Maria and Josef

Sweden, August 1999, midnight. A phone call from Holland which ended my 17 years of marriage.

Sweden, 5 days later, Hotel Erikslund near Helsingborg. Me not being the most happiest person in the world and on my way to Holland.
I sat there in the lobby with my big white dog Invandra. I wasn’t up to nice chats with other people, if I was even aware of them.

Half an hour before when I parked the car, there was another car next to me, also a Volvo but with a German number plate. Two very kind people were the owners. They looked at the dog and my packed old Volvo 245 and asked me if I was moving. “Yes” I replied but did not feel the need to explain why.

These two nice people walked by and asked me if the telephone in the corridor was working. They could not get through to their daughter. I didn’t know so advised them to contact the reception desk.
Soon they walked by again, told me they finally talked to their daughter. I nodded.
But the lady did not give up. In Swedish she said “You don’t look well. There is something wrong, isn’t it?”
This caused again tears and I couldn’t help it hearing myself telling a little bit of my story.
She sat next to me, holding my hand, showing so much sympathy.
“Please join us for dinner” she said. “That will do you more good than sitting here on your own. And please, let me introduce ourselves to you. My husbands name is Josef and I am, honestly, Maria”

This truly made me smile. I spent part of the evening with them and we met again the next morning for breakfast. They were so very nice, so compassionate. Balsam for my wounded soul. We exchanged telephone numbers and they kept in touch.

But after a while we lost contact. It took a year or so before Maria called me again.
They had moved from Germany to Sweden. Not long after that I received a lovely present per post. Maria is a sculptress and sent me 3 beautiful stone penguins for the garden. I adored them and thanked Maria for the gift.

But as it goes in life, we lost contact again until 4 years ago. Maria told me they had moved back to Germany. The occasional phone calls and than my life changed. I met Tjep, we moved house, changed address and telephone numbers and also Maria and Josef could not be contacted anymore.

Saturday evening March 20 – 2010. A call on my mobile. I hurried downstairs to answer but was too late. Though a few minutes later it rang again: “Hej Ike, hur mår du?” (Hi Ike, how are you?) I replied that I was doing well and “how are you Ann Marie? (another Swedish friend, same voice). “No, I am not Ann Marie, it is Maria!!”

Maria……… all of a sudden I was talking again to Maria!! Many memories returned and tumbled round and round. Tjep looked at me and was puzzled. His wife was all of a sudden talking in a language he doesn’t understand, full of joy with a huge, huge smile!
Maria and I talked and talked. She told me that she has been looking for me on the Internet for many, many weeks. She finally found an I. Roelfsema, called them but it turned out to be an Irene Roelfsema. Irene’s boyfriend Arend however, was extremely helpful and browsed the internet until he found contact details.
Thank you Arend, you hardly realize how happy you made me!!

After the call (and yes, we do keep in touch, mailing, calling.....) I couldn’t stop telling Tjep about Maria and Josef. How we met, what they meant to me and much more. One big smile all night long. Wonderful Tjep listened patiently.
He is now very curious to meet them and we will on our planned trip to Sweden in September. So much joy in advance!!

Miracles, our dear readers, still exist. Angles still live amongst us. Maria and Josef.