Being safe in the Ardennes — Margje Horringa

Between 1968 and 1973 we, the children, were still living in The Hague; you already, with Boet, in Amsterdam. I was then between 8 and 12,5 years old. My brothers just a little older. The visiting agreement consisted of a weekend per month with you. As you weren`t all to clear yourself about how to go about it, we often went to the Ardennes.

First four hours by car, great food and every day a lot of walking, certainly twenty kilometers. In the morning after breakfast you would simply cast a look at a map on the wall, and off we went.

First a lot of climbing, then right across a field, taking heed of cows and horses. We followed the course of a little brook and after those twenty kilometers When I really was totally exhausted, you would say: "just this little bit here downwards, then we'll be at the road. Then we`ll turn right and after the first turn there'll be the hotel". And that's how it was - there the hotel would be.

Alongside the increasing hardships in The Hague I was safe with you in the Ardennes. Apart from that, you were really quiet impossible as a father and especially very absent. Still it is impossible for me not to love you intensely.

This man was my father.