"A mandate to care for each other:" remembering well-known community member Martin van Bostelen

If you've been a longtime resident of Strathmore, there is a very good chance you know Martin van Bostelen (1932-2023). Having been heavily involved in our community in many ways, such as volunteering with the Legion, the food bank, air cadets, and many more, van Bostelen spent much of his life in Strathmore finding ways to give back to our community and helping bring us together. He recently passed away peacefully at 90 years old after a lifetime of giving back to the community.

"Dad believed in giving back to his community... the culture of giving back is also something that I inherited, and giving back with more than money is the main thing. Anyone can give people money, but giving your time, that giving of yourself to something is different," his daughter Alice van Bostelen said.

"He did the poppy drive every year with the Legion. From the time he became a member, he was always at No Frills selling poppies every year. He loved it, even up to this year."

Martin with his wife Barbara, daughter Alice, and son yudi

Growing up in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands and running messages for the resistance as a child, van Bostelen's worldview was strongly impacted by witnessing the horrors of tyranny firsthand. While this led to a strong dislike of authority, it also lead to van Bostelen living every day like it was his last, and also being as involved in the community as possible to make it a great place to live free from fear. Alice recalled several stories he would tell of his time in the Netherlands.

"His father was arrested with all the men in his town and taken to the Oranjehotel, which was basically a death sentence. One day he saw his father walking home and he ran into the house to tell his mom and she thought he was playing a joke because she thought he was dead. She thought my grandfather was dead and then he wasn't, and Dad sharing that story, it wasn't a sad story. It was kind of an exciting story, it was like a happy story because his dad came home. Those are experiences that I don't know that anyone in the Western world can really fully get, because there hasn't been that sort of stuff happening in a long time." 

A photo of van Bostelen flying a Cessna plane. Alice said he used to volunteer with B.C search and rescue in mountain areas and would help find lost hikers, among other things.

Despite a childhood faced with Nazis and hardships, van Bostelen never let that impact his kind heart and willingness to help people. His strength of character resonated with all who knew him, as Alice explained he always went out of his way to lend a helping hand wherever he could. 

"If you were down on your luck, you could come here, and Dad would feed you. And if you needed a place to stay, you could stay. Even though sometimes people took advantage of that in negative ways that didn't stop Dad from doing it for the next person. He was never made bitter by bad experiences." 

While Alice wouldn't call him an optimist and said he's more of a realist, she said he definitely had a big spirit and was able to make the most out of his life and spread positivity and kindness to those around him. His realist worldview and experience with the Nazis lead to him becoming more proactive about life, seizing the day and trying to enjoy all the amazing things life had to offer.

"He just believes that service to others is important, my dad strongly believed that we have a mandate to care for each other, that's our job as humans, to take care of each other."

Van Bostelen with a crow he saved from the chicken coop. His kindness and willingness to help extended to animals as well as people.

Alice recalled another instance where her father instantly jumped in to help someone in need, as she said one winter her father fearlessly went into frigid waters to save a four-year-old boy's life. 

"The boy fell through the ice and into the water, and my dad stripped off his clothes right there and ran into the freezing cold water to rescue this kid and brought him back up. He (Martin) was blue, every part of him that was in the water had turned blue. It was so cold; he was close to hypothermia, and he didn't care." 

Despite his dislike of authority, van Bostelen was heavily involved with politics, believing that if you have a problem with the democratic process you should participate in it. Witnessing what it truly means to lose your freedom, van Bostelen never took Canada's democracy for granted and served as a delegate to the Liberal Convention in the 1960s. Van Bostelen also ran for town council in Strathmore and was very involved as a citizen during council meetings.

"He believed that you had to be involved, that part of living in a democratic country is being involved in how it's run." 

Van Bostelen with his adopted daughter Seccora

For Alice and the rest of his family, van Bostelen left behind a legacy of independence, strong character, and indomitable spirit.

"He imparted a really strong sense of don't just listen, figure things out for yourself. We weren't supposed to take anything just at face value, if somebody said something to us like 'something is bad' or 'something is good,' we should try and figure that out for ourselves, not just listen to other people."

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