Four days ago a rather remarkable lady, Mrs. Clara DeSchiffart, celebrated the centenary of her birth. She is part of the first generations of neocalvinists in the Netherlands, and her life overlapped that of Abraham Kuyper himself by 15 years. The following brief (and slightly edited) account of her life and times was written by her devoted great-grandson, Brian Dijkema.
Clara DeSchiffart (née Reitsma) was born on February 10, 1905, in a small Frisian town called Schraad. Her father and mother were typical Frisians who worked a small dairy farm. The farm was typically Dutch in that it had the barn attached to the house, and it is to this that our family attributes the cleanliness of my great-grandparents' barn when they began farming in Canada. After all, if your barn is attached to your house, you better keep it neat! My great-grandmother was one of 13 siblings. Granny was alive when Abraham Kuyper was alive -- and yes, that does make her quite old! The fact that her family was Reformed, Frisian and farmers also makes it quite likely that they were readers of Kuyper's newspapers and without a doubt supporters of the Anti-Revolutionary Party. In fact, I know the latter to be true, because Granny said that she always voted for the Reformed parties. (No, not the distant seed of Preston Manning's brainchild.)
Granny married Gerrit DeSchiffart during a hailstorm in 1928. In fact, it was not the best of days for her because she was quite ill with malaria, and immediately after the wedding ceremony, she went back to her parents' house to sleep. There were no first-night fireworks for the DeSchiffarts! However, that is not to say that their relationship didn't bear fruit. Granny and Grandpa were happily married for over 65 years before he passed away. I still remember how affectionate they were with one another even after 65 years! Grandpa would never shy from giving Granny a kiss. They had four children, 23 grandchildren, 80 great-grandchildren, and just recently, Granny has been blessed with a great-great-grandchild. Every one of us loves her.
Praise God for the life and testimony of this devoted servant of his kingdom over the course of 100 years.
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