March 23rd, 2026

Goedemorgen vrienden,

   I have a concluded my three month stay in the home of my ancestors. It was a life-changing experience and one that I don’t know if I will ever replicate. I’ve had a lot of time for introspection and thoughts about how I got to this point in my life. Today it is time to move on. I’m in the beautiful city of Leiden with my good friends, Howard and Annemies. Julie will be joining me on a week and it will be a moment of joy. I have really missed her. It is so appropriate that we are reconnecting in the place where we started living together 41 years ago.

    Yes, 41 years ago, in 1985 I was teaching school in a suburban school district near Rochester, New York. It had been two years since my first wife, Sunnee McCourt, had tragically passed away. I was left with two kids, a dog, a parakeet and no plans for the future. My most important task was to make sure that my kids were able to live a calm uninterrupted life. So I bought a house in Penfield, New York and we lived there as a family of three. My kids, Kara and Jay were not too happy when I told him I was going on a date. Of course, that was the famous bowling night when Julie and I first got "fixed up" by my teaching partner, Karen. As I said before it was love by the fifth frame. We never went bowling again until our 25th wedding anniversary. But that spring of 1985 was very perplexing. How could I fall in love and still take care of my two children. Julie had a young son,Benjamin who was three years old and it became very confusing for us. We dated for several months went on a couple of trips together, including a beautiful time in Niagara on the Lake….where I secretly proposed. But marriage was not in the immediate plan. I don’t think my kids could have taken that so early after losing their mother.

      So it was, that on cold day, at the end of March, 1985, I was sitting at my desk at school.  Randomly, I happened to open the newspaper. Jumping right out at me in the want ads were the words "TEACH IN EUROPE. TAX FREE! APPLY TODAY". I called the number of the ad and set up an interview for the next day. I walked in and there was a very jolly guy by the name of Dr. Gail Schoppert. He was the superintendent at the American School in The Hague and was recruiting for a position of a special education teacher. I told him of my situation and that I had two kids who I was raising and he told me they would love the school. We really hit it off, and he hired me on the spot. He said to me, "you were just what we are looking for and your kids will have the the chance to start a new life in Europe". It was a golden opportunity and I accepted the job immediately. I called Julie and said, "I am moving to Europe, do you want to join me?" Without hesitation, she said "my bags are packed!" Now her family was a little bit upset because Julie‘s mom‘s closest cousin, George Hoffmeier had taught in Europe and never returned. Her parents felt that we would hardly see each other again. But it seemed like a plan to start our life together.

    Now neither of us had ever been to Europe, but we made all the arrangements, got our passports, got our tickets and, after an after a big farewell party, we arrived in the middle of August 1985. Within a couple of days of arriving, I had my intake interview with Dr. Schoppert. He asked how the kids were adjusting and told me they would really love the school. They were in fifth and sixth grade at the middle school where I was going to be teaching.  It was then that I told him, rather randomly, that I had brought my girlfriend and her young son. He looked at me incredulously and said, "WHAT! you can’t do that. This is Europe! They have rules! You have to have a special visa to stay here. This is completely wrong. You can’t let this happen. She’s going to have to go back." Of course I was rather embarrassed, but I was able to blurt out,  "Well, she told me to tell you, her uncle is George Hoffmeier" Well, of course, Gail Schoppert and George Hoffmeier had worked together over the past 30 years and knew each other very well. He did a palm to the forehead slap and then said, "oh shit, I’ll find her some kind of job blowing a whistle on the playground". The rest is history…   

Met vrede,

John Bernunzio 

I had to include at least one collage of the tremendous food that we had at the reception for Mauro Amato’s graduation. It was perhaps the best food I ever had in my life.

A Google translation of menu from our fabulous dinner!

The three amigos and the old man…. I love these kids. We’ll be friends for the rest of my life.

… and even though I will miss the sunsets at the Fronte Mare in Trapani, the beach at Scheveningen has a pretty good viewing of the sunset

…… and of course there’s always the tulips….