In 1948 Johannes Cornelius Mathheus (Jan) (1921 - 2010) van Zinnen married Marta (Bale) (1923 - 2019).
Jan was a very supportive husband of his wife Marta and father of Elizabeth, Veronica, Marianne and Frances through the difficult years immediately after the war, and then during the enormous upheaval of bringing his young family to Australia and starting again from scratch. Frances was born in Australia.
Jan worked really hard, brought home all of his pay to Marta and never went to the pub. He did enjoy a drink with friends, though: the odd glass of whisky or port.
Back in Holland, Jan used hire bikes to take Elizabeth and Veronica cycling in the forest, what a treat that was!
In 1957 the family arrived in Sydney on the Waterman and lived in two migrant hostels before building and settling in Unanderra where their fourth daughter was born.
One of the children's fondest memories as kids was being read Grimm’s fairy tales at bedtime by their dad: he was really good at doing all the voices.
And in the days when the car was still a novelty, Jan never baulked at driving the family to places and collecting us. He even went so far as to attend a Col Joye and Little Pattie concert with a teenage Elizabeth.
Jan loved going fishing, even if he didn’t catch a lot. He was often to be found with his Crossword book: he loved doing full-page Mephisto crosswords in Dutch, a challenge none of the children were up to! He was a great handy man and was always busy constructing and fixing.
Along with Marta, Jan was a long time volunteer with St Vincent de Paul and did many home visits with Arthur Williams. That’s quite apart from the evening meals he used to take to Marianne when she was working long shifts at the pharmacy in Dapto.
Even though metalwork was his trade he was pretty good with wood:
Jan worked really hard, brought home all of his pay to Marta and never went to the pub. He did enjoy a drink with friends, though: the odd glass of whisky or port.
Back in Holland, Jan used hire bikes to take Elizabeth and Veronica cycling in the forest, what a treat that was!
In 1957 the family arrived in Sydney on the Waterman and lived in two migrant hostels before building and settling in Unanderra where their fourth daughter was born.One of the children's fondest memories as kids was being read Grimm’s fairy tales at bedtime by their dad: he was really good at doing all the voices.
And in the days when the car was still a novelty, Jan never baulked at driving the family to places and collecting us. He even went so far as to attend a Col Joye and Little Pattie concert with a teenage Elizabeth.
Jan loved going fishing, even if he didn’t catch a lot. He was often to be found with his Crossword book: he loved doing full-page Mephisto crosswords in Dutch, a challenge none of the children were up to! He was a great handy man and was always busy constructing and fixing.
Along with Marta, Jan was a long time volunteer with St Vincent de Paul and did many home visits with Arthur Williams. That’s quite apart from the evening meals he used to take to Marianne when she was working long shifts at the pharmacy in Dapto.
Even though metalwork was his trade he was pretty good with wood:
- Back in Holland, Elizabeth had a toboggan that Dad had made for her.
- In the days that the children cycled from Unanderra Hostel to their block of land in Waples Road, and Marianne traveled safely on a custom-made wooden saddle on the bar of his bike.
- Later, but when Waples road was still a dirt road with a dead end, Veronica used to ride down it on a billy cart made by Jan.
- On a slightly larger scale, together with Marta and his brother-in-law Henk, he built half of the house the family grew up in, as well as his beloved shed and a bird aviary, and all that with his drill as the only power tool.
- Frances has a lovely wooden lamp base that Jan made for a leadlight lamp that Marta had made.
- In later years he made several wooden spice racks, picture frames for Marta’s artwork and some beautiful serving trays, all of which we still use.
During the 5½ years that Jan was in care at Coniston Nursing Home, he had so very many faithful visitors, more than many of the other residents. That says a lot about the sort of person he was.
Everyone who knew Jan would agree that he was honest, charitable, and generous. Jan always had a smile for everyone, right to the very end.
Jan lived for his family. I’m sure people got sick of hearing how wonderful his wife and daughters were. Whenever they achieved something, be it large or small, Jan made a point of telling everybody he met about it, even if we were standing right there next to him.
He was survived by his wife Marta and daughters Elizabeth, Veronica, Marianne, Frances.
Everyone who knew Jan would agree that he was honest, charitable, and generous. Jan always had a smile for everyone, right to the very end.
Jan lived for his family. I’m sure people got sick of hearing how wonderful his wife and daughters were. Whenever they achieved something, be it large or small, Jan made a point of telling everybody he met about it, even if we were standing right there next to him.
He was survived by his wife Marta and daughters Elizabeth, Veronica, Marianne, Frances.