People I Won't Forget

This is about two ladies I met in a hospital X-ray waiting room.
I have spent a lot of time in hospital waiting areas over the last ten years or so. Some people I've met are quiet in their own thoughts and others enjoy a conversation. I have been both.
This day, about four years ago, I had taken my wife for some X-rays at our local hospital.
Two elderly ladies came in and sat quietly. I knew they were sisters the moment I saw them. They communicated among themselves with little conversation, mostly just a nod or other movement. What little I heard them speak seemed to be with a German accent.
I decided to say 'hello' to them. After a few exchanges of greeting, I asked "Are you ladies German?"
One sister said that they weren't German, but Dutch.
"Oh," I replied, "you are from Holland or The Netherlands"
"No, we're are of Dutch ancestry, but have lived there a little or visited some," one of the sisters explained.
"I was born on the island of Java and my sister was born in Singapore."
Her sister was called into the X-ray room as I continued my conversation with the other. I was intrigued by her soft, polite manner.
"Were you there during WWII?" I asked.
In January of 1942 the Japanese had invaded what was known as The Netherlands Indies. Java and the other islands were rich in rubber and oil that the Japanese needed for their war effort.
A combined fleet of allied ships were defeated in February of 1942 and the Japanese occupied the Indies until they surrendered in 1945.
"Yes, my sister and I were interned in a civilian camp during the war. We were young, but I remember the scarce food, little clean water, sickness and very little medicine. And of course, the ever changing attitude of the guards. Sometimes they were nice enough and other times they were harsh and brutal. I think they were embarrassed by having to guard women and children instead of fighting."
"But our greatest fear," she continued, "was that the war would continue as we grew into our teens. We then would have been shipped to 'pleasure camps' for the Japanese soldiers.
The months and years went by, always in fear."
After the war was over, a movement began against the Dutch. Finally in late 1949, Indonesia was granted its independence.
But I have never forgotten the two sisters. I could have spent hours talking to them. They had seen and experienced so much in their life time, these ladies of grace and dignity sitting beside me in a small waiting room in Texas.