Crisje, I will give you a thousand guilders for your secret
For Crisje’s boys and for hundreds of people there is now the chance to earn money.
They can go into the woods to pick bilberries, a job for young and old and, above all, a good wage given by Our Lord to them, which comes back each year.
In addition, it is for many people the only possibility of escaping their miseries for a change.
Mother Nature is good, kind, and loving and considerate conscious, but you have to pick the berries yourself from the bushes, and the boys can do that.
Bernard has worked out that they will certainly manage three guilders today and by the end of the week that will be an extra week’s wages and father doesn’t have to do anything for it.
Now that they have holidays, they go to the woods as early as six o’clock in the morning.
They are ready to leave.
Bernard has a look outside to see what the weather is like.
And is startled by what he sees.
“Mother, come and look, there is a dirty man walking in our garden.”
Crisje looks.
Is that not Jan Kniep?
Bernard thinks that he looks like one of the black bandits.
Just look at that black hat, then you will immediately know.
Crisje looks, and yes, it is Jan, but wasn’t he in the Dutch East Indies?
“Good grief, Jan, do come in.”
Bernard cannot understand it, what does this mean?
Jeus doesn’t know what is the matter.
“It is a pity Hendrik has just left.
Just come in, Jan.”
And do the boys not wish to say good morning to Jan?
That is not so easy; they first want to take a look at the brown peril.
Bernard wants nothing to do with him.
Is that a friend of mother’s?
No strangers must come into this house.
However, wasting time costs money, the boys leave.
“What does that brown monster want in our house, Johan?
If he hasn’t left by this evening, I will throw him out.”
Johan asks:
“Are you the boss at home then, Bernard?”
“Of course not, but I don’t want any strangers in our house.”
So Bernard has his own thoughts and Johan doesn’t understand him.
He already feels that now, if strangers come into the house, he will have lost his freedom.
He will think about it.
They go into the woods, dragging their feet.
They know exactly where the biggest bilberries can be found.
And it is a long way from home, in the vicinity of the Hunzeleberg.
It is true, last year Johan and Bernard earned a tidy sum.
Jeus didn’t really try, but he now also knows all about it.
They are now enjoying themselves.
They pull the berries from the bushes, you have to see for yourself to understand how quickly they can do it.
Then the wonderful moment arrives, the quarter of an hour rest for sandwiches and coffee.
It is so lovely to lie on your back in the middle of the woods even for just a while, it is as if you have wings and the chirping of the birds gives you a feeling of well-being.
But come on, boys, the bucket must be full; a day is nothing.
You can really thank Our Lord for this, Crisje feels, the boys think differently about it, you have to slave hard enough for it.
“How did you get here so suddenly, Jan?”
Crisje now hears the story of her childhood friend, Jan Kniep.
He came straight to Holland, because he was extremely homesick.
Jan really came back here to die.
He cannot speak any dialect anymore, Crisje notices, but he still understands it.
Jan went to the Dutch East Indies as a colonial, married there and had children, but now that they are grown-up they no longer need him.
Then, one night, he was told:
“Just go back, Jan.
Go back, don’t stay here any longer.”
So then, he left.
The first thing which he asked when he arrived was if Crisje was still alive.
“Yes, she lives over there.”
Crisje knows Jan’s family.
She says already:
“If they do not want to have you, Jan, you come back, then Hendrik and you can make a bed in the attic.”
“And the children, Crisje?”
“Do the children have any say in it then, Jan?”
“I will do my best not to put you to too much trouble, Crisje.”
“We must help each other, Jan.”
Crisje loves this life; she was a good friend of Jan.
Tall Hendrik will be surprised.
They used to live near each other and Jan was a good person.
Hendrik also liked him a lot.
He has been away for some thirty years, and yet, did not know any wealth there.
He was a hard worker.
They talk to each other the whole day.
The few guilders which Jan brought do not mean much.
His family there will be strangely surprised.
Crisje sees something on Jan’s neck, which doesn’t look good at all.
