Aeltje's Babies Poem by Charlotte Peters Rock

Aeltje Boelens Mother of twins
Wife to Jacob Dirkszoon de Graeff
Honoured Mayor of Amsterdam

De Wikkelkinderen - Swaddled Children
painted wrapped - except their faces
One pale ghost One rosy mite

Month on month their waiting mother
Aeltje watched her shape grow rounder
felt the movements by her ribs

Pain and anguish at her birthing
Two small boys to greet their father
Mother Father Midwife wept

Spring was creeping round The Lowlands
early in the sixteen hundreds
as the babies lived and died

De Wikkelkinderen - Swaddled Children
mouths closed firmly - eyes wide open
painted to record their life

Down four centuries of looking
still the grieving at their dying
sounds around their open eyes

Aeltje Boelens - mother of twins
wife to Jacob Dirkszoon de Graeff
died three years beyond their life

20Sept2000 CPR
To see tehir picture - go here
http: //rhea137.tumblr.com/post/6669271675/de-wikkelkinderen-wo-infants-swaddled-in-white