The village of Zuidwending is missing a loyal guest now that Anja has passed away…

Sadly, I wont be there in person to remember the life of my Oma, but i will be thinking of my family and remembering the many fond memories i have with her.
I was lucky to spend most of my childhood living next door to my Oma. This meant that growing up my siblings and i all got to spend a lot of time with Oma (and Opa).
Weekly Sunday dinners is where we helped Oma in the kitchen and i got to wear my special apron. My job was helping to make the white sauce for the cauliflower and to this day whenever i make white sauce i think of my Oma and how she would tell me to “stir stir stir”. We would have running races around the house, swing on the washing line and play billiards. Of course, one of the best bits about visiting Oma was her lolly tray. She would collect our lolly wrappers, putting them in her pocket, saying she was saving them. It wasn’t until many years later (i’m sure that i was a teenager), that we were in her room and i asked to see the collection of wrappers. After all these years of collecting them, i envisioned a huge box full of lolly wrappers! I was shocked when she laughed and proceeded to tell me that she actually threw them away after we left each night. It was her little way of making sure the wrappers made it to the bin.
During the school holidays Sara and i would get to sleep over at Oma’s house. Our days were spent learning to embroider, walking by the river, eating jam donuts and sprinkle sandwiches, playing Candy Land and writing stories in books that Oma kept all those years. At night i would fall asleep listening to the cuckoo clock.
Oma held onto quite a few things of mine (just not the lolly wrappers) and i was lucky enough to be given these back a few years ago. The books i used to draw in, newspaper articles, my pottery project that i did in grade 5, embroidery and the apron i used to wear whilst cooking with her. I’m glad that i have these special items to remember my Oma by and that i can show them to my children and share the stories about her with them.
Love Rebecca