In this piece of writing the goal was to write about someone that I did not know that well, then to think of a theme and create an interview to answer any questions. This was then imputed into the piece below to encapsulate the whole conversation and create a piece of writing that painted a picture of the person. I call this a life changing piece of writing because I have focused on the idea of overcoming the past by focusing on the present and future. I interviewed my choir’s conductor because I had recently started and did not know him well, through the interview I now am good friends and I learn a lot from him. Though I had many questions written he told a story and I had the privilege to listen. Through my writing I was able to input the answers and show who Heijdens is. I was able to give context and give a compelling story. Though it was hard to give the reader the full effect of his voice, I got lost in his stories as they were awe inspiring. My interview had many sides so I had to go with one to have a point in my writing. From this assignment I learned quite a bit about writing and how to fit the puzzle together.
On a bright spring evening sitting at a table in a church was an elderly man who was preparing for the choir practice. The Conductor sat there and ate his food fast going through a piece of music. The Conductor’s name was Rudolf Heijdens. As he looked simple, there was a deeper story that was in his eyes. The eyes were young, but showed something hard to describe. He took a few moments to think as a tear came to his eye. There was hesitation as the painful memories and flashbacks were more than real. It was important that the story be told, he told it in a real way from the perspective of an innocent child.
As a child the realities of war had just hit as Rotterdam, Holland was bombarded in twenty minutes flat. The world changed. The land that the child lived in was now Nazi German occupied and life took a down turn for the worst. All that remained was a mother at home with many siblings and two grandparents. Where was father in all of this? It was hard without father as he was across the pond as a seaman in Canada. He knew nothing about this as there was no communication.
In a German occupied country, children were not forced into Hitler youth but “only the traitors joined”. Heijdens remained loyal but life would get hard after the Germans realized that the Dutch were not brothers. Food came with rationing stamps and a loaf of bread a week, for a family with many hungry children. Wood became a golden commodity as parks were stripped of all plants and left bare to show no life. Ammunition often times fell from the sky, the children would play with it, though it burned and glowed a light of darkness. The children just shrugged off fear as fear would kill.
Ponds were stripped of fish as wasted grenades were thrown into the water to make the fish float to the surface to be fished and eaten. Through the middle of the war life went for a down turn as radios were band and people would have to throw them out the window to be destroyed, if not prison camp would be the life that one would face. In school the German inspectors from next door came to school and taught German, even though the children did not learn. After the schools closed and the war intensified. As the shadows held the children a little boy stepped out and continued on in life playing the music of hope through a small homemade crystal radio (the BBC).
The music kept playing as the underground brought the small family a suitcase of food weekly. All that the family would need the family got, from food to soap. Life went on like this for a couple years. The person was never found and no one knew who it was it was not till the end of the war that they found out that the underground was supplying food to them as their father was out at sea. When the boy was young and the war was growing old, his aunt died leaving a reed organ. This was the music in the time of war as the realities could be forgotten while the organ was played. As Heijdens’ mother was an organist the boy learned the organ at his young age, changing the future. Heijdens originally wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father and follow the stars while at sea, but music was finally reality.
The end of the war was near and when the Canadians came it was a sure thing because the van that drove by was nothing but German and looked nothing European, Canada was there. Germany was set back, life was renewed. Still the cleanup and setbacks were there with building stripped bare, cities flat and desert like life rebounded. In 1950 Rudolf Heijdens immigrated to Canada, life would be better but still full of hardships as people counted the Dutch as nothing. Life started in Canada in a pipe factory for organs, the job only lasted so long as he was frowned upon by many because of the nationality he was born into.
Life continued as music became his calling, Heijdens had six organ jobs at six different churches over more than six decades. Overcoming the past was hard as people looked down on a boy trying to live life to the fullest. The music in time of war played and made life continue and flourish as he had his own family to raise. There was a complex story behind a simple conductor who showed signs of age. It was the eyes that told the story as it was one question that got the answer that answers one hundred questions. Music was all that was needed to keep life on its toes.
Picture from:
Caleb's ePortfolio 