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Personal Narrative: Mr. And Mrs. Blanker

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Sheer determination and tenacity motivated our parents to build a wonderful life for us in Holland. By the middle of the 1950s, recollections of the horrifying war years haunted them less, while memories of their sensational Indonesian pre-war existence lifted their hearts through difficult times as they continued to adjust to a new and strange land. Without a care in the world, Ellen and I enjoyed playing happily together and spending the days with our stay-at-home mom who promptly enrolled in adult education language classes. Mother adored the Romance Languages; the languages that originated from the speech of the Romans; Italian, French, and Spanish among them. Before he left for work each morning, our overly attentive father lovingly …show more content…

and Mrs. Blanker with their four children; Martin; the eldest son, Kokkie and Lia; blond curly haired twin girls, who appeared to be approximately our age and Jenneke; a younger sister. Fortunately the Blanker parents didn't seem to mind that their daughters played with us, even allowed them to cross the street to play on our side. Consequently, even though it took years, the other parents gradually realized that no harm was going to come to their children if they played with us and eventually allowed them to do the same. In due course, my sister and I had a group of “white” friends. We roller-skated together, drew chalk pictures on the sidewalk and fished in the canal with a fishing pole we made from an open safety pin, fastened to the end of a long string, tied to a broom stick. On the grass field behind our house, we pitched tents with two long poles which we pushed into the earth, suspended a clothesline between them and draped a white sheet over the line. During summer days, we played for hours, until from the bedroom window, our mother announced that it was time to eat lunch. We ran upstairs, gobbled down a cheese-and-jam sandwich and guzzled down a glass of chocolate milk, eager to resume playing with our …show more content…

Although our parents undoubtedly loved us equally, as the younger child requiring more of her attention, Ellen grew closer to Mom, leaving me to gravitate naturally towards our dad, unintentionally becoming “Pappa’s lievelings (favorite) child.”

Our parents wanted us to be free to choose our own religion as adults, therefore, they raised us without a particular religious denomination, nevertheless, they routinely read to us from a popular collection of children’s books known as “Little Golden Books; the Story of the Bible.” How I loved climbing on my father’s lap, Ellen cuddling up on mom’s, as we listened to those stories. We learned how to kneel on our bed, close our eyes and clasp our hands to say a simple prayer, sincerely from the heart, before we went to sleep:
“Onze lieve Heer,
Ik sluit mijn ogen, vouw mijn handjes,
Ik buig mijn knietjes voor u

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