Lowieken

On August 29 1916 Lodewijk Jozef Albert Timmermans was born in Meerbeke as the third child of my grandparents Petrus Timmermans (Meerbeke 1886 - 1953) and Margaretha Ravijst (Meerbeke 1892 - 1973).

Unfortunately, the child - my uncle "Lowieken" - died barely two years old on November 12 1918, one day after the armistice which ended the terrible slaughter of World War I. I do not know whether Lowieken had been sick a long time or not, and there is nobody left who could tell me, but I am certain that the end of the war will not have been much celebrated in the household of my grandparents.

When his brother Lowieken passed away, my father was just five, and his older sister was six. Four more children were to be born in that household, the last one lived for a couple of days only in January 1939.