A swelling with a dirty red edge, which tells her everything, and of which she envisages what troubles she could be faced with.
But that doesn’t matter to her.
Around twelve noon Jan goes to visit his family.
When he puts out his hands in a pleased and happy way, they know a while later that he cuts a figure just like aunt Trui’s cockerel, and in addition even thinner than a rake, it is jokingly suggested that he is not even good enough to make soup from.
They therefore get rid of him quickly.
The good Jan feels rotten, but there is still a Crisje along with her Hendrik, his friends will not let him down.
An hour later, Jan is back sitting in the kitchen with Crisje.
“I thought so, Jan.
They don’t want you there, but that isn’t so bad, as long as you know.
Will you stop that crying now, Jan?”
“Yes, Crisje, but it is so awful, it gave me such a shock.
I hadn’t expected that from my brothers.”
“That is as simple as anything, Jan.
They want money.
And, understand me properly, they have worries enough.
But they are in and out of the church constantly.”
Jan knows that as well now, but it was a dirty blow to his life.
Father and mother would never have been able to imagine that, would they?
They would turn in their graves.
Crisje knows they were good people.
Jan is crying, he doesn’t stop, and he has been paralysed.
He didn’t think that the people, his own family at that, could be so cruel.
He has devoted his life to so many people, and now this.
Now your own family kicks you out the door, he can’t fathom it and continues to cry; it has hurt him so much.
No, Jan, they do not need you there, especially not when they saw that you had such a dirty thing on your neck.
Goodbye, Jan.
We will see you sometime.
Crisje understands everything, but there they don’t want to understand anything and that is also very human, but she will not leave her friend alone.
“If you hadn’t been such a good person, Jan, then I wouldn’t have known you either.
Now could you stop that crying?
Our Lord knows very well what you did for HIM.
And you were always ready to help people, weren’t you?”
“Yes, Crisje!”
The boys come home with a bucket full of berries.
Is that man still there?
Really and truly, father will soon come, Bernard thinks, and then that man will leave.
Aren’t they big boys, Jan?
Crisje throws her arms around the boys, they have done their best.
Then the first thing they ask is:
“Is he staying here, mother?”
“I will first have to talk to father about it, Bernard.”
“Where will he sleep, mother?”
“If it is necessary, Bernard, we will fix something.”
Bernard does not accept that lying down.
Having strange men in the house is nothing.
They will keep too close a watch on him and he will lose his freedom.
Johan and Jeus want to have a talk with the man.
Jan tells about the Dutch East Indies, about the jungle and Batavia, according to Johan he is right.
He has learned a lot about it at school.
But do they have to work for such an odd person?
Would they have to work for such an ape?
Because he is certainly that!
Why does that man not go to his own family, Bernard thinks.
Is mother completely mad?
Jeus joins in the conversation by asking Jan: “Where are the Dutch East Indies?”
“Then you first go by boat, Jeus, and that takes weeks before you get there.
It is that far away.”
“With one of those really big ships, Jan?”
“Yes, Jeus.”
“Are there many people on it, Jan?”
“Certainly, at least a thousand.”
“Where did you learn to talk like that?
That isn’t dialect, is it, Jan?”
“No, Jeus, that is High Dutch.”
“Can you no longer speak the dialect then?”
“I have forgotten it a bit, Jeus, but it will come back.”
“It had better”, Bernard interrupts, and Jan can make do with that.
Jan has to laugh about it.
He already knows that Bernard has his own character and he knows what to do with it.
Jan has seen and learned an awful lot in the world.
Jeus asks again:
“Do they not have a winter there, Jan?”
“No, Jeus.”
“Then I wouldn’t like to be there either.
I want to skate.
But did you have fun there, Jan?”
“Now, I have to say, Jeus, life is hard there.
You do not get anything as a gift.”
“What is that, ‘gift’, Jan?”
“That means, Jeus, that you have to work hard for everything there.”
