John Hopmans was born on October 19 in 1945. Because of the aftermath of world war 2,the family Hopmans did not return to Groesbeek until 1950. They went to live in a temporary after after the war home, that formerly was occupied by the Grandparents Hopmans, and was located in a district in Groesbeek that was known as " De Horst". John and his parents and the rest of the family lived there for approximately 10 years, after witch time they moved to: Gooiseweg # 25,this address was a lot closer to down town Groesbeek. John lived at the address at the Gooiseweg until August 1968,after witch time he became an immigrant, and moved to Canada. Not withstanding the fact that John already has been living in Canada for very many years,(38 years to be exact, John has nothing but beautiful memories about Groesbeek, witch according to John, the most beautiful district in Holland is. The reason that John moved to Canada, has something to do with the fact, that John as a small child already knew that he would see more from the world than only Holland. After a relationship with Netje Bögels that lasted 6 years, of witch relationship John only good memories has, finally the question was raised about going to Canada, and since his girlfriend Netje was of a different opinion than John at that time, therefore their ways parted. Just before John was to leave for Canada, he met his first wife, and on August 29 1968 they arrived in Montreal. Two days after their arrival in Canada, John and his wife had rented a small apartment, and at the same time John had found a job in construction as a carpenter. At that time John worked almost day and night, and he was only 22 years old. After about 7 month, John and his wife had saved up enough money to buy their first little house. After years of hard work, around 1980,Johns good life in Canada, came to a abrupt halt. Because the interest rates had all of a sudden jumped from about 7% to 25% it became impossible to make ends meet. However knowing John, he did not pack it in, he picket up the pieces, moved to British Columbia and started all over again. How difficult this time for John was is reflected in the fact that his marriage also came to an end. Furthermore John Told me that For some years he had his own small furniture factory in Vancouver, with an average of 5 to 6 employees, and they made custom furniture and store interiors. However after about 5 years, this type of business became so very competitive on our market, partly because of the Asian influx on our market that it became impossible to compete, so therefore John closed his little factory, and took on a job as foreman and super intendment of the concrete construction of high-rises in and around Vancouver. At that time the average high-rise was between 30 and 35 stories, so according to John ,you had better not be afraid of heights. John did this work for approximately 10 years, and when he was 52,he left Vancouver, and moved to the district of the Okanogan, to the City of Penticton, and that is were he now lives. For John there is only one more challenge in Canada, because John is slowly but surely looking forward to his retirement, he hopes that his wife Colleen and Him may stay in good health, for many years to come. Furthermore John hopes that by that time he will still have a little workshop, like he has now, and during the year build toys for children, and around Christmas time donate these toys to the different children organizations. John himself has 2 children, his daughter Joyce, born on may 26 1969, and an adopted sun Al. Finally I want to ad to this story that after 17 years, John will again set foot in Groesbeek. He will stay as a guest in Groesbeek from June )3 until June 23 in 2005. If everything goes O.K. than there will be a nice follow up to this story, because sometime in June I will meet him. John welcome to Groesbeek.