Holland in 1945 was in dire straits. For four years the Germans had occupied the country. In parts of the country, folks were literally starving to death; the necessities of life we take for granted, such as soap, were in short supply.The longing for soap by one Dutch woman led to a chance encounter between a 15-year-old schoolboy and an English Royal Marine. And that meeting led to a friendship spanning six decades.
Walt van den Boom of Bergen Op Zoom in the Netherlands tells the story this way.
"In October 1944 the Germans were thrown out of [our town]. Every month came new troops. My mother said, 'Walt, there are new English soldiers at the cloister [the home of monks before the war]. Look and see if you can find a soldier I could do the washing for. He will give the soap to me too.'
"It was getting dark; we were standing by the cloister when some guy said, 'Anybody speak English?'" Van den Boom replied in the affirmative. "I didn't tell him three words," the Dutch man laughs now.
Van den Boom has an excellent memory of the meeting of his mother and the English marine, Gibsons resident Tom Walton.
"I still see Tom sitting on the low chair saying to my mother, 'Excuse me, [the laundry] is very dirty.' And it was. Tom had just come by motorbike from France," his friend explained.
And that was the start of a lifetime friendship.
Walton became a treasured member of the family. And later when the Englishman was ordered to Germany, van den Boom's father was inconsolable.
"I remember my dad coming to say goodbye to Tom. He was really crying, saying, 'These kids could be killed.'"
The only thing the young van den Boom wanted from Walton was a Lugar pistol. For those of us who've never known the horror of war, it seems an odd request. But for the Dutch schoolboy it was a means to protect himself and his family.
Walton stayed in touch with his Dutch friends during the war. Soon he sent a letter to say he had fallen in love with a German girl. Knowing his Dutch friends aversion of anything German, Walton was sure the family would disown him. However, he reckoned wrong.
"You sit down and write to Tommy that if he loves this girl and he want to marry her, that is fine," was the instruction to van den Boom from his mother.
Walt says simply, "We were family."
In 1955 van den Boom married Toos (pronounced toes), and in 1956 he took her to London to meet his English friend.There the van den Booms promptly got lost. Walt laughs he was walking around London calling for his friend and his wife, Liesa. Wonder of wonders, Liesa heard his shouts.
Tom's car at the time was a typical wartime relic. "I used to put my head out the window and shout, 'honk, honk'. The trip to Portsmouth where the Waltons then lived was one the van den Booms never forgot.
Over the next few years, the friends lost touch. One day the van den Booms got a letter from Tom saying Liesa had died and he had married a woman named Helen. Prior to Liesa's death the Waltons had immigrated to Canada.
The friends began writing again.
In 1979 Tom and his new wife Helen went to Holland. By that time Toos and Walt had six children. "All these kids were crazy about Tom and Helen," Walt said.
In fact two of their three boys liked Canada so much when they came to visit that they decided to immigrate too.
One son, Bart, lives in Langley; another, Jos, lives in Chilliwack. The esteem they feel for Walton is evident. Bart's son is named Tommy in honour of his father's long-time friend.
Last year all the van den Booms came to Canada to celebrate VE Day. The parents and six siblings and the Canadian grandchildren rented a cabin at Roberts Creek. The van den Booms created a totem pole for the Waltons. Each segment of the creation honours a different part of the friendship. The totem pole occupies a place of honour in the Waltons' garden, a fitting tribute from a family whose name in English means "of the tree" - a token of a friendship still in progress.
"Just put underneath the story - to be continued," Walt said.