Bernard retorts “Don’t we have to work hard here then?” this makes Jan laugh again, he rather likes Bernard.
Crisje smiles and winks at Bernard.
Jeus and Johan want to know all about Jan.
Which brings about Bernard’s warning:
“Why do you want to know all about that guy, soon we won’t be able to get rid of him.”
Jan has to laugh at the apt words of Bernard.
That child is fighting for the household.
Then suddenly Tall Hendrik is standing in the kitchen.
Bernard wants to see what father thinks about it.
But Hendrik screams even louder than Crisje did, Bernard hears and he cannot understand it.
“What are you telling me now.
Are you back, Jan?”
“Yes, Hendrik.”
Now Tall Hendrik gets to hear his story.
Afterwards he says: “Come, Jan, we will fix up something upstairs.”
The boys know now.
They look and see how father and Jan do that and they know that a lodger has been added, an old baboon at that.
A while later they see father, mother and Jan having a drink together, now nothing more can be changed.
They see a big person crying like a small child, and that means something to them.
After dinner they have a lovely seat together in the front garden and Jan tells his stories.
The boys wander about here and there.
Jan is speaking.
“I swear to you, Hendrik, I will not put a foot over that threshold again.
I would rather die.”
When Jan is talking, Crisje sees that that tumour on his neck is talking as well.
That thing already has something to say.
Now that Tall Hendrik wants to know what it is, Crisje takes over and her Hendrik understands that he must now be quiet about it.
But when they are all asleep, Tall Hendrik gets to hear it from her.
Yes, Hendrik, that is a dirty tumour.
That will lead us to terrible cancer.
“But, Crisje, you know, I like Jan a lot.
What do you think about the children?
Is that not dangerous?”
“That is not something dangerous, Hendrik.
And it is not at that stage yet.”
“But if that thing bursts, then what, Cris?”
“Then we will see, Hendrik.
And everything, Hendrik, which we do out of love, you cannot get any misery from that.”
“That’s true, Crisje.”
Tall Hendrik resigns himself to it, he takes Crisje’s lead.
Friendship exists for them.
They haven’t forgotten their friend yet.
Jan is here and will stay here.
Jan is willing and able to work.
The following morning Jan is in the woods with the boys.
The whole neighbourhood now knows the story of Jan Kniep.
There is gossiping, it is talked about as a passing scandal, but then this is also part of everyday life, and it is soon forgotten.
Jan’s way of ignoring the gossip is by silence.
As a result of his warm personality, he wins the boys over.
They get to know him one by one.
Within three weeks, Jan is already indispensable.
The boys notice that Jan is a Jack of all trades.
He makes sure there is firewood, has become Crisje’s first aid and the boys all like him.
Now the children of Jan’s family hear from Bernard:
“You would want to have him back now, wouldn’t you?
But you cannot buy him from us for all the money in the world, as long as you know that.”
Now listen, it is Bernard saying this.
He teases these children, they don’t understand, Bernard feels it now, what a gem of a person their family has thrown out onto the street, Jan is so good and what a friend he is for Crisje’s boys.
They have never had it so good.
The brown monster is no longer a monster, Jan has become part of the Grintweg.
The boys hold him in high respect.
Bernard now says:
“If we didn’t have him, nothing would become of us, what would we do then?”
Slowly but surely, Jan grows towards the white race (see article ‘There are no races’ on rulof.org) again.
He has captured all these hearts.
He has become their eldest brother.
And they learn many things from him.
You should see Jan eating and drinking.
He always enjoys it, even if you are not hungry and you see Jan eating, you get an appetite just like that.
Bernard knows Jan has no money, but that doesn’t mean anything.
Jan is never tired, nothing is too much for him, he says that every day he feels as happy as a king, but then one who lives in paradise, because kings often have worries.
Here people have reached unity through a sacred friendship.
However, when that existed, friendship became universal love, because you can see and experience that.
According to Bernard, the ground on which Jan walks is now too hard for him.
You should hear Bernard when he discusses daily matters with Jan.
