Who Inspired Me?

The person I chose for this assignment is my grandmother, Oma. She was a dynamo, small, but feisty.  

When I was little I was closer to my grandfather than to my grandmother. My grandfather was a man of simple pleasures. He grew up on a farm and he loved to work in his garden. He was quiet, unassuming, and would go to the market every Friday morning on his bike, wearing his wooden shoes. He was easy to be with, and I would often go on long walks with him. We would visit the bears in the park, Pol and Max, feed the ducks, and walk along the fortified wall around Maastricht, while he would tell me stories about witches and the plague. I loved it! At night I would fall asleep next to him on the couch, watching tv, and he would carry me up to bed, where my grandmother would tuck me in, nice and tight. The heat was off during the night, so the sheets were cold, and I couldn't move because I was tucked in so tightly. However, in the morning, the sheets and blankets were just right, and my bed was like a nest, warm and toasty. I would wake up in the morning from the sounds of the doves. To this day, when I hear doves, the sound of them brings me back to this place, to the blue room.  My grandfather would carry me on his back down the stairs in the morning and we would have breakfast. Some how, my grandmother seemed invisible during these early years. She was always busy doing something, her heels making clicking sounds on the parquet floor. She had no time for stories or for walks. All this she considered 'nonsense'.  She needed to be productive. I did not get close to her until I was in my teens. I could relate to her more and started to be amazed by her actions.

My grandmother grew up in a business family, and her family set up my grandmother and grandfather in a store on the Market in Maastricht when they married.  The store sold shoes and slippers and they were doing well.  They had five children, one of whom died at a very early age. The reason I chose my grandmother was because of the way she handled herself during the second World War.  The Netherlands was invaded by the Germans and the Germans' Headquarter was at City Hall in Maastricht, across the street from my grandparents' store. Germans would come into the store to buy boots.  Instead of asking the Germans to pay for the boots with money on the spot, my grandmother asked them for butter, cheese, meats, etc, since everything was rationed at the time.  The Germans would go on leave to Denmark and, upon their return, would bring my grandmother the payment for the boots.  My grandmother's sister, who lived down the street from my grandmother, would hide Jews in her house. Her house was a temporary stop, before the people in hiding would be moved to a safer location.  My grandmother used the food the Germans brought back to bring to her sister's house to feed the 'onderduikers'. At one point a soldier never came back from his leave to pay for the boots.  My grandmother went to the Gestapo to complain.  My grandfather, in the meantime, was shaking in his own boots and he expected never to see his wife again. A few weeks later, a German army truck shrieked to a stop in front of the shop. My grandfather was alone in the shop and almost peed in his pants when a German soldier ordered him out of the shop. "Mitt kommen!" They walked to the truck, and the soldier asked my grandfather to identify a soldier sitting in the back of the truck. He asked my grandfather if that was the man who stole the boots.  My grandfather told him that he did not know, and that it was his wife who had sold the boots and he was ordered to get his wife. My grandmother was at her sister's house, because that was the day they would move a girl to another location. My grandmother was expected at Headquarters to identify the man.  As soon as my grandmother came home my grandfather told her while he was in tears, to go to the Gestapo Headquarters and identify the man who stole the boots. My grandmother went all by herself, a fact I think is so unbelievably brave! She entered the Headquarters and they asked her why she came. She told them that she was there to identify a man, at which the German replied: "Er is schon erschossen". They shot him already.  

My grandmother had nerves of steel, always did what had to be done, was welcoming, and had a wonderful sense of humor. Her house was always full of people. One day when I was staying with them, the doorbell rang and there were seven friends who had come for a visit. "Ernest", she called (this is my grandfather's name), "go get a few chickens out of the freezer, so I can make everyone some food." Nothing was ever too much for her. She had more energy than I had at the time, and she was always up for going places.  She was also the first person in Maastricht to go on a helicopter! My dad has a picture of her, standing near the helicopter, waving at the people, as if she was the queen! In the meantime, my grandfather was crying, because he thought she would crash.

She lived her life to the fullest and she is such an inspiration to me. Nothing was impossible and there was humor in everything!