Story time:
When I was like ten years old, there was an old woman that was living near our town in the Netherlands. She was called The Witch of St Agatha. She really looked like a witch just like you would picture it from a fairy tale. An old woman with a big lump on her nose, wearing old ragged clothing, living in a tiny ruinous house all by herself. She once in a while went for groceries to our town. I remember seeing her twice when I was young. The first time was in the supermarket. I always heard about her and wondered how she would look like irl. And there she was, looking for something in the shelves. Already at the first glance, I knew straight away that it was her, the local witch. There was so much contrast between the supermarkets ambience and her appearence, it was like an actor from a medieval movie came in to do some shopping. I was shocked by the way she looked and I can still picture it in my mind where she stood and what she looked like. All I remember is how I got away from there quickly as possible.
A few years later I saw her again but this time from a distance. I was with a couple of friends and we’re hainging around together. Little did we do but we started to talk about the stories that went around about how dirty she was. Some people said that she took a dump inside a supermarket floor and walked away like nothing happened. Some time later (it must have been my summer vacation) we went to look for her house. Just out of curiosity but also to find out what was true about the stories that were told. We did found her house but we didn’t even dare to stop. We where on our bikes and once we found her house, we quickly passed by. I remember I didn’t even look because I was to scared to see her and even worse, that she would see me.
Fast forward 30 years.
Last summer I was talking with my gf about urban myths and out of the blue my memories about our local witch popped into my mind and I started to talk about her. About how she was our urban myth and local witch. I hadn’t thought about it for almost 30 years and there I was, telling about her like she was a local myth. I was triggered right away. What would be the true story? Is there anything I can find out about her? That same night I went look for her on Google but I gave up quickly because me and my gf where in the middle of a night of telling stories and sharing memories.
The next day
There was no way to let go my thoughts about the local witch. Suddenly it hit me. There must be a story behind this woman’s life. There’s a reason why she lived like a hermit and why she lived a banned live all by herself. I decided to look again for information on the internet and this time I found her real name. Anna. Her name was Anna.
Full name:
Johanna Jacoba Maria Peters born on May 29 1911 - St Agatha
I found out more that afternoon on a local website. There was a short story about Anna. About her young life and how she ended up the way she did. At the end of the article there was a comment about a book in our local library that was written about the life of Anna. Written by her cousin that took care for her when she got older and weaker. The local library is less than a mile away from my home so I went for it. At first they couldn’t find it but after half an hour we finally found it in a section of local books written by local authors. A small book but it’s everything I could find so I took it home and read it in one go and finished it in four hours. Such a sad story. I’ve just learned about the life of Anna and how she died. It hit me real hard and left me with tears in my eyes.
The story of Anna
Anna has lived almost her entire life in the house that she also was born in. The same house that you see at the top of this post. The same house I’ve found that summer day with my friends when I was a kid. She was the oldest child in a family of four doughters. She had two brothers who both died at young age. Her mother died when she was 9 years old, leaving Anna behind with her father and three sisters. Her father send her to live with her aunt and when she was 11 years old, they took her from school to work as a maid and make some money for the family. After all her younger sisters grew up and left dads house, Anna went back to take care for her father. She did this for 10 years until her father died. After that life turned against her. She dedicated her whole life taking care of her family and after that, she became an outcast, misunderstood and bullied by local kids. Anna found her way to live her life and had everything she needed to stay alive. This and her house was everything she needed, together with a lot of animals surrounding her. Those must have been her only nearby friends in life.
There was a reason why people gave her names like dirty Anna. She did smell like urine I learned from the book. She slept with the dogs and never took a shower.
The only people that where finally looking after Anna where her cousin and neighbors. With a lot of effort they managed to create a cabin for her, next to her home that was to dangerous to live in because of the collapsing roof. That didn’t work and the situation became more and more unhygienic. After a long time they finally got her ready to move into a nursing home. There she got a bath, television, good meals and most important, love from people who took care of her. The place where she spend the last years of her life. Enjoying it.
The graveyard
After reading the book I decided to look up her grave and visit it. Not sure why but I wanted to show some kind of respect to her. I did find the graveyard but not her grave. She probably had no money or insurance and ended up with a nameless grave.
From that afternoon on, I remember Anna as a real person, human being with a big heart and not as the local witch.
