About me is not the story of my work and the great skills I have. It is also not about the interesting travels I made or about the other fantastic things I did and made in my life. You may read about all that in separate sections of this site. It might be interesting and fun, but it is not what made me.
Rather the special people in my life made who I am now. My parents who taught me the value of family life and sacrifice, my children who showed me what is really important in life, the women in my life showing me how to love and my friends showing what genuine interest in another person can look like.
Now for privacy reasons, it may not be a good idea to include all the people around me by full names and with pictures. But I did so for some family pictures and for people who agreed. Expect this section to evolve further, just like life.
Some pictures of my parents and brothers. My father died in 2008, my mother is still alive. My brothers Hans and Willem live in the south of the country and we still meet often.
And here are my sons: Jeroen and Martijn. Needless to say I am very proud of them. Both in the past and in the present.
And here are some pictures of Jaap, my close friend, and his wife Petra, whom I’ve known since our university days. Together, Jaap and I ran our first marathon in Rotterdam, tackled the Liège–Bastogne–Liège cycling challenge a few times, and in the good old cold winters, we used to go ice skating.
Young EZ is a group of friends who first met while working at the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Geert, Yoland, Robert, and I served together on the board of young civil servants, and we’ve stayed in touch ever since. Each year, we usually take a holiday together and also keep up the tradition of sharing a Christmas dinner.
Another group of friends that are very important in my life are Ferenc, U Yong, Ton and Edwin. Over the last 30 years we have played cards so many times, went to the Rotterdam film festival together, had wine tasting events and did many other fun activities.
Fred Lafeber 