Can I start a new trend?

 

Nordic walking is sooo 2009, right?

 

Why not join me in some Nostalgic Walking?

 

We have had some very nasty health issues in our family. The ones that make you see the concept of family in a whole different light.

The growth of a family can make it quite hard to really connect, so my sis and I started planning days together with just dad or just mom for some more one-on-two time (next to the big family days of course).

This weekend dad took us to the village where he was born and had lived in for 20 years, up to the point that he met my mom.

(I still cannot for the life of me understand why someone would go from the beautiful village of Nuenen – Van Gogh heritage! – to live in lodgings in a place called Ulft!. But that’s a whole different story.)

The whole day my dad couldn’t stop talking. All those wonderful wonderful stories he told! Even though it was raining the whole day, it was fantastic to see this village through his eyes (and reliving my memories as a 6 year old girl visiting granny and granddad…:)).

 

The window to my dad’s old room:

 

One of the stories my dad told me:

My father’s grandfather had known Vincent van Gogh (like many Nuenen children he would collect bird’s nests for Vincent to paint).
So of course when a classmate wanted to write a lecture about Vincent van Gogh, an interview with my great-grandfather was very welcome.

The interview went fine and my dad really enjoyed seeing how his old and sickened pa felt revived, bringing up all these memories.

At one point my father’s classmate asked something that made the whole room go silent.

“Is it true that Vincent was chased out of Nuenen by the pastor because he got a girl pregnant?”
Great-granddad answered: “Yes, I believe that that is true”.
“But”, Mr Classmate said, “Is it also true that the girl had actually gotten pregnant by the pastor himself”?

Great-granddad, as old and sickened as he was, got out of his chair, waved his giant cane around and rrroared “Get out of my house, you devilish boy!!!”
He chased the poor guy around for three whole blocks.

My dad lost a friend that day.

;)