Maria van den Boogaard

Story

I was born Maria Apolonia Francisca Broekhoven, 15th July 1921 in Rotterdam Nederland. Second child of 10 children, seven girls and three boys. My father Franciscus was a tax consultant and bookkeeper, and my mother Apolonia was a seamstress who made our clothes, wedding dresses and coats. She encouraged our education, and I eventually graduated from high school (the H.B.S.b). I worked as a telephonist in the main Rotterdam Post Office, on the Coolsingel and took night classes in typing and shorthand in Dutch, English, French and German. I subsequently became a teacher at night. We lived through the 1930s recession and the war. The Post Office was bombed while I was working there. I walked to my grandmother\’s home with bleeding feet through burning streets. Later I changed jobs and worked as a secretary at Hulstkamp, makers of the finest liqueurs. In 1948 I married Jan Hillege from Dordrecht. We lived in an attic above my grandmother\’s house in Rotterdam for three years, there being no housing after the war. My first child, a daughter Josie, was followed by a son, Hans. After the birth of our third child Pauline we moved into a unit. My husband searched new horizons as he had been living in hiding during the war to avoid being taken by Germans. He saw an advertisement for a job as printer in South Africa. Getting the job meant emigrating. He went by plane in September 1953; the journey took three days. Myself and our four small children followed in December by ship, the Waterman. Everyone was seasick! We finally arrived in Cape Town where Jan was waiting for me. We travelled to Johannesburg by train where Jan had rented a house and had furnished it sparsely. Andre had been sick for a few days and I realised he had measles. On Christmas morning there was a knock on the door from a local doctor who had heard of our arrival and situation and who offered medical care. Could we have a greater Christmas present? I have not forgotten his kindness and care. Happily settled in South Africa now, we had three more children, daughters Godelieve and Bernadette, and Frans, a boy. All the children were well educated in different schools that suited their personalities and interests, including music, sport and dance. There were ups and downs: difficult times through illness, starting a printing business and the children\’s years of hard study, broken hearts, happy weddings and our first grandchildren. South Africa was by now a changed country, and when Pauline met an Australian boy, who was travelling the world Ð on foot – there was much talk of Australia, a place sounding so peaceful and generous. Some of our children moved there and wrote saying how happy they were. At first Jan refused to contemplate emigrating again, saying ‘I live in this house and I will die here’ but eventually he agreed. We started the necessary procedures, we sold the printing business we had built up, and after months of agonising wait we got visas. A second emigration, all the heartaches again; the friends you leave behind, but longing to join our children and their families already happily settled. We said good bye to remaining family and friends and flew via Harare to Sydney, where we arrived on 8 November 1985. We were received with open arms and again it was a new beginning, a whole new adventure. Eventually all our children came to live in Australia and our family was reunited in this wonderful, far away country. I became an Australian citizen 22 June 1988. Life goes on with its joys and sorrows. Jan died of a heart attack in November 1986. I stayed living with Pauline and her husband until I married a Dutch friend of our family\’s, Cor van den Boogaard, whose wife had died earlier. We were very happy together. However, tragically, while visiting South Africa for the 50th birthday of his eldest son, he had a car accident and became quadriplegic. I went to South Africa to bring him back. Cor was admitted to hospital in Sydney, and then to many other care centres. It was terrible seeing a man as large as life, successful in business, independent and impeccably dressed, become totally dependant on others for his care. All avenues for cure or hope were exhausted and in 1992, he deteriorated and died with me at his side. Now I am 86, living independently in a unit and enjoying Tai Chi, joining in the Chinese feast days, and teaching English. I have a computer for internet and email, I crochet and raise money for The Lions. I like to read, do calligraphy and sew for grandchildren. Love surrounds me with my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren living near me, in Tasmania and London. Sometimes they visit their old countries but all being proud Australian citizens,it is always with a sigh of joy that they return to Australia.

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