had to be found for her, which was neccessary because Mrs.v. Regemorter didn’t want her any longer; a good accommodation for her was found with the ladies Schurmans on the Diestersche Steenweg no. 3. It still took to November before Lotje could be taken up in the family and with the help of Johan, who himself couldn’t go because he was so busy, I was enabled to pay a visit with Piet and Carey to the new boarding house.
We made the trip from Antwerp to Gheel by car and I returned the same day with Piet, whilst Carey stayed one night to organise things with the ladies Schurmans.
We found Lotje still in a highly excited sitation which apparently improved after our departure.On one of the last days of December Herman, who was still in the army, was free to go to Eindhoven in order to apply for a job with the Philips lamps factory, where he had been recommended by his friend Frans Otten; he succeeded immediately and could start his employment in the beginning of January after finishing his service.
Our first New Year’s Eve in the Sweelinckstraat was real nice, even though there weren’t many family members from the Indies at that moment there; mother C had looked after a tasty supper and after the usual well wishing according to a tradition in the Sweelinckstraat we all went in the street to meet our neighbours and wished them well, these were the Semmelinks, Gratemas and Scheltemas, a real happy lot, of which the first named family delivered the larges contingent; Marietje made at this occasion a lucky fall iand slid out in the horse manure, surely a lucky sign for the year 1925.
The first happy event in the new year was the birth of mother Carey’s first granddaughter and namesake, through which I became great grandfather for the third time; the child came into the world on the 3rd March, right on the birthday of her uncle Johan, who didn’t let this go unnoticed and gave the youthful Carey a savings account as a present; the furture grandmother had alreay beforehand taken care of a load of babyclothes, also the aunties who were present in Semarang were in all areas helpful to the lying-in woman.
Each sunbeam casts it’s shadow, here too, 20 days later we had to sadden the death of our dear brave aunt Cato. Had she celebrated her 90-th birthday on December the 18th in the middle of everyone who loved her, since then she declined steadily and both her step daughters Leen and Jet who had so faithfully cared for her during her 15 years of sitting life, couldn’t take care of her anymore sothat it was neccessary to get help from a stranger.
Footnote:
the newborn Carey was the granddaughter of Carey, who is Johan’s sister, so Johan was the baby’s great uncle.She would have suffered terribly in the last period and besides would have worried a lot about the future of both her daughters, for whom she hadn’t dared to ask any help when Johan was still in the land.
In this I found reason to continue the monthy benefit of f. 25 after her death for both old maids who were left behind and suggested to Johan to continue also with the benefit; Carey added a friendly word to it and Johan with his good heart agreed, sothat the 2 sisters would have a peaceful old day.
Shortly after the death of aunt Cato another touching death has to be mentioned which is that of Piet’s eldest sister Renate van Wessem, who for a whole year could almost not take in any food; she died on the 19th April as a result of cancer of the liver, greaty saddened by her husband, children and further family. R.I.P.
As already mentioned above, Herman had been put to work with the Philips & Co. firm in Eindhoven and after a while was sent to London to get to know the firm’s brach abroad. I had asked him to visit my old friend Dirk Pey once, in which after a lot of difficulty he finally succeeded; he found the old gentleman gravely ill in a poverty room on the attic, though he seemed to have recovered again.
Upon his return from London Herman received certainty that he would stay in Eindhoven for a while and consequently the wedding plans were made and in a modest way for the furnishing of his little house in the Koekoeklaan there.
The wedding reception took place on the 22nd of May with an evening for the youngsters on the dame day, at which a lot of dancing took place. Because of my gout and bad eyes this time I didn’t dare to dance with the bride and even went to bed before the festivities were finished.
Wedding photo of Marietje Campioni and Herman Thal Larsen 22 May 1925.The wedding took place with the neccessary lustre and was filmed by Henri Millens in several stages, the first take was when the bridal couple and the guests left the Sweelinckstraat, the second of leaving the town hall, the third when returning to the parental home, whilst the fourth showed a polonaise of all the participants of the party plus both girls on which you can clearly see my waddling gait.
Half past twelve Mr. Millens had finished his takes and after lunch before the departure of the bridal couple the around 100m long film was shown to all the guests; then it was a quarter to four, really a beautiful presentation of the operator. The film was sent to Johan and after this was shown to the family, given as a present to the parents of the groom in Probolingo.
The festive dinner was really nice and was lustred by heartly speeches; besides the bridal couple and mother Carey were present:
a. Herman’s witnesses, the gentlemen Levert and Prof. Thal-Larsen from Wageningen, both Herman’s uncles.
b. Marietje’s witnesses, Uncle Piet and I.
c. The bridesmaids apart from Milly Hendriks, Ellen Thal-Larsen, Tjiep and Anneke Korndorffer.
d. The groomsmen Frans Boudrez, Albert van Delden, Joopie Campioni and Peter Thal-Larsen.
