My memories of my parents

My Father was born in Holwerd, Friesland, the Netherlands on July 30, 1929 to Pieter and Aaltje van der Woude who farmed outside of Holwerd. My Father was the third child of five children born to them, Egbert, Djoke, Paulus, little Lammert (who died as a baby) and Lammert.

He went to school in Holwerd learning the Fries, Dutch and German languages and then on to two years of Agricultural college. He trained four years in the Dutch army. He attended the Christian Reformed Church and was a member there with his family. He left for Canada on June 21, 1952 on the SS Rijndam arriving to pier 21 at Halifax, Nova Scotia where my Father celebrated his 23rd birthday the next month on Canadian soil not knowing a single word of English. From there he travelled by train to Belleville, Ontario working on a farm before going to Oshawa, Ontario where he worked construction learning English along the way. Always adventurous, Father joined the harvest excursion threshing and travelled across Canada to Alberta where he worked on a farm and in a gas station and became a Canadian citizen in 1957.

Eric Erickson, a wrestling scout and trainer discovered him and trained him to wrestle. My Father was known as the Klondike kid and moved to Calgary to Stu Hart’s training school also known as “The Dungeon” to train further, work out and wrestle for the YMCA. He won a wrestling championship for Alberta in 1959.

On March 27, 1960 my Father had a conversion experience of being born again.

Uncle Ross, a very close friend of my Father’s told me this personal story of how he gave up wrestling. In Ontario at a Championship, he made a deal with God. If God wanted him to continue wrestling, then he would win this competition. If he lost, then it would be a sign that God wanted him to leave that profession. Well, on a easy fight, Dad slipped and as a result, he lost that fight. This was why he gave up the life of wrestling to train to be a Municipal police officer wanting to serve God and to help others. In May in 1960 he joined the police service in Sylvan Lake, Alberta then in Forestburg, Alberta.

One Sunday at Church he shared a hymnal with Flora Ellen Heffel and as they got to know each other, their love blossomed. They were married on July 15, 1961 and moved to Sedgewick, Alberta in 1964 when Father took the position of Municipal Police Officer for the County of Flagstaff.

My parents had four kids. Peter, Joy, myself and Deneena. Every Summer, my Father took us camping except for 1971, 1973 and 1975 when he took us to the Netherlands to visit his family.

I remember the times in 1975, when Father and I would go bike riding together. I was small enough to be able to ride on the back of his bike. Those were memories which I still hold very dear to my heart. I remember that every time I saw a hill, there would always be a body of water on the other side.

Uncle Lammert would often treat us kids to smoked fish from the fish truck. There were a lot of trucks where people could buy anything from yoguart to milk.

I remember that every year when we went camping, Grandma would pay Dad for one meal at McDonalds where we ate at in Saskatoon. She would hand him the money before we left on holidays. I always got a Big Mac, Small milk and Apple pie. This was decided by my parents ahead of time. My sister, Joy always got chocolate chip cookies as well as my younger sister, Deneena. I can not remember what the rest of the family ate because I was too focused on what I was eating.

There was one summer when our family visited a lot of graveyards. I found it so fascinating to look at the graves to imagine what the people were like when they were alive.

Then I remember all the long walks which our family took while camping. Peter refused to go on any walk stating he was not interested. He often sat in the car while we went on our long walks.

One of my favourite places to go to was to Saskatoon. The camp ground was known as the Gordon Howe Campground. I really enjoyed the Diefenbaker Canada Center which is located on the University of Saskatchewan. Mr Diefenbaker was one of our Prime Ministers who lived from September 18, 1895-August 16, 1979. He was our Prime Minister from 1957-1963. Then my next favourite was The Western Development Museum which is located at 2610 Lorne ave in Saskatoon. My wife and I visited both these museums on our honeymoon in August of 1994.

We also visited Maryfield which was in the south part of Saskatchewan. We visited my mother’s relatives who lived in and around that village.

Then we were off to Spruce Woods Provincial Park where we stayed at the Kiche Manitou campground. We used to visit Austin and Glenboro, Manitoba where we met a lot of nice people.

As a family we also went to Winnipeg and Steinbach to visit. In Steinbach was the Mennonite Heritage Village. This was where my Father learned all about the history of the Mennonites. He had discovered that these people started from where he was born in and grew up as a child. We used to eat at the Livery Barn Restaurant. The food was so awesome and I do remember it so very well.

Later in life, maybe this is why he married two Mennonite women and lived around Winnipeg. The Mennonites are a very kind people and I have very close friends who are Mennonites. My best man is a fine Mennonite.

These memories are ones which keep me going. When people pass on at times all you have are memories to which one can hold on to. My Father and Mother came into my life when I was four months old. These are memories which I do hold dear because they are what I have left of my parents. I will continue to share these memories because I refuse to have anyone forget about these two wonderful people. This is part one of my series of writings on my memories of my dear parents.