LuCaspeRobin + Thomas ;-)

My mother returned to the Netherlands for good today after more than 30 years living abroad. In 1972 she emigrated to Norway together with my father. He had taken on a job at a Dutch company that had a subsidiary in Norway. The Norwegians needed his expertise and so they moved to Kolbotn, a little place just outside of the capital Oslo. There they lived for more than 15 years before moving into Oslo in 1987. Well, into is a large word, as the citylimits of slo ended where our garden ended - so to speak. There we all - my sister and me and our parents - lived until Veronica left for the Netherlands in 1997 to study for fysiotherapy in Utrecht. Three years later I left Oslo for the Netherlands as well, to live in Utrecht together with the love of my life Marjolijn. Just that same year my parents divorced - not due to me leaving of course ;-) - and lived separate lives in close proximity to eachother in Oslo until today.

Because today my mother left Norway permanently to start a new - or rather continue with - life in the Netherlands.

Her whole family - 5 of her 7 brothers - and lots of friends and other relatives welcomed her at Schiphol airport after she landed at around 3 in the afternoon. We made lots of noise and ruccus, waved our flags and sunflowers, and were the talk of the day for visitors and waiters! No need to say that she was awed and flabbergasted of the welcome, or rather overwhelmed to say the least ;-) About an hour later we finally made room for all the other passengers arriving at the airport and moved to the Grand café for a welcome-home-drink.
Slowly people went homewards leaving only the closest of family and friends. I stayed with Casper and Robin and waved mum off in the big van Wim had arranged to come pick her up. She needed that big van, coming over with her motorized wheelchair (the mini crosser), her big aluminium thingamajiggers (to put onto a stair or the back of a van to get on/off with the wheelchair) and around 4 pieces of large luggage!

Welcome "home" mum!

Posted by Sebastiaan Naafs - van Dijk | top