Good heavens, Crisje thinks, Bernard is such a good boy and a good thinker.
Indeed, in a different way from Jeus, but Bernard knows life and Jan eats tasty apples and delicious apricots from Bernard, and with the feeling that they are from Our Lord!
Because Jan is so good and so sensitive, he can understand everything just like that.
And then Jan is crying.
Surprised, Bernard asked:
“Do you have to cry about that now, Jan?”
“You are so good to me, Bernard, may I not have a little cry about that?”
This is said to a boy of almost ten years old.
Jan is well into his fifties, but he feels like a child here and this is why they understand each other so well.
They live in a paradise with Jan, but it is Jan who has opened the big gate and knows places there which Bernard didn’t know of yet, and they discuss those lovely things together.
Bernard sees that the swelling on Jan’s neck is increasing and becoming dangerous.
Tall Hendrik and Crisje prepare themselves, because today or tomorrow they will be faced with a lot of misery.
One morning the swelling burst open and then Crisje heard the boys screaming:
“Mother, come and look quickly, Jan is bleeding like a pig.”
Crisje gets a fright.
Jan is bandaged up and they call a doctor.
Who determines that Jan’s tumour could be dangerous for the boys.
Jan has to go to Arnhem, they can probably operate on him there, “perhaps he will never come back, boys.”
“But that can’t be true, anyway, mother?
They will not keep Jan there forever?”
Jan leaves for Arnhem, but he comes back, an operation is not possible.
Crisje doesn’t want to miss Jan for the world, she orders large quantities of bandages, and Crisje will help him.
The doctor cannot do anything else about it either.
However, not one of them wants to miss Jan the colonial!
Once more he is sleeping in the attic.
Crisje takes care of him, because no one will get Jan away from this place.
The doctor, who comes to have a look now and again, does not wish to dirty his hands, because that tumour is a stinking swamp to him, and you can get all sorts of things from it, the learned man does not feel like treating it.
Crisje sees that the doctor is disgusted by this illness.
But things will be fine.
With Jan she discusses the personality of the doctor and they both know how much feeling is present in that life for the work of Our Lord.
That man doesn’t understand any of it!
He has no love for it.
The question is whether these people are open to suffering humanity?
Crisje says: “No, Jan.
They are chatterboxes.”
And she gives Jan the assurance:
“I will get back at him yet.”
One morning the doctor comes to have a look.
He is curious to know how Jan is getting on.
Crisje happens to be occupied with Jan and last night she spoke to Our Lord, but Jan doesn’t know that.
Crisje is as strong as an ox, she carries a knowledge within her which would make the learned man and Jan shake and tremble if they knew about it, but that will soon come.
The doctor is wearing a lovely grey pin-striped suit and Crisje wants to spoil that same suit, she will show the man something which will surprise him as if has been hit by lighting.
When she suddenly takes out the wad of cotton wool, the blood splashes all over the place.
Does the Doctor wish to take a look?
Crisje invites him to come a bit closer, so that he can see better.
The good man falls for it, he comes closer, but at the same time she pulls the wad of cotton wool out of the hole, the life blood of a person splashes straight over Doctor’s nice pin-striped suit.
“That’s a pity, Doctor, that is really a pity, but I didn’t know that there would be so much force behind it this morning.”
The man wishes to say something, he is furious, but thinks it over and reaches a decision.
Crisje and Jan see that his head is a fiery red and they know what this means, they are not that stupid.
“Don’t worry about it, Crisje, don’t bother about me, it is bad enough.
I understand, Crisje.”
So that is just enough, Crisje, he has learned his lesson.
Crisje thinks: ‘He can quickly bow his head’, but that nice suit isn’t worth anything anymore.
Now they talk, the man gains understanding, and you are right on top of it.
Without realising it, the doctor has become a part of Jan and Crisje, but it is much simpler, he can no longer withdraw from it, because that cursed hole in Jan’s throat also has something to say to him.
