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| Grandpa |
On this memorable
day (11 November 2018) I would like to tell something about my beloved
grandfather. He was born in a place near Antwerp 23 February 1899 and he died 27 February 1960. The death cause was
pneumonia with complications. These were caused by the damage of his lungs
during the battle of World War 1, where he had survived a gas attack in the
trenches.
At the start of the war my grandfather and his
parents flew to London. He was 15 years
old, but very tall for his age. Everywhere in London were posters to ask young men
to fight fort their country. Because my grandfather was so tall, a lot of
people asked why he did not fight for Belgium and why he let the job to the British.
My grandfather felt guilty and went to a recruiting office, lied about his age
and said that he was 18 years old.
So he went,
16 years old, back to Belgium as a cavalry soldier. His parents were wealthy
and as a youngster, he had learned to ride horses.
In Belgium
he was sent to the front. However the
very young man became very anxious at his first mission. He drove his horse the
opposite way, far away from the fight.
After this action he was sent to the infantry and he had to fight in the
trenches. There was no way back. He could get a bullet or had to fight.
In one of
these trenches, he survived a gas attack. He had bad lungs for the rest of his
life, but he survived.
In World War
II, the veterans of World War I were taken as prisoners of war to labour
camps. My grandfather was lucky; he had
to work in a German hotel in Germany. There were a lot of air-raid alarms. The
prisoners were not allowed to go to the shelters. My grandfather helped the old
lady-owner of the hotel, because she walked badly. And she took her cash box, jewellery
and papers with her. The lady asked him
to stay with her in the shelter and help her with her belongings. That is how
he survived all the air-raid attacks.
After World
War II he met my grandmother. She was a widow and had had a not so happy
marriage with my real grandfather (de Waal), who was very depressive most of
the time. He died in World War II of intestinal cancer. My grandmother, who had
had a rather difficult life, fell in love with my grandfather. They married in
1947. They had a wonderful life. They made fine voyages, all over Europe and
had a lovely life in Antwerp, a very swinging city in those days. A year after
my grandparent’s marriage, my parents got married and I was born in 1949.
My grandfather did not have had any children. He adored children.
I was the first grandchild and he spoiled me very much. For me, he was my great hero! He played with
us, bought presents, taught me a little French and English and sung English and
French songs for me.
In February
1960 our family went from the Netherlands to Antwerp in the weekend. We had a lovely weekend. We and our grandfather played hide-and-seek in the garden. They had a lovely
garden, in the middle of Antwerp (Grote Kauwenberg).
On Sunday evening
we went back to the Netherlands. On Tuesday (my grandfather's birthday) my parents got an alarming phone call. My
grandfather was very ill. On Saturday he died of pneumonia with
complications.
My grandmother moved back to the Netherlands and
she never became the old one anymore. I will write about her another time, because
she had a remarkable life. She was a very strong woman. In the period, just after
the death of my grandfather, I stayed with her a long time, be cause she was
not so very healthy then. She told me so many stories about her youth. Enough
to write about!
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