My name is Jo Douma, I am retired and live together with my wife since August 2001 in the north-eastern part of the province Friesland,
in a village called Surhuisterveen. I am married and we have 2 children.
Both children already left home.
Since 1994 I restore German HEINKEL motorscooters as a hobby.The Heinkel motorscooters were produced from 1953 to 1965.
In the sixties I made daily trips with a Heinkel scooter between The Hague, where I lived at the time, and Utrecht (about 70km one way).
While recovering from a deadly disease (lungcancer) I was resting on the terrace in my garden on a beautiful summerday-afternoon,
when I suddenly heard the unique four-stroke sound of a Heinkel scootermotor again.
I remember telling my wife that I very much liked to own a Heinkel scooter again.
In September 1994 via an advertisement in a national journal, I purchased a very rusty scooter, which, in its previous life, could well have been a Heinkel scooter.
Restoration took more than half a year. And in July 1995 I was progressed to the stage that I could bring it to the Rijks Dienst Wegverkeer
(Department of Motor Vehicles) in order to obtain the necessary documents.
I was very lucky.
I was granted the right to mount the license plate that was issued with the original certificate of ownership of 1961, because the scooter was still filed in the archives.
Some years later in 2005 after my lungoperation it turned out that my heart was not working adequate due to calcification of my aorticvalve. The valve functioned at last for only 25 per cent.
I had to pass an operation. I received a titanium-valve. After10 days I was home again. I have worked hard and trained much in order to bring the condition back.
I may say the result was very good.
Since then I ride during the whole year again on one of my scooters
Here you see from left to right my daughter,my daughter's partner. my son, my wife and myself, during a weekend we offered our children on behalf of our marriage for 45 years in August 2008.
