Chelly Overdijkink-Abram |
25-01-2014 |
I never knew my grandparents. Their names were Moses and Rebecca Abram-de Paauw, and Nathan and Rachel Berkelo-van Coevorden. My parents also lost a brother and two sisters. They got married straight after the war because they had nothing left.
Their family grew again. Today they have 3 children, 6 grandchildren, and now also 3 great-grandchildren. Even so, the war has always remained the central thread running though my life.
As a small child I had no grandparents, but that didn’t mean much to me back then. It was only when I had children of my own that I realized what I had missed. If I enthusiastically told my mother something about my children or grandchildren, she always replied: “Oh my child, I never had that, and I could never tell them”.
All of this has had a huge impact on my life. I’ll be happy when the Names Monument is built. I’ll be able to touch the names of my grandparents, because I’ve missed them so much.
Chelly Overdijkink-Abram
Back to Overview