Jacobus Careleus Wissenburg
Unfortunately, my father turned out to have precious little time left to enjoy using his coat of arms. When a winter’s cough would not go away in May of 2006, the 45th anniversary of my parents’ marriage, he reluctantly sought advice. By August, he was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Seven months later, on 8 March 2007, he quietly passed away. One of his last wishes was that the coat of arms be placed on his coffin.
While sorting out his possessions, we noticed that there were countless photographs and some moving pictures of him, but no sound recordings. So far I have only retrieved one - it is a message for his voice mail, a promise to return the call. He would have appreciated the dark irony.
For Dutch eyes only - here’s what one of his friends wrote after his demise, and here is the text of my talk at the cremation ceremony.
