Amsterdam

Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Latitude 52° 21' 0" N
September 22, 2011

Some days are just better than others and today is a good example. Way back in March or April, I was Skyping with my long time Dutch friend, Lomme Schokker. I let him know that we would be in The Netherlands on a cruise and that it would be great to connect with him, even if it were for just a day. For months this date has been penciled on the calendar. He’d meet us, he said, at the disembarkation point at 8:00 a.m. We exited the boat, walked into the port, and Lomme was waiting for us—our tour guide for the day. For me, it had been exactly 13 years to the week that I’d last seen him.

I first met Lomme and his then wife, Susan, in the early spring of 1981. Steve had just left for a year in Turkey. His Air Force friends who stayed in Plattsburgh were good to me, but it was nice to meet new, non-military, people.

Lomme was Dutch; Susan was from New York City. They were high school penpals who finally met, married and moved to the United States to study. They were at SUNY Plattsburgh for a few years—Susan to pick up her undergraduate degree and Lomme to get a Master’s.

By the Fall of 1981 I was integrated into their lives. Susan would call me up, ask me to come over to listen to a paper she was writing. “How does this sound?” she’d ask. She was never content with a pat answer and demanded my expertise as an English teacher to write the best she could.

I loved their apartment and it brought me back to my undergraduate years at SUNY Fredonia, and the life of a full time student. How nice it was to be part of that and to be part of their lives.

That Christmas, Lomme hosted his first St. Nicholas Party. He’d written poems for each of his guests as was the custom in The Netherlands. None of his guests knew what to do. His American friends just exchanged gifts. His anual St. Nicholas party was a tradition all of us looked forward to.

Over time, their friends became mine. It’s through them that I met Mary Centofani, now almost my sister in depth of friendship.

In the Spring of 1982 Steve was restationed to Plattsburgh Air Force Base—his year in Turkey over. He became their friend as well.

They finally graduated. Lomme ultimately moved to New Jersey to work at Rutgers, Susan to Montreal. And then Lomme, solo, back to The Netherlands. We visited him in 1986 where we met Ina, who would become his wife on Christmas Eve 1988.

Over the years we have seen each other intermittently and through all that time our friendship has endured the years. What a beautiful and precious gift that is.

And so it was that we had another reunion, albeit too short, in Amsterdam on the last full day of summer, September 22, 2011.

He had a battery of things for us to do. Glenda wanted to visit Rembrant’s house which gave Lomme and I a chance to catch up. We were content just to walk the magnificent streets of the Dutch capital, walking up and down canals, taking pictures from its bridges, lunching outrside in the warm, languid sunshine of the last day of summer. In the afternoon we took a one hour canal ride, enjoying wáter views of homes built before the Pilgrims arrived in the New World.

But our vist was too short. The Sun would wait for no one and, sadly, we returned to the ship. How nice it would have been to have more time with Lomme, to visit with Ina and their two children. Another time.

Promptly at 5:00 p.m. we sailed out of Amsterdam’s downtown harbor.

“Goodbye, Lomme,” I shouted into the wind.

“Thank you, dear friend—for a wonderful day and for a wonderful, thirty year friendship.”

There was an air of excitement for those on the 14th floor foredeck. We braced ourselves against the biting cold as the ship sailed past center city, into the industrial area of Amsterdam and then past flat, neaty manicured Dutch farmland—square fields dotted with homes, farms and cattle.

Twenty five kilometers later we slipped into the Nordjelli lock. Dutch lowland ingenuity against the sea. The pilot fitted the Norwegian Sun neatly into the lock where water rose to bring us on level with the sea. Massive gates locked us between the Nordzee canal and the North Sea.

An hour later, we slid out of the lock. We saw long, white stretches of beach with surfers riding the icy waves, enjoying the long light of a late summer’s day. Brr! Hardy souls with good wet suits!

By now more than two hours had passed. We were freezing from our prolonged stay on deck, watching this fun drama unfold. In front of us, facing west, the horizon was striated with dark purple/blue clouds, but at 7:44 p.m., the sun slid below the striation and sank, orange and hot, into the sea.

What a way to end a most perfect day!