Also seated were Mrs. Leon ( widow ) ( known to the family as Herman’s aunt Suze ), the wives of both Herman’s witnesses, his uncle Korndorffer with wife, Mr. Heerma van Vos from ’t-Ginneken.
It was a pity Marietje’s youngest brother ( Miel ) was not present, however he was just busy with his smalls exams.
After the film was shown the just married couple left for their honeymoon to Brussels and the Ardennes from where they returned on the 5th June, just in time for my 75th birthday.
J.G.Kerlen and Marietje Campioni. It could have been on her wedding day before putting on the veil, not sure.That that birthday was a real partyday for me I have already mentioned at the introduction of my memories. All the more reason to it was also that Lotje had recovered so far, that she got holidays again; after having attended both festive days from the 1st and 5th of June she returned to Leimuiden, where she stayed for 14 days with her former landlady Mrs. Verwey, who was always nice and friendly to her. So the poor child for once had a whole month holidays and enjoyed them as much as possible.
At the end of June Milly succeeded in her final examinations for the H.B.S. for girls, to everyone’s surprise, not the least her own, she had received exemption from geometry in which she always was behind; this shows you how the penny can tumble.
At the H.B.S. she had made a few nice friends like Julia Kessler and the twin sisters v.d.Meyll Dekker as well as Elly Soeters, which girls often came to our place and the last one of which our coming up technologist Miel quite soon showed a liking for.
The friendship with Elly was not too busy because she lived with an old grandmother who was quite seriously ill and so could not receive visitors; however Milly had been remarkably spoiled and attended to by Kessler’s and v.d. Meyll’s parents.
Thus she had been invited by family Kessler to make a 3 week’s trip through the Baltic and she enjoyed this in all respects, whilst Mrs. K. gave her about 8 dresses when she came home, which didn’t fit the solid Julia any more.
In September Milly went to the domestic science school at the Laan van Meerdervoort, whilst Miel passed his smalls exams and secretely got engaged with Elly Soeters.The summermonths had not at all been pleasant for me; my eyes deteriorated more and more and my legs often gave way due to the unbearable gout.
I had been several times already to Dr. Hazewinkel, though he only kept using drops with stropine; he had mentioned to mother C, who now needed glasses, that as long as I still could see a little bit, he would not think of an operation.
However, when in August my situation got worse, I went for advice to my sister in law Louise Stibbe to try and get a cure wih her cousin Dr. Stibbe on the Frederik Hendrik laan, who through treatment with electrical heatbeams sometimes had cured a patient with cataracts, if it wouldn’t help it, it wouldn’t hurt.
Dr. Stibbe couldn’t garantee for a particular cure, still wanted to try it and I submitted to his treatment. I was radiated 15 times, still the success was nil.
The only benefit the treatment which costed 75 guilders gave was that he diagnosed a 3% sugar discharge, of which he cured me in 14 days; on the other hand he suggested me to drink Vichy water for the gout, which helped in the beginning, but later was the reason I lost weight.
When I saw Dr. Hazewinkel a while later, he didn’t want to pass on to an operation because I could still type, play cards and billiards, even if it was in a handicap kind of way. I didn’t progress further and had to posess my soul in patience.
During my treatment from Dr. Stibbe Be Nikkels came with his wife Leni to stay with us; they had both come from HongKong and had to look for a boarding house to spend their leave further here in the Hague. I note this seemingly meaningless event here because Leni, who had the in our family a remarkable habit to smoke many cigarettes, otherwise they were nice people who had a funny son and with whom we during their stay conversed with pleasure.
In January they left again for China, the little boy accompanied by his old aunt Betsy Kerlen until Genoa.At New Year’s Eve we had our usual family reunion at which also Herman and Marietje were present, the traditional gathering of the neighbours didn’t take place this time as at the Semmelinks two daughter had left the parental home and had left married to the Indies and Mrs. S. who was the soul of the gathering now didn’t seem to feel like it.
From Gerard in Semarang we had a message that he had planned to come to Holland for good on the 3rd March and that he would start an office with Johan here to execute all kinds of business affairs; a few days before his departure a telegram came, which stated Johan’s arrival with the same boat. He imagined that he would only be away from Semarang for 3 months and that’s why he left his wife and four daughters behind.
The two brother-in-laws travelled together till Paris, however Gerard stayed behind and had Marietje, Gerritje and Frits come over there. Johan on the other hand travelled soon further and stood suddenly on the 1st of April in front of my nose, although I hardly could distinguish him because of my bad sight; it was a real surprise for me.
On the same day my father-in-law Naessens in Apeldoorn was 91 years; was there last year a real crownparty, this time they didn’t do much about it, since the old gentleman didn’t feel all that well; I call this to the attention in connection with his blessed age which he had reached.
