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Jacobus Huibregt Christiaanse
Jacobus Huibregt Christiaanse was born in The Hague on December 29, 1927 and grew up in Rijswijk, The Netherlands, third in a family of six children. In 1940, just before the Second World War, the family moved to Alphen aan den Rijn.
During the last years of the war, Jacobus took an active part in securing food for the family. His siblings remember that in the darkest days of the Second World War, Koos played happy music on the piano to keep his and his family's mind off the hunger they were experiencing. After the war, Jacobus was drafted into the Dutch army and sent to Indonesia for peacekeeping duties.
Back in Holland, he took on a job as a bookkeeper and trained to be a social worker. However, because the climate in Holland was detrimental to his health, he and Maria De Vries, whom he married in 1955, decided to emigrate to Canada that year. Jacobus soon found a job with the North York Board of Education, where he stayed in various functions until retirement in 1990. The marriage was blessed with two daughters, Menny and Jennifer, and a son, John. In 1966, sadness entered the family with Maria's death from cancer. In 1969, Jacobus found new happiness when he married Julie Bijma, and soon a daughter, Trixie, was born.
Music, gardening and his birds were sources of great enjoyment throughout Jacobus' life. He served in a variety of functions in the Christian Reformed churches where he was a member, and volunteered his help in a variety of church-related work for many years. He was a quiet man, but always quick to express his love and pride in his family. His dry and quirky sense of humour has been passed down to his children, and they have fond memories of all of his funny expressions and comments.
On October 22, 2001, after a courageous battle with lung cancer, Jacobus Christiaanse exchanged this earthly life for life eternal.
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