It is 16.30 and the carillon at the old Dutch Reformed Church is playing Old Lang Syne…… The Sunday service at this church is at 9.30 and I promise pictures of the service on my next blog. If they happen to have the service there. The two (Dutch and Christian Reformed) Reformed churches and the Lutheran Church united into one church about 7 years ago. And now they alternate services every other Sunday. And they still can’t fill the churches. It will be a surprise where I end up. I hope that it is the Dutch Reformed because it has an exquisitively carved pulpit and gorgeous copper candelabras.
There is a family story on this church in de Lemmer. My great grandmother Rinsje de Vries- Ages was a staunch Dutch Reformed. And when my grandfather married the daughter of the Christian Reformed pastor on the island of Urk she was not a happy mother/mother in law. Minister daughters do not bring any money with them into the family. My grandfather placated his father in law and sought his salvation in the Christian Reformed Church from then on. Consequently, so did my mother, and her offspring. If my great grandmother could have lived 150 years she would be alternating every Sunday between two churches and compromise the centuries old stumbling block on Predestination.
Scratch off one more goal on my list. Revisiting Vietnam, sailing to Holland and now parking “Fleetwood” in front of the house my mother grew up in. Next goals Danube, Mediterranean, West Coast of South America , improving my Spanish. I am abundantly blessed and I thank the Lord for his gifts and protection and I thank my family and friends for their support. I am extremely fortunate to have had parents and grandparents who made this possible. Walking , boating here through de Lemmer I can sense the wonderful childhood my mother had here. She wrote on my request, in her last years, detailed descriptions of her life in this one time saltwater Zuidersea port city. I hope to put this into a book some day. My timing this year to come to de Lemmer is just right. Because the current mast makers who bought the shop from my grandfather in 1926 and continued the same tradition of making wooden masts and blocks are selling the property and the three century old mastmaker legend will come to an end in the next year.
Please, go to : https://cometosea.us/albums/albums/DeLemmer/ to compare today’s photos with the ones taken earlier in this same location.
I am moored right in the heart of Lemmer now. On the “Korte Streek” across the store of the family of my aunt Sjaakje- de Vries-Schirm. All the traffic from the Ijselmeer to the lakes of Friesland passes by here. Tomorrow one of the family historians, who grew up in de Lemmer, Roelie Spanjaard-Visser is coming to visit me here. Her website is at http://www.spanvis.nl/index.html she has done a terrific job on the genealogy of our families as well the history of de Lemmer. In the afternoon I intend to push on inland to the Frisian cities of Heeg and Sneek.