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Willem Van Calsem and Nelly Van Calsem-Temper
ars
Couples? life together spans two continents
BY JACQUI COCHRAN
Bay St. Louis residents Willem and Nelly Van Calsem marked the 60th anniversary of their wedding yesterday, to the toasts and applause of family and friends.
The Van Calsems traveled many roads to reach that day of celebration; roads of struggle and roads of triumph.
Natives of Holland with family ancestory dating back to
1538, Willem Fredrick Van Calsem of WTormerveer lived 20 minutes by bicycle from Nelly Temper of Zaandam.
Mr. Van Calsem described how one evening he rode to attend a dance in Zaandam and there he met'Nelly.
But, because he was from another town, some of the local boys were suspicious of this stranger speaking with the girls.
?A group of boys followed me when I walked Nelly home after the dance. They followed me until I left the town to return to my home.?
Mr. Van Calsem said even though the boys appeared threatening, he did not allow them to scare him away.
He and his wife courted for three years prior to their marriage on September 7, 1931. ^married, Mrs. Van Calsem moved to her husband?s hometown, where he ran a weekly newspaper and print shop which his father had purchased in 1895.
The newspaper was called De Zaanstreek, which roughly translates to ?the area of the Zaan Channel.?
?Everything in Holland is either built in the water or on the water,? Mr. Van Calsem said.
The newspaper office was located in a central part of Wor-merveer along the Zaan channel, which wound past a flower factory to the north and a chocolate factory to the south.
World War II changed the lives of many people, the Van Calsems commented, for it was a time of much sorrow.
Mr. Van Calsem said the Germans occupied Holland for five years. The newspaper was closed down and everything of value within the country was stolen.
Wormerveer was bombarded from the air by the Allied Forces. One night a bomb hit the front of the Van Calsem home and a son wras killed.
?Following the war,? Mr. Van Calsem stated, ?many things had changed for us, so we sold the newspaper in 1948 and left for America to begin a new life.? Mrs! Van Calsem said things were^hard, leaving her home and 'Country. ?But where my husband goes, I go.?
T^Van Calsems traveled to Dovef^England, by ferry boat and-^en by train to London.
^j^ook the three children sigh$$eing while we waited for the ifvne to board the ship to America.?
It was upon the Queen Mary that the Van Calsem family sailed for 4V4 days across the Atlantic Ocean for New York.
?It stormed,? Mr. Van Calsem said. ?The boat would ride high up on a wave and then drop, boom.?
Mrs. Van Calsem added that the trip was terrifying, causing her to think they were going to die at sea.
60 YEARS?Page 5A