In the 1950s, CIOS student Peter Johannes van Riemsdijk played badminton at the local badminton club in Haarlem. During the training sessions he saw a very ‘little little girl’ who could also handle a feather and a badminton racket quite well.
She – Klaartje Winkler Prins (descendant of encyclopedia man Anthony and poet and painter Jacob Winkler Prins) – played a few fields away. Slowly but surely, Peter secretly moved Johannes up a space so that he eventually came to play with her and they became a skilled mixed doubles player.
The mixed badminton doubles ultimately resulted in a 65th wedding anniversary, which was celebrated last weekend.
Peter Johannes (87) and Klaartje (89) moved from Brabant to De Doorsnee in Nieuwe Pekela after the turn of the century. They were looking for peace and space and had an example of their daughter who lives in Finsterwolde.
Peter Johannes started his career as a sports teacher after the CIOS, but soon started studying architecture.
For example, he ran an architectural firm for 45 years, which designed hundreds of homes and buildings at home and abroad.
Artist Klaartje painted hundreds of watercolors in her life, mainly of the Biesbosch nature reserve, where she spent hours and hours.
During the marriage they had a son and a daughter and three grandchildren. They now live together in a sheltered home at the Molenhof in Oude Pekela. Health is sometimes a bit fragile, but the happiness of love is no less after 65 years.
Last Saturday, Mayor Jaap Kuin came to the party with family, acquaintances and friends at Moeke Breughel at the Winschoter Oostereinde. It was a festive fun with a snack, a drink, many photo opportunities and a loving dance between Klaartje and her granddaughter. A proud husband and grandfather who saw that it was right.
