Wim (82) recovers after losing his wife and home: ‘Returning to Kranenburg gives peace’ | The best of Stentor

At the end of February, fate unequivocally struck Wim Vlaanderen. Shortly after the death of his wife Anneke from cancer, the Zwolle native lost his home due to a fire. We spoke shortly after at the Van der Valk hotel, his first reception address. He had lost almost everything, but for this the loss of his wife hit the fire less hard, Flanders said at the time. “I mostly feel resignation, I accept fate. It’s just dust.”

The former administrator lived for decades in Kranenburg, the place he helped shape as an administrator and from that position a familiar face for many Zwolle residents. “I miss it a lot, I go there regularly for walking,” says Van Vlaanderen. He is currently in the Havezate health center in Holtenbroek, a place he didn’t like at first. Living in ‘an apartment’ is in itself a punishment for the natural person in question.

This was offered to me, but I declined. I had in mind Bronbeek (estate and home for ex soldiers in Arnhem, ed). Only people who have been on a mission can live there, they are waiting for you. I’m a veteran, I served in New Guinea, I’ve been there before. I sat there for a while, eight stars, you will be served at your beck and call. There you have a tribal and a reading table. You don’t read at the normal table and you don’t talk at the reading table.

“I wanted to stay there until my house is ready, but I fell through the rules and now I’m here,” he says in his room overlooking the mosque. “I wasn’t too happy about it at first, but it doesn’t really bother you.” A large TV, an organ and a map of New Guinea dominate the room. “Our last colony, I served there as a doctor. I forgot a lot, but as you get older things come back. And I play the organ a lot, which relaxes me, and I have no neighbors.”

He never wakes up from the fire, he says, no matter how impressive it made. That Sunday, at about half past five in the afternoon, the hikers literally rang the bell of the old staff house in Kranenburg. His chimney was smoking. “I thought: It’s just smoke from the chimney, but before you know it, the firefighters are at my house.” Through a thatched roof it went terribly fast. ,,It burned like a torch”, saw Flanders.

The prospect of returning to his beloved Kranenburg brings peace. “It will take a long time, but the uncertainty is gone. They will start construction in February, lack of contractors and materials. The walls are shored up. The extension has no damage, but it needs to be evacuated, because they will upgrade everything. Now my stuff is in various places, a garage, the garden shed. I have received many things, in this sense I have also benefited a lot from my brothers in Freemasonry,” Flanders said.

The Zwolle resident was survived by many family members, including his wife, son and grandson. Between nose and lips he tells us that his brother of the week has passed away. “I bought seven graves in Kranenburg, the last one is for me,” says the Amsterdammer native, who developed his love for cemeteries in the Watergraafsmeer. “We always walked on De Nieuwe Ooster. There are no stray dogs there, I’m also strongly against it,” says Flanders, who is immersed in cemeteries, which has given Kranenburg the green face of hers with an arboretum, a wooded garden.

Talking about his passion seems to be Flanders’ way of dealing with major setbacks. His funeral appeal even earned him an award from the German Funeral Museum in 2019. As a tireless member of the national foundation De Terebinth, which is committed to this piece of heritage, he led German delegations to special places in the Netherlands.

It is currently unclear when Flanders will return to their familiar place.

Check out the footage of the devastating fire below: