There are no family photographs, only memories. Memories of a five-year old imprisoned by Japanese soldiers. Memories of love, courage and most of all hope. Hope that there was a God who would walk through the valley of death, known as WWII, with her. And He did.

Friday, January 26, 2007

Between The Fences

There is now a guard standing at our gate--all day and all night. Maybe there are more soldiers around our property. It's hard to tell. I guess we are amongst the lucky families. Our house is very nice, so I don't mind being locked up and I'm with my family. I will miss the garden. I will miss going to Sunday School.

Are we going to run out of food? Maybe the guard will let us pick fruit from our trees. Yes, the jackfruit will feed us all.

Mammie did something very dangerous tonight. I think my brother helped her but I'm not sure. Our neighbors next door are Chinese. They are still free. It looks like the Japanese will leave them alone. They own a rijst pellerij (rice factory). Somehow they flattened out a 100-kilo-bag of rice (125lbs), dug a hole under our fence and left it there for Mammie to get whenever it was safe. Those big burlap bags make good pillow cases.

Mammie says our neighbors will give the children treats. Can you imagine the delight when she gave us bean bak pao? More than a treat for me.

7 comments:

Linda Watson said...

Very ineresting blog. Keep it up.

Linda

Rosemary said...

Fascinating! I look forward to every post.

The Gatekeeper said...

Thanks, Linda and DB, it's nice to get the encouragement. It keeps me going. I so want to write my parents' history and I'm grateful that we have blogs these days.

Unknown said...

Wonderful stories, gatekeeper. So many of us don't appreciate the freedom we are blessed with.

Unknown said...

Hi Gatekeeper, What is your mother's name? This is awesome that you can write down these memories before they are lost forever!

The Gatekeeper said...

Janey, my mom's name is Helaene but everyone calls her Laney. Hey, that's close to your name. Mmmmm.

Unknown said...

It is close! That's neat!!