Memories

Hilary was born in March 1992, so in five weeks from now, we hope to celebrate her 30th birthday. Mary will fly to Vancouver for a short visit (I go there in late May to afterwards drive our CRV back). The above photo was taken in late 1992 in my small "home office" which I had in our house in St. Thomas. Hilary started a new job a few weeks ago and works from her home office in Vancouver....

Two years later in July 1994, Mark joined us. He was born in Amsterdam and shortly afterwards we took this photo at the condo of my parents. Three generations of Nolle men. My Dad was 35 when I was born and they had two daughters then already, 9 and 11 years older then me. I only became a father at the age of 37 and was on my way to become 39 when Mark came along....

Work always brought me to all corners of the world. The photo above was taken in 2013 during my last visit to the small Argentinian town of Puerto Iguazu, where I worked with Claudio Salvador - sporting a Niagara College shirt - who was (and still is) a huge advocate of the local indigenous Guarani people. 

It was one of the very interesting development projects I was lucky to work in and the local community leader on the photo taught me humbleness and patience. Meetings in his community would always have long pauses during which they were listening to the spirits. Our western cultures have moved so far away from that kind of thinking over the centuries. This specific project had a focus on tourism in the area around the famous Iguazu Falls...

Time flies.....

Birthdays and more snow

Opa Vandenboom received his first birthday card even though his 92nd birthday is only 9 days from now on Feb 13. He appreciated the card very much. It was sent by Hilary and Shayd all the way from Vancouver. Opa Nolle would have celebrated his 102nd birthday on Feb 12. Opa and Oma Nolle were born in 1920, just after the first World War and 20 years before the second. Hopefully there will never be a third World War (even though there are days it looks like the human race has not learned anything from those previous man-made disasters...).

There are lots of family birthdays this month: Hanneke turned 75 on February 1 in her apartment in Soest, the Netherlands. In Sarnia there are a few birthdays in the Vandenboom gang....

A lot more snow came down the past few days. We have been shoveling the driveway several times each day during the past week. I think I will really never get used to living with four months of a white and cold winter wonderland. However, the YMCA opened again after the most recent provincial COVID lockdown, so Mary and I venture out again for our regular 1 kilometer swims in the pool.....