Het geluk is vlakbij (Happiness is nearby) by Lenie Stafleu-Kruikemeier, a Dutch author. The book was first published in 1956 by Callenbach and has illustrations by Hans Borrebach. It was reprinted in 1981.
The somewhat stubborn nineteen-year-old parentless Inge thinks she is too much mothered by her older married sisters and brothers. She wants to lead her own life and therefore takes a job in a village in Groningen, with a widow with a busy family and a drapery shop. By tackling it hard, she manages to help the neglected shop get back on its feet. Mrs. Wiarda gives her a lot of life wisdom, which makes her more confident, also in her feelings for Jan, the eldest son of the house. After spending a year in Australia with her emigrated sister, she can look forward to a future with Jan Wiarda.
Lenie Stafleu-Kruikemeier
After her education, she mainly worked in libraries and bookshops. She published Sunday school booklets abs girls’ novels (ages 14-18) in the Ster series. She also wrote short stories in newspapers and magazines; and she worked for some time for the school radio of the Dutch public radio station NCRV. From 1980 to 1988 she provided a weekly question column in the newspaper Trouw under the pseudonym Heleen van Batenburg.