Then it is Crisje who confronts him with the facts and offers his life something.
“Shall I tell you something, Doctor?”
“What is it, Crisje?”
“You think that this can no longer be cured, don’t you?”
“No, Crisje, we are powerless.”
“Then you must listen to me carefully now, Doctor.
In three months time I will have that hole closed.”
“What are you telling me, Crisje?”
“Did Doctor not understand me?
Then I will tell you again:
In three months time I will have that hole closed.”
“That is not possible, Crisje.
I would like to see that.”
The man shrugs his shoulders.
Jan asks Crisje:
“Did you mean that, Crisje?”
“Yes, Jan, did you think that I was telling lies?”
“Really, I didn’t, Crisje, but still?”
“I understand that, Jan.
I can imagine that.
But in three months’ time this hole will be closed.”
Jan feels happy and he gives himself completely over to Crisje.
Last night Crisje had another dream.
Our Lord came to her and said:
“Crisje, you have worries.
You are worrying about Jan.
I have heard your prayers.
And I am here now.
Let the boys fetch the same medicine from Hosman’s, they will cure Jan’s neck for a while.
However, it is only for a while, Crisje.
You know that, then nothing more can be done, nothing!”
Then Crisje still said to Our Lord:
“You know Jan, Our Lord?”
“Of course, Crisje, did you think that I didn’t know him?”
“How happy You make me, Our Lord.”
“I know that, Crisje, but Jan deserves it.”
Jan asks again:
“Do you mean that, Crisje?”
“Listen, Jan.
Our Lord gave me this knowledge.
Now you mustn’t make too much fuss about it.
I can get this hole closed, but if it starts bleeding again, Jan, then I cannot do any more.
However, you have a few years to live.
And then you must die because of this same hole, Jan.”
Jan can deal with all of that.
He is not a pathetic soul.
If he still has a few years to live, then they will have a good time.
And he tells Crisje that.
“I can talk to you, Jan, you are not a coward.”
“I never have been, Crisje, you know that.”
From that moment onwards, Crisje’s boys are back behind Hosman’s cows.
To catch the fresh cow dung again.
They lay the medicines in a cloth and then it is laid on Jan’s sick neck.
They all fight against the cancer and, it goes without saying, against the Grim Reaper!
Bernard says:
“For him you would give your own blood.”
Jeus kisses Bernard, he loves that life.
Bernard is fighting like mad for Jan’s life.
“That’s natural, Bernard, do you love Jan so much as well?”
Crisje tells her boys: “Dirty cow dung does not heal, those medicines must not touch any ground, because then you will get infections, boys, will you remember that?”
“Yes, mother.”
On the Grintweg they are fighting against the Grim Reaper!
Even if you are sometimes covered in cow dung, a bath in the Wetering, and they are clean again, and they are very happy to make that sacrifice.
Tall Hendrik also fights with Crisje and the boys for Jan’s life.
They have the highest respect for Hosman’s cows.
Which cow gives the most medicine, Bernard?
Then we will frame it, that animal should be in a museum.
They must never forget that animal again, give that animal everything.
Actually, the whole neighbourhood is fighting for Jan’s life, all of them understand, it is a fight against the Grim Reaper, because that skunk is already sitting behind the stove and looking at him, while sapping the life out of Jan’s body.
That brute is eating Jan’s life away.
That miracle is sucking it away.
When he comes to visit, you had better make your will.
However, Jan has nothing to bequeath.
He still possesses some life, but with that dirty hole in his neck the Grim Reaper is leering after his last strength.
Would you not wring the neck of that monster?
They understand here, this is the best fight that was ever given.
There is nothing better to experience, there is pleasure in this, the reality of it gives you another way of thinking, and now you are really inspired for the first time.
What can you buy for money?
Nothing!
Our Lord is paid here with the purest love.
Our Lord also knows, there is not a bit of dirt attached to it, this love appears from the blood circulation, and has purified all the impurities of mankind.
