Operation Sunshine for Annie Smees

Christian National Weekly De Spiegel, 16 November 1957

Slowly and carefully, she was lifted out of the ambulance. Strong men’s arms carried the stretcher step by step across the yard, where some withered leaves were driven along by the fresh autumn wind until their progress was halted by the wire mesh stretched around the chicken run. Step by step the men went further, past the people who had sought some shelter from the wind under the roof of the open barn. And Annie smiled at all those people, for it was a particularly joyful day for her. Today she received her new, own little room! And these people and many more had seen to that.

The stretcher was set down. Annie looked aside and then… then suddenly there was a tear in her eye, which she hastily wiped away. But another one came, and another… Oh, this – no, she had not expected this after her absence! A whole new little house with two French doors through which she saw a new table – and chairs – and her little radio stood next to her bedstead on a brand-new bookcase and then a beautiful lamp – and… and… once again the emotion became too much for her and as she was carried inside, she let her tears of joy and gratitude flow freely…

Would there be no solution!

About six months earlier, Hendrik Arentsen,an Aalten textile retailer, once again visited Annie Smees, who had spent many years confined to bed.Arentsen looked around. The room was reasonably spacious, but he knew it was damp and that by ten o’clock in the morning the sun had already left Annie for the rest of the day.

What a pity, the clothier thought, that this girl, who already sees so little of the outside world, cannot receive a bit more sunshine. Could no solution be found for that? Could no other room be found? Would no other room be available for the girl? – He talked about it with father and mother Smees, but these elderly people did not know either. After all, had it not gone well for so many years? For three months of each year, Annie had lain in the small garden house, and for the rest of each year, she lay in this room.

Was there really nowhere else in the farmhouse where Annie’s bed could face south? “Our bedroom,” said Mrs Smees, “but that has no window facing south either.” That made matters more difficult, especially because the farmhouse did not belong to the Smees family. Even so, Arentsen kept thinking about it. Annie needed sunshine. If only he and all the friends, relatives and acquaintances who visited her regularly could give her that. Surely there had to be a way.

Donations poured in

And it worked! It worked much better than Annie’s friends had expected. For when permission was given to exchange the room of father and mother with that of Annie and to furnish it as a cosy sickroom with a large window, a chimney, wallpaper, and floor covering, then the donations poured in.

At birthdays and weddings, from private individuals and businesspeople, everyone who belonged to Annie’s family, friends, and acquaintances was immediately prepared to respond to Arentsen’s appeal and to contribute a stone (or sometimes a large stone) to the costs that had to be incurred. Thus Operation “Sunshine” was born, and the amount of one thousand guilders involved in the improvement and furnishing of the room was soon exceeded and grew to two thousand guilders!

But that was wonderful! Why, Annie’s friends thought, should we not do it completely right at once? Let us give her a whole new little room as a gift! And while talking, they finally came up with the idea of having a removable, portable, and double-walled wooden house made. After all, mother, the only one who cared for her day and night, was already nearly sixty-nine years old, and if Annie ever had to be nursed by someone else, she could beautifully take her little house with her.

Because people love her

So the decision was made, and the little house was built and furnished. Girls from Aalten’s Christian agricultural domestic-science school used their savings to buy and make the curtains, while their teachers decorated them with hand-printed motifs. The Oranje-Groene Kruis donated the carpet. The Luimes firm contributed money as well as the attractive bookcase on which Annie could place the modern little radio she had earlier received from a reader of De Spiegel, after the magazine had published a request for postcards and the donors had visited Annie personally.

Furthermore, there were gifts and donations from… oh no, let us mention no more names, for otherwise we might skip someone, and besides, it is not at all the intention of all Annie’s friends that their names be made known. These gifts, this bringing of sunshine to a girl who has been struggling with her back since she was eleven or twelve years old due to an unfortunate fall while playing, where surgical intervention could be of no avail, all this selfless love and this tangible sympathy was given to her because people love her, because they wanted to put into practice the neighbourly love commanded by the Lord Jesus.

Touching neighbourly love

This report should therefore be seen in that light. Amidst all the misery to be found in this world, the devouring of one another through jealousy or feelings of hatred, the shouting of “I won’t stand for that!”, the… well, all that ugly and nasty stuff that so many people inflict on their neighbour, in the midst of that, this beautiful thing, this giving of touching neighbourly love, suddenly happens in the Gelderland Achterhoek.

“It is by no means the intention to squeeze money out of you,” Mrs. Te Loo from Bredevoort wrote to us, “but we found this spontaneous sympathy for the sick Annie Smees so lovely and so heartwarming that we thought: we must write this to De Spiegel. It could be an example for others.” And so it is indeed!

Before Annie arrived with the ambulance, we took a look around. We saw her previous sickroom, where almost no sun comes and from which she saw practically nothing of the road. The road, which is already a long way from the farmhouse. The room is also located entirely on the other side of the house, so that Annie also saw nothing of the activities performed by her parents, brother, and sister around the farmhouse, and as a result, she also had little contact with her housemates.

We also looked at her “summer house,” which stands in the garden. It is no larger than a gazebo. If her bedstead was in it, one chair could fit with difficulty. Moreover, it was not easy for her mother to have to go outside once every night during the three months that Annie lay there.

Unencumbered property

No, then her new room is better in every respect. Through a door, the little house is directly connected to her parents’ bedroom, Annie has a better view of the road and the yard, and the sun can shine in unhindered from morning until late in the afternoon.

When she was carried inside — as we have already described — several relatives and friends were there for the formal handover. Among them were the mayor of Aalten, Annie’s doctor H. Knol and his wife, Alderman Te Roele, Mrs Van Egmond, chairwoman of the Aalten branch of the Red Cross, and many others. They had all come to congratulate Annie on her new accommodation and to listen to the certificate that Mayor Van Veen read aloud and presented to her. It stated:

“On this day, the first of Nov. 1957, was transferred in unencumbered property by the Honourable (“yes, that is me, Annie, how do you like that?” the mayor laughed) E.S. van Veen, mayor of the municipality of Aalten, to Miss Annie Smees, Heurne 4, also municipality of Aalten, a double-walled and tile-roofed wooden building, measuring over three by four meters, with double windows, mantelpiece, asbestos chimney, tiled terrace, electrical installation with accessories, balatum, carpet with two rugs, chair, bench, table, book furniture, lamp, oil heater with 200-litre tank. All this is the result of a campaign conducted among friends, family, and interested parties under the motto ‘Operation Sunshine’.”

A blessing to many

“It has overwhelmed Anneke,” said her parish minister, Rev. R. Siertsema, “therefore she cannot find words to thank you all and has requested me to do so.” “Let us also not forget,” Mayor E.S. van Veen said a little later, “that although Annie has this cross to bear, she nevertheless manages to let many who visit her go away again with a joyful and grateful heart. Unconsciously, she has been a blessing to many people, and I am sure she will continue to be so.”

Annie lay there perfectly happy, the red cyclamens bloomed on the windowsill, flowers scented the whole room, and her folded hands lay in the mild light of the joyfully shining autumn sun.

The original article is also available as a PDF (click here).