Kamiel's parents' marriage certificate

Kamiel's father's birth certificate

One of Kamiel's paintings

As Kamiel was living in Antwerp throughout whole his life, I posted one of his painting in one of my other blogs: http://mylifeinantwerp.blogspot.com

You can see the link to this painting in my previous log.

For now, I'm taking a break from blogging.
My Dutch boyfriend is moving in with me and we both have a lot of work at our hands decluttering both of our current houses ...

Hope to be back in 2 week's time!

Love from Antwerp!

Living in Antwerp, Belgium

Living in Antwerp, Belgium

Kamiel's birth certificate

Who was Kamiel Riske?

Kamiel Riske was born on May 8th 1921 in Antwerp, Belgium.
Actually, his father also was called Kamiel (born in Temse, on February 25th 1893)
His mother was called Maria Suetens (Born in Antwerp on March 3th 1901)
Unfortunately Kamiel's father never lived to an old age. Sadly he died around his 30th birthday and as a consequence, Kamiel never knew his biological father.
At 6 months of age Kamiel contracted the measles which left him hard of hearing. As a result of this, he encountered difficulties when learning to speak properly.

But help was soon to arrive when is mother remarried mr. Van Bourgonie, who raised Kamiel as a son of his own. Soon after the marriage (in 1925) Kamiel's younger brother (Henri, also called Rik Van Bourgonie was born)

Throughout their lives both brothers had a special bond. Though Rik was the younger one, he was the one encouraging Kamiel learning to communicate and to live his life to the fullest!

Kamiel as a young man

Self portrait

Kamiel in his early twenties ...

Quite a handsome young man don't you think?
Despite his good looks and his intelligence he never was able to establish a stable relationship.

Kamiel was thaught how to speak later than you would normally expect: in the early 20th century, people just did not have access to diagnostics or didactic means that are available to children and adults with hearing problems.

Though hard of hearing, Kamiel didn't exactly have a speech impediment. He more had some kind of grammar impediment. In my memory he possessed a good vocabulary but lacked the ability necessary to produce correct sentences...

This had a huge impact on his social life. People who were not familiar with his condition often thought Kamiel was some sort of a retard or weirdo.

Well, they thought wrong!

You will find out in the next episode of this blog!