It is a case here of all or nothing, and the cow dung again takes care of everything, which, despite the beauty and the sublime of this will only last a while.
Because what are a few years now in comparison with a human eternity?
Our Lord follows all of this because, but the people do not know it yet, Grim Reaper has bothered HIM for centuries, that dirty animal has taken the work of Our Lord into his own hands and must now let go!
What does such a bare death want, Bernard thinks, with Hosman’s cows?
Nothing!
He can leave his scythe alone for a while.
The hole in Jan’s throat is becoming smaller.
The hole and that red colour looks better.
And the boys follow Crisje’s orders!
A drop from the black and white cow is worth a thousand guilders and even more.
For Crisje and the boys know there are plenty of rich people who would give everything they owned for five minutes of life, but the Grim Reaper is unrelenting towards his victims.
But here these things are happening for nothing.
Crisje knows, Our Lord is not with the rich people, they would like that, and Tall Hendrik says: ‘If they could buy that as well, then they would eat up our lives, but that is not possible!’
Then they would buy up all those lights from human eyes with their money, new stomachs and new hearts, another pair of legs, but that is not possible!
Thank God!
Otherwise, Jan would no longer be with them!
They would murder him consciously, but that is not possible now, because Our Lord is there too.
The doctor is once more standing in front of their noses and says:
“Crisje, it is a miracle.
It is unbelievable, but I can see it.
It is urgently necessary, Crisje, that mankind knows of this, we can cure thousands of people with this.”
Could the doctor accept cow dung?
He will not get to hear about that.
That is Crisje’s secret.
She does not sell any sacred matters of Our Lord.
And then, what the doctor says you won’t believe.
“Crisje, I will give you a thousand guilders for your secret.”
Crisje and Jan have to laugh heartily about that.
But how stupid learned people are.
Crisje says resolutely:
“No!”
“Why not, Crisje?”
“No, doctor!”
“But, Crisje, you cannot refuse.
You can help thousands of people.
Just think how many people there are who suffer from cancer?”
The man continues to go on about it.
Crisje asks him:
“Can you pray, doctor?”
“I don’t know, Crisje, but I will do my best.”
“Now then, doctor.
Do you not understand then that, if you have prayed all your life for a person, for one person, Doctor, that another person has nothing to do with it?
Can you understand that?”
The man does not understand.
So Crisje continues:
“Then I will tell you something else, Doctor.
Does Our Lord have to hear a prayer, from you then, from you yourself, Doctor, for another person, but for which you have prayed all your life, and who is your own child?”
“What does all this mean, Crisje?
I will think about it.
However, this is for science!
You cannot hide your secret any longer, we have a right to it.
We can cure thousands of people.
Tell me how you healed Jan’s wound.”
Jan now knows that Crisje has prayed all her life for him.
Jan is already crying, but Crisje wants none of that.
And the doctor can keep his thousand guilders, the man doesn’t understand anything.
However, it will not leave him alone, he follows this great problem day and night and does not understand the simple mentality of Crisje.
Jan is running again as he used to, he feels fine, there is no longer anything the matter with him.
They have shut the door on the Grim Reaper, and he walked away in anger.
He got a terrible hiding from the boys, Crisje, and Tall Hendrik.
The Grim Reaper is now watching over Jan, but Jan laughs right in his face.
The Grim Reaper gets ... the ‘droodles’ in this place!
See that you leave, dirty scoundrel, for you have crossed people long enough.
But the ‘Grim one’, says Bernard, was behind the stove.
He was sitting right there in Jan’s place and you could not move him by any means.
He just sat there sucking away Jan’s life.
That brute didn’t want coffee, he threw Tall Hendrik’s bitters in the ashtray.
You could really see it, he ate away at your life and you could smell his dirty stench.
You lived together for all these months in a tomb.
And then, only Bernard saw, what no one else had seen, the Grim Reaper took away someone else out of jealousy and that was little Gerrit van de Bulten, a long way from this neighbourhood.
