大象传媒

Jan van Winkelen comes from a family of 21 brothers and sisters

When Jan van Winkelen's father died in the 1940s, Jan's mother was left with 5 children to bring up, 2 girls and 3 boys. Then Jan's mother met her second husband, a widower who already had ten children. The two of them went on to have another six children.

The huge family lived in a big house in the Haig, in Holland. The street was badly war-damaged, but the wrecked shells of houses made interesting places for the children to explore. But, as Jan recalls, "As a big family you would normally be a little bit blamed for some of the things that happened in the neighbourhood. I don't think as a family we were any worse behaved than anyone else."

Home life was relatively organised, with the elder children, mostly girls, involved in the running of the family. Meal times had to take place in two sittings "The small ones ate first and then the large ones. My father would start to carve away, and everybody always wanted to sit on his left-hand side, because he started to serve from the left. The further away you were from him, the less you got" With so many children around the table, discipline might have become a problem, but Jan's step-father had a way of dealing with turbulent behaviour "He had a walking stick that he kept by the side of his chair, and if anybody became too boisterous, he would get the crooked end of this stick and put it round their neck and haul them across the table so that he was close enough to get an arm to him."

It might be easy to feel lost in such a large family, but Jan's recalls "I had a happy childhood, I never ever felt deprived of anything."

None of the 21 went on to have families beyond 5 or 6 children. It was highly unusual to come from such a large family and as Jan explains "My wife is an only daughter so it was a bit of a culture shock for her." They have a modest 3 sons.