This afternoon I had a nice chat with my ibu kost when she caught me taking pictures of her plants (she owns a house of bougenville, which won an award in 2001). From her lovely green garden upstairs we continued chatting in her living room. I think I could get lost easily in her house which is not too big, but has lots of rooms and stairs.
Then I found out that she has just found her relatives in The Netherlands after 60 years being separated! (thanks to internet). One family is visiting her next September and she is very thrilled to wait for that moment. I told her also about my own relatives who might be still in Holland until now. My Dad’s elder sister got married to a Dutch man about 64 years ago and they settled in Bandung. Dad has memories only about the times when he slept over in their house and played with their two little kids, he was also still a small child back then. He only remembers their first names (Hengky and Laura with their kids Johan and Rossy), no matter how hard I pressed him to recall their family name. They moved to Holland and because of the war they had lost contact until now.
Aunt Laura and Uncle Hengky must have been gone long time ago, but I am sure that their kids, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are still there somewhere. But how would I recognize any of them if one day our path crosses? How sad if I meet them somewhere and we think of each other as merely strangers, while in our veins runs the same blood. And for that reason, Holland is now the third country that I most want to visit, after Italy and Switzerland. Good thing that all of them are located in the same continent, uh?
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