Everything out of jealousy, and his terrible anger, however the Grim Reaper can drop dead!
Bernard said much more and they had to laugh about that: “I threw cow dung in his face, mother, he walked away completely blind, and now he has the wrong one.”
You see, the Grim Reaper has now, at least for Jan, been completely blinded and that through Hosman’s very best cows.
And that scoundrel didn’t count on that.
He could not compete with Crisje and the children.
He can now take away people from the town.
They are rid of him for a while.
In the Achterhoek of Gelderland they know how to fight against the Grim Reaper.
They also heard that.
Our Lord kept saying:
“Bite off his throat, boys.
Cut his throat, that scoundrel has turned pure love and eternal reunion into dirty damnation and I want nothing to do with that.
That beast has changed eternal life into temporary life, he stands above a grave and has put on MY crown!
Get that thing off his head, mother Crisje’s boys.
Just cheat him, pull out his eyes.
I will give you the wisdom and the powers to do so, destroy that dirty dog!”
That is how angry Our Lord is at the Grim Reaper.
Months later Crisje and Jan meet the learned man.
Jan is wheeling the wheelbarrow and they are having a nice chat.
Jan says:
“Crisje, just look over there.
Just look who we are meeting today?”
Of course, the doctor has something to say to Jan and Crisje.
There you have it:
“How are you, Jan?”
“Look for yourself, Doctor.”
“My God, how is it possible.
Crisje, can you still not understand that mankind must learn your secret?
I think about it day and night and I can no longer sleep, Crisje.”
“Then Doctor, you should have come to have a look.”
“May I know, Crisje?”
“Of course.
Do you not understand then, Doctor, that Our Lord does not answer bandits’ prayers?”
“What do you mean, Crisje?”
“That’s a good one, Doctor.
These powers do not work for arsonists, cheats, and bandits.
But you can’t understand that, can you?
There are also good people in the world.
But I already told you that, these making the Stations of the Cross were only for Jan.
I prayed for him a thousand times.
That is also for all those other people, if they wish to pray, Doctor, then Our Lord can help them as well and, then cow dung also has powers.”
“Are you trying to tell me, Crisje, that you cured Jan with cow dung?”
“Yes, doctor, but along with that other thing, only then will it work.”
“And that it is, Crisje?”
“That it is ‘not’, doctor, but that means, Our Lord does not let himself be cheated by another.
If people condemn themselves, doctor, Our Lord can no longer help them.
And this is why cow dung is also no use to you.
Is that hard, Doctor?”
“Crisje, how can I thank you for this lesson”, this person utters, but Jan and Crisje no longer hear it.
He will better his life, he knows, through prayer and universal trust, Our Lord will speak to and enhance your life and being.
He will purify the time you still get to live, or a learned man will spoil the very time and then you will go to your coffin too soon.
And the Grim Reaper also knows that!
A foot was put in his way here.
You have to bow to Our Lord and if you can’t do that, then nothing will help!
However, no drunkards and crooks will get to experience this examination.
And for them there is no cure, the cow dung will not work now, because the inner life lives in disharmony with regard to these pure life juices, the blood pressure of the black and white cows of Hosman.
Is all this so crazy, Doctor?
You cannot help any drunkard with your prayers.
And whoever is sick with cancer or something else, must pray and only then, says Crisje, will you be sent your own medicines, and they are then for yourself!
What form these medicines will take, she doesn’t know either, but you will get them!
Purify yourselves, sick people!
And then you will usually not need a doctor!
If you need such a man, Our Lord will send him to you.
The rest of them are blind and insensitive and have nothing to do with this; they must experience their own world.
Yes, doctor, Jan was prayed for, for thirty years.
Cow dung does not work for everyone!
However, in the ‘Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’, everything can cure!
When you have to die, doctor, they know that here, you are powerless.
But despite this, new life has come and you now enjoy every second.
If that thing opens again, they will give in to it completely and they will no longer need Hosman’s cows either.
