A Series of Miracles

It all started 18 years ago with a lady named Wendy.  Wendy was in the antiques business.  She would buy and sell antiques, and as part of her job she attended many estate sales.  Occasionally she would run across old photos or other family memorabilia.  She would always ask, “Is there no family for this?”  Usually the people holding the sale would agree that the family had overlooked the item(s) and they would be taken down from the sale.  One day Wendy attended an estate sale where she ran across a very old, very meticulous and detailed book of remembrance.  It was thickly loaded with pictures, names, stories, certificates and documents of many kinds.  The problem was it was in Dutch and Wendy could not read it.  “Is there no family for this?” she asked.  The people hosting the sale told her that the family had taken what they wanted and has instructed the rest to be sold.  Because Wendy could not bear to see such a family treasure be thrown away she bought the book and took it home.  She did not know anyone who spoke Dutch, but she had good intentions of finding someone connected to it.  The book was eventually put on the shelf where it stayed for the next ten years.

When Wendy’s family moved the book again resurfaced.  Wendy still could not part with it, and so she put it on a shelf in her new house and again forgot about it.  Eight or so years later as she was cleaning out her house she ran across the book again.  This time as she thumbed through its pictures, names and unknown stories she realized that there was a woman in her neighborhood who was from the Netherlands and spoke Dutch.  She took the book to this woman, whose name was Noortje.  Noortje could read the book very easily, and quickly found the names of a couple who had emigrated from the Netherlands to the United States many years ago.  Noortje took the names of the couple to her daughter who was familiar with the website FamilySearch to see if she could find this old couple anywhere on the website that would offer a connection to where this book belonged.  With the help of a young missionary at an LDS Family History Center this daughter was able to locate not only the names of this old couple on the website, but found an email in the Netherlands connected to their names.  This daughter had emailed people in her own line many times, and had only occasionally gotten a response, so although both she and her mother were very excited at having found the right family that the book belonged to, they were not overly hopeful of receiving a response from a living family member. 

To their complete surprise they received an email back within two days from a man named Rik.  He lived in the Netherlands.  He explained that his grandparents had immigrated to the United States in 1949 after World War II.  They had two daughters.  One came with them and one stayed in the Netherlands.  Sadly, his grandmother had died just three years after coming to the United States, followed by her husband 8 years after that.  All of their possessions fell to their daughter who had come to the United States with them.  She married and had children of her own.  She had been dead for 18 years, and what her children did not want had been sold at that very estate sale where Wendy had found the book. Because the family in the Netherlands and the family in the United States did not have much contact, they eventually lost track of each other.  Rik was one of 6 children born to the sister who stayed in the Netherlands.  He had few photos of his maternal grandparents, and knew little of their history, having been born after they came to the United States.  Rik was also the only member of his family who was actively interested in doing family history.  He was absolutely thrilled to hear from Noortje and her daughter, and was anxious to have the book they had described. 

Arrangements were made and the book shipped to Rik in the Netherlands as quickly as possible.  He was so excited that he sent pictures back to Noortje and her daughter of him opening the box and holding the precious book.  The book of remembrance had made it home at last to a place where it would be treasured.

As for the miracles surrounding this story, it was miraculous that the book was found by someone who would be willing to buy it and hold onto it for so many years. 

It was a miracle that Wendy happened to move into the neighborhood where Noortje lived who was fluent in both old Dutch and English and who had the interest and time to help with such a project. 

It was a miracle that Noortje’s daughter just happened to be very familiar with the very same family history program that Rik was using to document his family history. 

It is a miracle that the email address was posted, found and responded to. 

It was a miracle that Rik was able to receive such a priceless book back into his own family.  In his own words he said, “It was an emotional moment for me to hold the box in my hands and to open it and see all these photo's, letters and records. Most of the photo's I had never seen; I didn’t even know they existed, so you can imagine my excitement and happiness. We had some in our possession, but apparently my grandparents had almost all the pictures with their belongings when they emigrated. Everything, the pictures as well as the records are a great and invaluable completion of what we have over here.”

For all intents and purposes this story ends here with a happy ending.  But one added miracle came when Noortje, who had immigrated to the U.S. in 1949 and had never been back to the Netherlands, decided to take a trip with her daughters to see the place where she had grown up, lived through World War II, and to meet her cousins that still lived in the Netherlands.  She had not been back in 67 years.  The timing of this once-in-a-lifetime trip just happened to take place 10 months after the book had been returned to Rik.  Because of Rik’s deep appreciation for the efforts exerted to find and return the book to him he traveled 3 hours on the train and on foot to meet Noortje and her daughters.  They spent a memorable afternoon together, and then he traveled the 3 hours home again. 

Miracles.

Daughter Shiree, Rik, Noortje