Wisdom I gain growing older!: Another very special person

Last week I introduced you to my FIL on what would have been his 95th birthday.

Today I want to introduce you to my most favourite man growing up on this, what would have been his 85th birthday. Way back on September 20, 1935 my Oma Winkel gave birth to identical twin boys - Gerard and John. Gerard, Gerry as everyone called him, is my Dad and John was my most favourite Uncle (I think just because he looked just like my dad)

This photo was taken on my parents 25th anniversary (I think). The one in the dark suit is my Uncle John and the one in the light suit is my dad.

My dad was always a very special person to me. We had a cool connection. My dad knew how to read me and whenever something was wrong with me, he just knew it. He was someone who was always there for me as my protector.

My dad was a very hard worker for our family. As I grew up, I always knew my dad as a drywaller, a mudder and taper. Back when I was very young my Dad was sent up to Houston B.C. to do some drywall work in the brand new mall that was being built there. He stayed in the Houston Hotel. As my dad was working there, he had fallen and injured himself. Even though he was injured he managed to drive himself home again. (I may not have to story 100% right but this is how I recall it as a child) At one point in my life as well, my Dad had injured his back and was in the hospital following surgery. It seemed like he was in there for days on end. In the end, he recovered and mainly only felt pains when the weather was cold.

My Dad was a jack of all trades. Like my Father in Law, my Dad also played the part of Sinterklaas in December.

Our church always had a Christmas banquet and Sinterklaas came to visit and give all the children attending a small gift. The little girl sitting with her back to us is my younger sister Angela.

My dad did not limit his Sinterklaas position to just the Christmas dinner. He was working in The Netherlands back in the 1980's and in this above picture he dressed up and visited a few homes of friends coming as Sinterklaas.

With time he progressed from being Sinterklaas to being Santa Clause for the daycare I worked at. Here he is with my Mom taking her turn to sit on his lap. He was so much fun.

Just a few pictures of my Dad being goofy. My dad knew how to have fun. My sisters blessed my Dad with 4 grandsons. Each of them had two sons. My younger sister lived down in the US so my Dad did not get to see Chris and Andrew as much as he would have liked to but they made a lot of effort to come up to Canada when they could and my parents would go to where they lived when they could. (They lived in many places, from Hawaii to California to Washington) It was always a delight for my Dad to have the "boys" around as he never had sons and now was his chance to have "sons"! Opa always took the time to build things with his grandsons and took an interest in the things they were doing.

I was married a little later in life so that meant my children were the youngest as all my nephews were now in their teens ranging from 12 - 17. On September 20, 1997 at 3:20 a.m. my husband and I were blessed with a beautiful son - Zachariah David! Born on Opa's 62nd birthday. I was so excited to call my Dad in those wee hours of the morning to announce to him that I have the greatest present of all for his birthday - A Grandson!

Opa could not wait to meet him, so a week after his birth he drove up to Houston BC where we were living and got to meet him for the first time. Zach and Opa were just the best of buddies. I have some priceless videos of Zach just after he learned to walk, walking all over our little apartment chatting on the phone with Opa. He would chat and chat and Opa would chat right back at him in the same language. They would hold long conversations and Zach would "show" Opa all sorts of things in his conversations.

When Zach was not quite two yet, I needed to be medi-vacked from Smithers to Vancouver. I was pregnant with twins at the time and at 35 weeks they decided it was time to try and make an appearance however the hospital up north could not handle a twin preemie birth so they sent me down to Vancouver. David was busy teaching and was not sure what to do with Zach so my parents offered to take him for as long as we needed them to. David drove Zach all the way down to the lower mainland and there he got to hang out with Opa. He had the time of his life! Opa taught him how to hammer nails. He had a string of nail gun nails and a huge stump and went at it. Zach was always "Zach-a-man" to Opa.

Zach loved it when Opa would come over. They would have heart to heart conversations and often you could see Opa and Zach "Pwaising de Yord" together. Zach would raise his hands to the sky like Opa and just call out "Pwaise de Yord!" Opa taught Zach a lot about Jesus and how to be a missionary in his own neighbourhood/school.

Little did Zach know, but there was someone else that looked just like Opa! Upon their first meeting he was very unsure about this man that looked almost like his Opa. He sounded like Opa, he laughed like Opa but Zach knew he was not Opa.

Each year on their birthday, Opa would come over and they would celebrate together. Never did a year go by, that Opa did not smash Zach's face into their shared cake.

Today, September 20 we will celebrate Zach and we will remember all the fun times we had with Opa over the years. I feel so fortunate that my kids at least had Opa in their lives long enough for them to remember him and have stories about him.

My Dad passed away July 15, 2006. Zach delivered the eulogy which was priceless. Naomi was going to sing a song but then later changed her mind.