{A Heart of Gold - Great Memorial Day Story}

When KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, for their 75th Anniversary did have a special contest 'Bridging The World' for stories that could win a free ticket for the person and for the cause it was all about, we too wrote a story about the deaf children in Indonesia. On September 19, of 1995 we received a letter (will be visible below) with the listing of some twenty winners - not us... But one of the stories I found so touching that I like to share that with you here below:

A heart of gold

"I'd like to begin by introducing myself. My name is Frank. Last year I passed my high school exams, and now I'm doing my best to keep up at business college. My sis passed too, so my parents took us both on a trip to the States. That's where I got my idea for the 'Bridging the World' contest".

Nobody would deny that Frank Hulshoff, a 19-year-old Dutch student from Driebergen near Utrecht, has a heart of gold despite his chunky black leather biker's jacket and boots. His efforts enabled 64-year old Ruth Berryman, from Detroit, to visit the Dutch grave of her elder brother, Donald, fifty years after he was killed in action in the Netherlands one month before the end of World War II, aged 19.

And yet, Frank had only met Ruth once, when she served him in the bar of a Detroit hotel. They had got talking and when she heard he came from Holland, she told him about her brother buried there. After his return home, Frank went and laid flowers on the grave, and sent a photo to Ruth in Detroit. When he heard about 'Bridging the World', he wrote KLM the letter which won him the prize. He left for Detroit to bring the good news to Ruth personally. The immense war cemetery on the Margraten plateau, in the south of the Netherlands (in Limburg), is an impressive place. When they finally arrive at the white cross marking her brother's grave, tears came to Ruth's eyes. She sits on the ground at the side of the cross, regardless of the damp grass. "If you don't mind, I need to sit here a while. It's been fifty years..."  The Dutch TV team accompanying the couple stop their cameras and leave her in the privacy of her thoughts. What Ruth had told Frank that night in the bar was that she had been saving every penny for years to pay for a trip to the grave, but that, with herself and six daughters to provide for, she had never succeeded in saving enough. "To tell you the truth, that was what touched me most, the idea that somebody had to save to visit a grave!", the young student says in disbelief. "You save money to buy a new guitar or for your next vacation, not to visit a grave surely?" Ruth in turn was astounded that a young lad would do this for her, an unknown woman he had chanced to meet just once.

"Now I know where Donald lies, in the middle of this beautiful country, in these wonderful surroundings, I can accept the fact that he is so far from home. I chatted with a couple of the people who tend the grass of the field of honour. You know what they said? They consider it an honour to be allowed to work here. That really meant an awful lot to me".

After Pieter gave a presentation for the Rotary club in December of 2010 about his experiences as a teenager during WWII in Groessen, Gelderland in The Netherlands, he also did show the American war cemetery in Margraten (the one I showed in yesterday's blog) to show that Freedom is not for free.

When I was cleaning out my desk I did find an old KLM booklet and it had its page marked right on the page with this story. So I got an idea to search for Frank on the Internet. I did find him, at least the very same name, on Facebook! So I mailed him this message:

Please reply if you are THE Frank Hulshoff who won the KLM trip in 1995 with 'A heart of gold'...

Kindest regards from Georgia/USA

Next day I got his reply: Yes that would be me :-)

I do talk regularly to the daughter of Ruth Berryman. Ruth herself died a couple of years ago. Before that I had seen her a couple of times and eventually the family requested to be one of her pall bearers.

It remains a unique story.

My reply again:
Dear Frank,

It also shows that you do still possess a heart of gold! Just as a coincident my husband gave the program about... as explained above already.

Closing with warmest regards from a Dutch American who's very proud of men like you! Wishing you well in all your endeavours.

Franks reply:

Thanks for your nice mail. I appreciate it very much that you take the time to locate me on Facebook and that sums it up pretty well. It did stir a lot more of emotions at that time than I could have imagined. There happened so much special things around Ruth and me, but I don't like to withhold this from you:

A few years ago my parents were on vacation in California with friends. They go hiking somewhere in the desert and meet there on the trail a man and a woman. The man asked my father, 'So where are you from? " and my dad says Holland. To which the man says: Oh really, I have a nice story about a boy from Holland, and he begins to tell the story of Ruth and me!!!

He was a guest at the Hilton where Ruth worked behind the bar and she had told him that story. The chance of that happening is of course 0%. So this story has so many remarkable turns, such as you now, after 15 years, go through the trouble of finding me.

To make the story quite complete: I have adopted the grave of the brother of Ruth in Margraten.

Life is pretty damn amazing sometimes :-)

Greetings and all the best,

Frank

♥...

What a touching story
A Heart of Gold

Related links:
12½ jaar L1 - Amerikaanse president in Limburg | President George W. Bush visits Margraten on May, 8 in 2005. He did stay at the Château Hotel, St. Gerlach and was very complimentary towards the Staff. Proud of my Province of birth; Limburg!
President Honors and Commemorates Veterans in the Netherlands - Margraten, The Netherlands | From White House Archives May 8, 2005
Dutch Queen and Bush lead VE Day memorial