Grandfather’s Birthday Present

Their father’s birthday is finally coming, so they had to give a gift for him.
Jet, being the eldest daughter thought of a Bible with a gold plated clasp as her birthday gift, while Dirk, the second son did not agree with Jet’s plan. He thinks that he has an even better idea rather than just giving a Bible because he hasn’t been inside a church for years. He saw a armchair on a store and thought that it would be the gift for his father. While Mary, who got separated from her husband and was now expecting their fourth child, disagrees with Dirk’s plan, as what their grandfather said, if ever they planned on giving him a present, it should be something that won't just become trash. So she decided to give him practical things like a wintercoat, muffler and so on. While Piet and Frans, neither of them contributed anything for the past years. They just decided to help with the decorations. While the youngest son, Henk who was recently signed up in the East Indies thought that their problem would be solved with giving their grandfather a photograph of all them. It would be the best thing since Henk will soon be far from them.

After discussing their plans, Henk’s proposal was finally accepted. The following day, they all went to the photographer and posed. They were 14 in all, no one was absent even Jet’s husband who left the hospital just for that day.

With the payment for the photograph, nobody expected that the photographer would ask for ask. But as he knew Dirk, he insisted that he’ll pay him two guilders on account anyways he just work in the drugstore opposite. He also promised that the picture would be ready at Wednesday at ten o’clock.

The whole plan was to be a secret from their Grandfather but some of them gave Grandfather a lot of clues that’s why he was able to guess what it is.

Tuesday evening, as Grandfather already went to bed, all of them decorated the living room, they were really careful not to wake him up. They also used Jet and Mary’s hairpin instead of a hammer to put up the decorations. The following day, their decorations were amazing but the most important part of the celebration isn’t there, the gift. Dirk had trouble with the photograph fee. They were panicking until Grandfather knew about this and paid for it.


All I can say about this is even though they didn't really have the same idea, they were able to pick the best gift that their father would truly apprieciate. And they gave all they could so that the party would be memorable. This shows their love for their father.