PAKENHAM – Shanagolden resident Hendrika Driessen celebrated her 100th birthday with family and fellow residents on June 17. Bishop Pat O’Regan presented her with a Papal Blessing to mark her centenary at a Mass at Shanagolden. She was born in Tegelen, Limburg, Netherlands and had six brothers and a sister.
Her mother died when she was 14 and her father and brothers worked as market gardeners and all lived at home until they were married. After her mother died, her eldest sister left home to become a nun and Hendrika became responsible for looking after her father and brothers. She cleaned and cooked for them all. She married in 1940 in Tegelen and she and her husband had seven children.
The family emigrated to Australia on the migrant ship Johan van Oldenbarnevelt in February 1954. She often mentions that those six weeks on the boat was the best holiday she ever had as she did not have to prepare any meals, kids were entertained, food was plentiful it was like a second honeymoon albeit with six kids in tow (one child had died when a few months old).
The family was sent by train to Bonagilla Migrant camp that afternoon. The camp was a bit of a shock as it was a collection of old army huts, millions of mosquitos and flies, maggots in the meat, drop toilets, dust and over 40 degree heat. Mr Driessen was offered a job in Whyalla but decided that he didn’t want to take it and so after six weeks he hitch-hiked in his woollen three-piece suit and overcoat to the Latrobe Valley to apply for a job at the State Electricity Commission. He was successful and the family moved to Traralgon for two weeks and stayed with another Dutch family and after that moved to a Housing Commission Home in Morwell East.
The children went to Sacred Heart Primary School, and were taught by the Josephite Sisters. They had to learn to speak English as well as all the other subjects. At one school function, Hendrika was asked to bring a plate. Not realising that this meant to bring something on it, she arrived with an empty plate! One more child was born to the family while they were in Morwell; Hendrika’s first experience of a hospital birth as home births were the norm in the Netherlands. After a stint on a dairy farm in Bairnsdale (one more child there), the family moved to Berwick (where yet another child was born).
Mr Driessen died from cancer in 1974 and Hendrika had to learn all the finances, banking, travel etc as her husband had done all this prior to his death. She was very involved in St Michael’s Parish and for at least 10 years she visited the elderly as a member of the Legion of Mary, and cleaned the church every week. After four hip operations it became clear that she needed full time care and so she moved to Shanagolden about six years ago.
This story first appeared in Catholic Life.
