A Letter about the Flood of 1953

It is through the Lord’s mercy that we are still in a fair measure of health, we whom the Lord has spared through the disaster of February 1 (70 years ago—Ed.). I am amazed from moment to moment that I do not spend my days and nights in rebellion against the Most High. I will now endeavor, with the Lord’s help, to inform you as to what has happened to us.

As usual, we arose Sunday morning at 7:30 and quickly dressed ourselves; we were alarmed since the water was already in the barn which is attached to our house. I could not open the door because of the terrific pressure of the water. We had to go to the attic for safety till about one o’clock. Thus far it was well, but then the flood really came. Three o’clock was to be high tide, and it is indescribable with how much force the water started to rise. At two o’clock the north wall cracked in and at three o’clock the south wall; then, suddenly, the attic got loose and there we floated. Then the roof crashed in, and the eight of us bobbed for about three hours on the attic, which is indescribable. About six o’clock we got into a mass of wreckage near Jan Van Klinken on the Rampaarsendyk between Nieuwerkerk and Oosterland, formerly the farm of Vander Braal.

We could no longer control the attic to keep the wreckage off of it. Suddenly, we were parted, and I myself was twice under water. Yet, the Lord had no desire in my death or destruction as yet so that with the help of the Lord I managed to get on the wreckage and a piece of a barn. Then, oh beloved, my son Cornelius and I did see the most painful thing happen, without our being able to extend the least help. Our dearly beloved wife, age forty-nine, the children’s tender mother, and our dearly beloved children: Nicholas (thirteen years old), Jacomina (twelve years old), Marinus Jacob (ten years old), Jacoba (three years old), and our dearly beloved sister (forty-eight years old)—were drowned!

It cannot be expressed in words how that bond was broken in one moment in the waves. We would have been united for twenty-five years next April 20, and thus to have to part with my beloved wife, brothers, and sisters. Oh, beloved, had not the preserving hand of the Most High been stretched out over me, I would have jumped in myself. Never, never can that be expressed; it has to be experienced first, but it cannot be expressed in words. We can read of it in Psalm 73:12&13 (Dutch version) and Psalter 203.

Whom have I, Lord, in heaven but Thee

To whom my thoughts aspire?

And, having Thee, on earth is nought

That I can yet desire.

Tho’ flesh and heart should faint and fail,

The Lord will ever be

The strength and portion of my heart,

My God eternally.

That is now my comfort in all my grief and sorrow. We had done what we could, but the Lord did not stop, and then human help falls short. My son got to the rear of the barn, and the sons of Jan Van Klinken pulled him with ropes on to the attic, and on the other side I got on through a window in the roof.

Oh, beloved, at that time I lay on the attic in wonder and adoration that the Lord would look down in mercy upon such an unworthy sinner, one who has forfeited everything so that I had to cry out, “What have these sheep done?” I have done that which is evil in Thy sight. Oh, how I was humbled under the powerful hand of the Lord so that I had to cry out, “What are Thy purposes yet with such an unworthy one?” Oh, I was favored to groan, for I did not have words enough.

By the following noon the water had gone down, and the ground around that farm house became dry. I found our dearly beloved son, and in the afternoon our beloved daughter, whom I myself have buried on the dyke. Here my heart breaks and tears again as I write this. Had not the Lord upheld me with those children in my arms, I would have jumped in, too. “Thy people’s strength is all from Thee; blest be Thy name eternally.”

Oh, beloved, I can only stammer of it. I cannot express it all in words, yet I have been favored to taste the help of the Lord which cannot be explained in words; it has to be experienced. We may talk about it, but it has to become experience, and I marvel from moment to moment that I live not in open rebellion, in contrast with so many others who in despair jumped into the water.

At Nieuwerkerk there are more than two hundred houses totally destroyed, and more than two hundred people are drowned. On Schouwen and Duiveland there are eighteen gaps in the dykes, and there the water flows back and forth four times in a day, taking everything with it that was not held together well.

We four are yet together in the day of grace. I, my son John (twenty-three years old), Janna (twenty years old), and Cornelius (sixteen years old). John and Janna were at Bruinisse and, happily, were saved. In October 1942, Marinus Jacob died being eight years old. On January 31, 1944, Jacob (thirteen years old) died just before the evacuation of the war. I have hope for Jacob that he has landed in the realms of everlasting bliss.

Receive the kindest love from me and my children who are in mourning and grief. Up till now we have not yet found our beloved wife and mother, neither Nicholas, Jacoba, nor my sister.

—Goes, February 24, 1953

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