I am the son and grandson of Dutch immigrants to Canada who arrived shortly after the end of the second world war. They took a “kist” across the Atlantic, a large crate containing their modest household possessions. Along with their kist, many Dutch immigrants brought their Reformed Christian tradition. This tradition, sometimes referred to as…
It was tobacco harvesting time and the days were long, so the Hovius family was in bed early. At 9 p.m. they were startled awake by a loud knocking. It was the driver for Keillor Construction. He told them there had been an accident in Dresden, where their father, Enne, and their oldest brother, Wiebrand,…
For me to say today that I am “indigenous” will raise a lot of eyebrows, particularly in Canada. That word has become very useful for correctly describing people who are native to North America – or, as the Oxford Dictionary puts it – inhabitants from before the arrival of colonists. It is now more than…
Matthijs Cupido was born in 1939 in Dordrecht, a city in South Holland, into a family of ten boys and one girl. After four of their children immigrated to Canada in the early 1950s, the parents followed in 1955 with the rest of the family, including Matth. Matth showed an unusual interest in art from…
Post-war immigrant Paul Boers built a hugely successful greenhouse construction company in the Niagara region, throughout Canada and overseas. As his son Arthur testifies to in this unsettling memoir, though, there is far more to this man’s story than business success; their father-son relationship suffered through years of painful failure. With every book Arthur Boers…
There were not many options on Sunday afternoons. We were not allowed to do homework. Even workaholic men like my father were not permitted to labor. There was, however, a lot of visiting. Sometimes an invitation was extended in the church parking lot. Other times my parents proposed a drive after lunch and we wandered…
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