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Mamaloetje
Mamaloetje
· 03 Mar 2020
Following

A flood disaster

My father was as old as my little man is now when the dikes broke.
My father liked to speak, but if he talked about that one night, he didn't speak fluently, it went horrors and bumps.
It had made a huge impression on him, he had scars that got in the way of his life.
He was five, an innocent five-year-old male. His mother held him, she didn't let him go for a second. They had to run, have to run. They found a place where they were safe. They were above the water, but it didn't have to go up any further.
They sat on a farm, on top of the ridge. My father was little, his mother and he got the safest place. The whole roof was full of people who were scared. They all knew they were suffering great losses, but whether that was limited to their homes and their belongings or if they lost loved ones too... most didn't know that yet.
What impressed my father was the cows and the pigs that drove by. He also saw a human being, but when his mother saw that he saw it, he had to look the other way.
On that farm, people could only hope that they would be rescued quickly. That soon people came to get them and take them somewhere safe.
It was just February, it was winter. They were on the farm wearing wet clothes. It was cold, very cold.
My father and his mother survived. His sister and his two brothers, too, but nine other relatives did not survive this disaster...
1 year,
6 years,
12 years,
16 years,
19 years,
49 years,
63 years,
76 years,
80 years.
My father was lucky that his mother was such a strong woman, that she had found a high spot and that she had held him so tightly.
The bond between my father and his mother was strong. The fact that my father was a 'offspring' made it that way, but this nightmare had strengthened the band enormously.
They lost everything. Their entire existence had to be rebuilt. My father didn't get much of that. During the disaster, he was cold, and it was hit on his lungs. He got sicker and sicker, almost killed him. In order to make him better and strengthen, it was decided to send my father to a place of repair, where he could be cared for and he was a bit 'fatter fattening'.
My father missed his family for over a year. Every once in a while someone came to visit, he had to do it with it. He was very sick. They had to operate on him twice. A piece of lung was removed the second time - after this he just fixed.
At home on Flakkee we worked hard to build a home again. The chickens they had had had been washed away. The dog, too. My father never wanted another dog - for fear of losing the animal again.
When my father was allowed to go home, there was another home. He took a toll when he got home. He was proud of that toll, his only toy - the rest he was lost to the water.
The water has changed thousands of lives forever. Future dreams were taken away, abruptly stopped.
Many people lived in unbearable uncertainty; had the missing drowned or could they reach a safe place?
A great fear has arisen in a lot of people this night. Fear of heavy rain, storm and dark. My father was one of those people.
Broken families, families wiped out. No more home, no home to go back to.
Despair and sorrow...
My father liked to speak, and now, after all these years, I regret not listening to his stories anymore - stories he told with broken voice. #1953 #watersnoodramp #flakkee #zeeland #water #noodweer #verdrinken #ramp #heropbouw #overleven

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nachtvlinder
Om de pijn en het verdriet van je eigen vader te zien kan zelfs je eigen hart breken. Ik heb het gezien bij mijn vader toen mijn man overleed. Mijn vader was ook nog een kind toen zijn vader overleed. Het is dus niet gek dat je daar niet over kan praten met... Show more
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Leefff voor jouw gezondheid
En dan ben ik weer blij dat Nederland er veel aan heeft gedaan om dit soort rampen voortaan te kunnen voorkomen
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