Johan had again brought a few films from the Indies, which soon enough he showed at our place; however I couldn’t recognise anything any more, saw only a white spot on the screen; I also couldn’t read my memoires any more and had to be corrected by Piet all the time, who also had to look up things in the officer’s books or magasines, thourgh which I only slowly progressed.
The situation for me then was in the long run unbearable and I returned to Dr. Hazewinkel to decide on an operation. However now again he didn’t want to pass to this, because I had sugar discharge again and found my general health not favourable; he would however get in touch with my GP doctor Bense, who had the opinion that an operation would have a big chance in succeeding.My children Johan and Carey however found it neccessary that Dr. Bense first consulted an able specialist in internal medicine and this because of my great weightloss; Dr. Bense didn’t object, but wanted to give me another checkup himsef first.
This checkup was satisfying and after that the consultation of the specialist who was known as the best Dr. de Jongh of the Groot Gemeentelijk hospital was called upon which a few days later took place. Dr. de Jongh didn’t have an objections against the operation either, though found that I first had to put on weight and so therefore I was prescribed a diet, existing of the least possible carbohydrates and lots of fats, for instance 50 grams of bacon and 100 grams of cheese. Remarkably I have been able to tolerate this diet for quite some time and had the results the doctors had imagined.
Now Dr. Hazewinkel had no more objections, though couldn’t admit me in his clinic for several reasons for after Pentecost, so at the end of May; I therefore let him consider to wait till after my birthday and we arranged to start on the 8th June. Lotje, who this year was qite good again could then besides her own birthday also still celebrate mine.
On the fifth of June Gerard and Jop came over; they had come from Paris via the Hague to a hotel in Zeist in order to be close to Frits, who still had to do his final exams of the H.B.S. in Utrecht.
Gerritje had passed last year for this and as a reward was allowed to make a trip to the Indies, after which he became student in Delft and now surprised his parents with the succesful passing of his first applied mathematics exam.
Both the boys were also present apart from Johan with both his sons of heir, mama van Zanten Jut and daughter and of course Herman, Marietje and Elly and so together we had a lovely birthday dinner.As usual I was very spoiled again with delicious cigars, though Johan came again with a spontaniously royal present being a cheque of f. 500 at the Commercial bank with the indication “ for difficult days which will come”.
With that my coming operation was just about completely paid for; I give him here again my kindest thanks!
Lotje, who obviously had amused herself during the festive days went to stay for a few days with Henri and Tonia Huygens, sothat she wasn’t home when I was admitted to hospital on the 8th; her old friend Mrs. Verwey ( Koot ) had passed away in the course of the year and so a stay in Leimuiden was out of the question; so her holidays didn’t last as long as last year.
Still before I went to hospital we received the written announcement of the birth of Piet’s 3rd grandchild, which was named after her deceased grandmother; we had received a telegraphic message from this but now we also knew the name.
So on the 8th I was accompanied by Carey and Piet to the eye institute on the Laan van Meerdervoort, corner Tasmanstraat, thus located very close to our house.
After I had settled in peacefully I was given cocaine drops several times in the eyes and after that was brought to the operating theatre, where the so called pre op took place immediately; this existed only in making a small opening in the cornea, through which the surgeon would be able to see if the complete operation could take place later on. I didn’t feel a thing because of the cocaine and I was immediately taken to my room, recommended me to keep as quiet as possible; so I was surprised that Dr. Hazewinkel already the next day said that there was no objection to turn my head to the side and the third day gave the order to leave my bed for a while; later I understood that the pre op was not so serious.So then I was allowed to have visitors and I certainly didn’t have to complain about the lack of attention and the generous gifts of flowers and fruit.
On the 14th June I was allowed to go home again to let the wounded eye get better and have a rest myself.
Dr. Hazewinkel came to see me every day and I had to take a walk once or twice, at which I was accompanied by one of the house members as I was even more blind than I ever had been before and couldn’t keep my balance and wobbled across the street. However I couldn’t sit still at home and kept typing my memoires, which only succeeded a little bit, sothat Piet had to correct quite a bit.
This period lasted 15 days after which I was admitted again in the clinic to undergo the definite operation.
The same morning Joopie went to Leiden in order to sit for his Dr. Juris exams; he had left already early from home, had been examined immediately and…..passed in contrary to his studyfriend Nappie v. Berkel, who got three months extension.
In the clinic I had already finished the cocaine eyedrops when the telephone message came of Joopie’s succes and so could still quickly congratulate mother and son with that; in the course of the day Elly brought the tiding that she passed her final exams of the H.B.S.. So that day there was a party in the Sweelinckstraat, whilst the surgeon cut out the lens of my left eye, which happened succesfully and without much pain.
When the operation was finished Dr. Hazewinkel took the lens home in the middle of all the partyfriends; it was a small brown and dirty ball and nobody was surprised I couldn’t have seen with that.
