Getting to know Joe VanRooyen all over again\nOver the years many people in St. Johns got to know Joe VanRooyen and his family. We visited him in his shoe repair shop; we may have visited in his home. We saw the concentration camp numbers tatooed on his arms. We knew there was a story there, a story Joe was reluctant to talk about. One day he talked a little about his young years on the run from the Nazis and camping out with the Gypsies.
\nA few journalists got a little information from him. Tim Hulliburger interviewed Joe in his shop once and extracted a bare bones outline of his story. Arlene Lounds discovered a deeper relationship that Joe enjoyed with Fred Meyer when she discovered that Fred\u2019s Army Air Force group had dropped food to Joe\u2019s mother and younger siblings in the Netherlands just as WWII was ending.
\n
\nA little while ago Barry was chatting with Joe\u2019s widow, Carolyn Cox. “Carolyn said she would go out to the workshop in the garage, and she could hear Joe talking,” Barry says. “At first she thought he was talking to himself, and then she learned that he was talking into a microphone and recording himself on tape. Having done that he put it down on paper.”
\nWhat we have for you today is that journal in which Joe recorded his memories in his own hand and in his own words.
\n
\nIn a foreword to Joe\u2019s work his son, Mike, says in part:
\nHe was a great man; a man of integrity, honesty, bravery and genuine goodness. He will be greatly missed.
\n“There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those.” -Mother Theresa<\/p>\n