A thousand Our Fathers, Doctor, and that ten thousand times upwards, that hammering will resound in the ears of Our Lord and His angels and they will give everything for that.
Jeus will tell that to the people, but we already know that they will also throw him off the stage.
People do not wish to pray, people are now loosened from Divine anchors, they have lost their ability to surrender themselves in a pure paradisiacal way!
However, the Montferlandseweg, also the Zwartekolkseweg, are life paths where you can think of these things and receive them from Our Lord.
Crisje knows, if only people could love, then everything would be different.
The ladies in Montferland can talk, they have everything, but what does that mean if you begin to feel what they experience and possess here?
That peace from there is not worth a thing.
If you do not have peace in yourself, you will not get that from Montferland either.
Therefore, see the way you want to, and if you think that you need peace for your health, take it, Crisje knows, if it is not okay inside, you will still return untouched, because the Grim Reaper knows exactly where you are, and you now miss the feeling to cheat him.
Bernard can spray the Grim Reaper right in his eyes, but that requires skill.
And you can only learn that skill if you love Jan, or your Frans, lady, perhaps your Raimond or your Peter, it doesn’t matter as long as you love.
They could do it, but a person does not snort enough, he is disgusted by everything!
But how beautiful and wonderful this life is.
Yes, certainly, if you understand it, otherwise it is nothing!
Tall Hendrik even asked Crisje: “Now did you really talk to Our Lord again, Cris?”
“Yes, Hendrik, did you ever hear me telling a lie?”
“No, of course not.
But it’s a lot for me, Cris.”
“That is not so dangerous, Hendrik.
You can do that as well.
But because you cannot do it yet, Hendrik, I really feel what you want to know, those thousand guilders would mean nothing to me, would they, Hendrik?”
Tall Hendrik knows, cow dung will not be of help for him either, and that is something for Tall Hendrik, but he readily admits it.
And then he said:
“I would also like to look him in the eye, Cris!”
Then Crisje had to laugh.
That Tall Hendrik.
“But that will still be a while, Hendrik”, she answers him and he understands.
At coffee time, they tell each other the most difficult problems, and they are explained as well.
However, Trui thought that with a piece of liquorice you could easily have cured Jan.
She hasn’t thought about it, but the liver of a cockerel, plucked alive that is, helps even more, but she will only use that medicine for herself.
You get your fill of that twaddling.
She has warned Crisje.
It will become a complete hospital, and they will not see her there anymore.
And Jan and Crisje, Tall Hendrik and the boys have already long understood that.
Aunt Trui is afraid of Jan Kniep, who should have stayed in the Dutch East Indies.
It is God’s lamentation.
They should remove that man from the village.
That man is infecting whole neighbourhoods and spoiling the atmosphere here.
People are stubborn, but Trui only sees that in other people, she herself is wearing her crown.
Still elderberry pudding can also cure you, and almost everything which has once grown and blossomed and is a part of mother nature, everything can cure you!
For every illness, there is an herb to cure it!
Crisje knows that!
She sees it and no one can take that away from her, but she also looks with her inner eyes at the life in the material, and that is exactly the same as Jeus can do.
This is why they can understand each other so well.
They know, the Grim Reaper will be back later to fetch Jan.
Jan is not afraid, and is now enjoying every second!
He can say: are you there, dear?
I am ready!
Good day, beautiful death!
Nevertheless your crown falls from your head.
You hypocritical pig!
Have you not had enough then?
Crisje and Jeus pull away his pearls, the nicest part of his cap, and will soon make it a beautiful chain for Miets, she must have something as well, something of significance and the pearls of the Grim Reaper are for this purpose!
Miets can now come, her little bed is ready, there are now already four living in the attic and they are Johan, Bernard, Jeus and Jan, the two who follow have got the box bed, and Miets and the other who is still to come, will sleep with father and mother.
Our Lord sees it, everything has been worked out here, they will not be overcome by anything and all HIS children have to learn that!
Good day, Our Lord!
No one is complaining here!
