FOSTERING love By Muriel Cooper Photos Yanni
R
osebud couple Jack Van Der Zwart and his wife Arina had no qualms about becoming foster parents – even about their first foster child having special needs. At two months of age, the baby had only ever known hospital, only being picked up for feeding or treatment. Did Jack have any trepidation about fostering a special needs baby? “None. None at all.”
the-way place near a forest. My grandfather was the director of a boys’ home. He had a big market garden out the back where he grew lots of vegies. He’d put them on the back of his bicycle and take them to the boys. When he came home at night, he’d sit in his big leather chair with a gigantic storybook and tell us stories while he was smoking his big pipe, with my brother and me sitting on the armrests. I can smell the pipe and still see it all happening in front of me. I think my nurturing and caring came from that.”
“In me, where it stems from is that my parents migrated in 1968 from Holland when I was twelve and a half. Before then, every holiday I had was with my grandparents. They lived in an out-of-
Just near Jack’s grandparents’ house, where Jack used to play, there was a huge farmhouse he could never get to. Years later, he learned that his wife Arina spent all her holidays in that house.
E ssence
28 | PENINSULA
December 2023
