On May 11, 2005www.cityofbeacon.org received the following letter .....

Dear Sir,

I was very surprised to find the name and photograph of Mr. Kenneth G. Perry on the Beacon-town site. Mr. Perry is buried on the War Cemetery in Margraten, which is a small village in Holland. Probably you know that President Bush visited the Cemetery on Memorial day last Sunday. Me and my familiy had the honor to be invited to the ceremony which was also attended by our prime minister Mr. Balkenende and Her Majesty Queen Beatrix. The reason that we were invited is that we adopted two graves on the cemetery. One of these graves is the last resting place of Mr. Kenneth G. Perry. Originally the graves were adopted by my father N.J. Bosch immediately after the world war. At that time approximately 18.000 soldiers were buried at Margraten. About 10.000 were brought back to their home country. In 1950 the cemetery became its current shape. Early this year I was asked for taking over the adoption of the graves as my father past away. Of course I accepted as these young men gave their lives for our freedom.  The idea of this adoption is that a few times a year some flowers will be put on the grave. Some prayer may be said.  If you know any family of mister Perry, please tell them that we will keep on paying attention to their lost beloved. I want to apologize for my bad English.

My home village was liberated by the Americans at the 9th of September 1944. The northern part of Holland had to wait for liberation until May 1945! They suffered a long winter of hunger as the Germans refused to surrender to the Canadian army. Our village is situated in a valley with small hills at both sides. In September 1944 liberation the Germans were fighting from one side, the Americans from the other side. The gunfire lasted for about one week. My parents we hiding in their cellar. At one moment a gun was pointed at them. It took some time for them to realize that it was not a German but an American soldier. So they were free! After clearing the area the American soldiers (I think it was the ninth army) went into Germany. We live just about 2 kilometers (approximately 1,5 miles) from the German border. My mother remembers a gigantic column of army vehicles and soldiers passing by for several days. From that moment until the end of the war she saw lots of transports of dead soldiers coming back from Germany on their way to the Margraten Cemetery. To her this was even more impressive then the gunfire over their heads. When visiting the cemetery she still gets emotional.

Yours faithfully,

Th.Bosch
Nijswiller, Holland
thei.bosch@hetnet.nl