More Holland

Circle around the "Grote Markt"
Isn't this amazing?
Like you are all going with us!

The tree you see, there is the street I lived during my teenage years.
The house is close to 400 years old by now. Four stories high with a business on the first floor, (not ours)and a high ceiling with a marble floor, which, yes I had to clean as a teenager. On the third floor was my bedroom. I used to hang out of the window often with my girlfriends, to watch the world go by, (the militaries) as the barracks were just around the corner, so-much-fun!
Sunday morning I could hear all the bells from the various churches, no way could you miss church after that. It was like "Come-to-church-a-good-place-to-be", kind of sound!

I write a lot about it in my diary, which I am translating at the request of Yvonne and my daughters through marriage, Jennifer and Lynne. By the time I am done I will have typed close to 600 pages. I have done 200 so far. I started Sept 2005.
You see, my mother passed away (same cancer I have) when I was 16 (1956). I had to quit school to take care of my father and the household. Seven children with two younger that me. There was no washing machine or dryer, no car to pick up groceries! I had to sew all my own clothes including my younger sibling's. Made my own jewelry as well, because I wanted to look "funky".

I did go to school in the evening,(my mother's wish before she died) where I took (and graduated) after three years with a business degree. Of course I had to do a lot of studying, which I did in the afternoon's. (I am still benefiting from that knowledge now!)