“As a family we had the best time in Switzerland”

“Based on the car and the landscape, this photo was taken between 1969 and 1971. At that time, my parents and three children – of whom I am the eldest – lived in Switzerland. The son of a German mother and a Dutch father, my father was a member of the National Security Service. My father suffered Much of this in his youth, but the punishment was not the reason. After studying at the Higher School of Textiles in Enschede, he went to live and work in Arnhem: which put him far from Deventer, where the family came from. In the end the road was not far enough and my parents left for Geneva .

My father was proud to have married a woman like my mother: the daughter of a member of the National Liberation League who did not survive the construction of the railway in Burma. She fled to the Netherlands via the Suez Canal in 1952.

My parents married young, they were only 23 when I was born. We had our best time in Switzerland, where we went in 1967. But we returned only five years later: my grandfather had died and my father was going to help my grandmother continue the clothing business.

My father died early at the age of 53. As a result, he was unable to fulfill his dream of one day sailing around the world on his own. He had all kinds of books about such solo journeys, which I also read. I learned to sail from him. I said at his funeral: Don’t wait to do the things you want to do, do them while you still can. I have now taken up his dream. I will not go With one hand “We sail around the world, but my girlfriend and I take long trips to far-flung places with my sailing yacht.”

We welcome photos from parents via [email protected].

Reading list



Email the editor