Our uncle was not feeling well on 29th January 1950, but still decided to make the train journey to Arnhem, with his wife Truus, to wish his sister-in-law Marie a happy birthday.
After a few hours however, he left suddenly by taxi for Laren,a distance of about 85km. Stef was in pain and his health deteriorated so fast, forcing the driver to stop in Ede, where our uncle was taken to the local hospital.
Apparently he was suffering from a bleeding stomach ulcer and the docters couldn't stop the bleeding. Stef died a few days after admission.
When I look back, I remember his smile, his humour and his helping hand during the war when we were in trouble and going hungry. He was a very good man.
To use the words of John Walter Wayland:
The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self-control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.

- John Walter Wayland