hallo. mijn naam is johannes gerardus klabbers. until the age of 22 i answered to the name of hans. 

i was born above the big rivers on [my mother's 23rd birthday](mothers-23rd-birthday) in the long shadow of the nazi occupation and the famine in the honger winter of 1944-5. 

at the ages of 5, 10, 20 and 60 there were Events that would take the rest of my life to come to terms with. 

i used to live under a rock afraid of things that might befall me — but i didn't know it. 

my life has been lived under the sign of [things-that-almost-happened](things-that-almost-happened).