The emigration story of Willy Bulten and Peter Klaassen (1955)
Wilhelmina Adriana (Willy) Bulten was born on June 3, 1928 in Aalten. Willy loved to read and that helped her get through the five difficult years of the Nazi occupation. The kitchen of her parental home was bombed during the war, forcing the Bulten family to move. She helped her mother in the family’s flower shop, while her father ran a successful landscaping business.
After the war, Willy went to study to become a teacher in Rotterdam. During this period she got into a relationship with the handsome Peter Klaassen from Susteren (Limburg). Peter was conscripted into the Dutch army after the Second World War and served in the Dutch East Indies for two years. They married on July 12, 1954 and made their honeymoon on a motorcycle through Europe.
The housing market and the labor market in the Netherlands were challenging in the post-war years for the ambitious couple who wanted to explore the world. Like many before them, they sought their fortune abroad and considered emigrating to Australia, Canada or the United States. In 1955, an opportunity arose to move to the US. The adventurous couple boarded a ship in Rotterdam, bound for New York, followed by a train journey across America.
They settled in the town of Mount Vernon, just north of Seattle, in the state of Washington. They later moved to Kirkland, Washington. In 1963, they became American citizens. They had four children: Paul, Annely, Janine and John.
In 1971, their thirst for adventure and discovery led the Klaassen family to drive across America to Fairfax, Virginia. Willy became principal of the Commonwealth Christian School there. In 1979 she founded the Appletree Private School, where toddlers up to group 3 received education and care. Parents were enthusiastic about this new school with the knowledgeable, energetic and cheerful headmistress with her charming Dutch accent. It was such a success that she opened a second branch in Northern Virginia a few years later. After two decades, she said goodbye to the Appletree Schools to spend more time reading, traveling with Peter, enjoying the beauty of the Chesapeake Bay, and visiting family.
Peter passed away in 2018 and Willy in 2020. They were buried at Flint Hill Cemetery in Oakton, Virginia.
