How big can something small be

*click on the illustration above for the memorial page of Meindert Postma

How big can something small be

How big can something small be? A sneeze or is it more?

It is small and very fine.

For years it has been lying in a corner of the cupboard of an old lady. She wrote a note with it. Do not throw it away, only give it to the family!

But as the years go by, decades, how should it come into the family’s hands? Sometimes it goes by strange routes.

Searching for the past of my brother who died in 1945, I ended up at War Victims Deurne. There is a mister Schoutissen who gets his information from everywhere. The letter that I send to him leads him to the old lady.

And then, after some searching, the small fine thing was found with a story attached. The old lady was a young girl and my brother a young man. They apparently liked each other and this had to be confirmed by exchanging a lock of hair.

Shortly after, my brother lost his life in a mine explosion. But his lock of hair was kept to this day with the note attached.

And so on the day of his death, 67 years later, the small memento came into my possession through Mr. Schoutissen.

T.Hemrica-Postma.

29 May 2012

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