The House 1937's
15. Old Portrait
Today my aunt was quite busy with various old things that she took out from one of the cabinets in my grandmother's room. Today the grandmother ordered Auntie to clean the closet as well as the items in it and rearrange all the items into the closet. Aunty was also warned by the grandmother to be careful when cleaning and rearranging all the items to the Wardrobe considering all the items are old items that are old enough and vulnerable to damage or destruction. My aunt watched for a moment the inside of the dusty closet, he thought about the last time this closet was cleaned so that there were gonggo nests or long-legged father spiders that were quite a lot and small insects that nestled between the fine webs. Aunty who has put out all the stuff is now focusing her gaze for a moment towards the items and among them are some photo albums that already look worn and dusty. He was curious about the photo album and he had only seen it for the first time.
The first photo album he saw was a dark brown album that had faded in color and the dust on the album immediately stuck a lot in his hands so touching the old photo album. Of the several photo albums that exist, somehow this photo album is the most interesting. Maybe because this album looks the most outdated among all the photo albums here and usually an old photo always keeps its own memories or even there is a history that accompanies it. As soon as the photo album was opened, the cover photo was yellowed almost browned by writing a sentence that seemed like a Dutch sentence that did not understand it, he frowned slightly and reopened the photo album page. There are photos of some people who seem to be important people, officials or the like who stand parallel to the formal position. Some of the people in the photo are indigenous people, Chinese descent like him, there are also Dutch people although only a few. Followed by several other photos showing the atmosphere and conditions of the past that made my aunt was amazed. Photographing at that time was one of the rare and luxurious things to do. And usually it is done by many important people such as officials, priyayi, rich people, who are the upper middle class people. One of the photos on the album shows a man who is a descendant of Tianghoa taking pictures with an Adult Dutch man with a typical moustache cut at that time, the Tiong Hoa man was wearing a Ching dynasty oversized outfit equipped with his hat and accessories.
There is also a photo of a woman wearing a large enough konde with her traditional clothes that take a slightly angled stand from the camera
A hand that suddenly patted my tantric shoulder made him startled and immediately looked back and looked my grandmother with a slightly blackened hand, probably replaced the axis of the stove in the kitchen.
("Oh my goodness, make Alin shocked.."),
("Lu was seriously looking at his picture.."),
("Yes, well, mumpung again mengesin all clay also.."),),
"Ik heb herinnering op deze photo vastgelegd die je misschien voor nu of zelfs voor altijd herinnert. Bedankt voor alles en jou kennen is een plezier voor. Van ons van wijk family"
(One memory I have captured in this photo that you may be able to remember for now or even forever. Thank you for everything and knowing you is fun for me. From our van wijk family)
But unfortunately based on the story told to his grandmother, the Dutch master who was well known by our great-grandfather was killed mysteriously once a few days he lived in his new service place. Our great-grandfather learned about it after the wife of the Dutch master sent him a letter and it was written that they all agreed to return to the Netherlands after the funeral of her husband was completed.
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My aunt finally put the stuff she had cleaned back into the closet that was also clean and free from the gonggo nest. Clean-up that he did this time although tiring and make all his hands and clothes dirty because of dust and gonggo nest, gonggo nest, he really got the valuable thing because he became aware of the history of his own family that he did not think that his family at that time was not only able to build a capable business but also able to build connections with people who have influence in their time. For some people, having a family background like this is an amazing thing and often they are so proud of it. He still smiled and wiped his dirty hands with a washcloth that was no longer visible in its original color and then closed the old closet door and slightly snapped when closing it. The closet door had a large mirror glass and almost filled all the leaves of the door, when the closet door was about to close, all the reflections of the objects in front of him were reflected clearly on the mirror glass, including the image of a tall man in all-white clothes with his mustache that looks light brown and at first glance looks smiling from the reflection of the mirror. The reflection of the shadow was at a glance similar to the Dutch master he had seen in the photo. My aunt was startled and slightly trembled in fear when she saw the image of the man reflected on the mirror glass of this old cupboard. Lest that is.........................
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