Willem and Monique
Willem was the kind of whose hands could make what his eyes saw. His specialty and hobby was the creation of scale models of buildings along Route 66.
In 2005 he and his wife, Monique, planned a vacation to the USA for the first time during which they drove a part of Route 66 in New Mexico, Arizona and California and they fell in love with the road! They always made lots of pictures so the collection of pictures of Route 66 buildings was very large.
Willem always liked to make things but time wasn’t there until 2010! He worked as a private contractor and, due to the recession, he had no work for a couple of months so he started making scale models. The first one was Lucille’s in Hydro, OK. The second one was the 66 Super Service Station in Alanreed, TX. and the third one, a very important one, was the Little Juarez Diner in Glenrio, TX.
Judy Wallmark, treasurer of the Lebanon Laclede Library, saw Willem’s question on the internet, he couldn’t read the name and he want to build it as realistic as could be so he asked people for information. Judy told him they had a diorama in the museum that was unfinished. She had searched the USA for someone to finish it but couldn’t find anyone so when she saw that he built scale models she was thrilled! The diorama depicts the crossroad of Route 66 and Missouri Route 5 in the 1940s. The cabins of Nelson’s Dream Village were there but the key element was missing, the landmark Nelson Tavern Service Station, water tower and pump house. There were only some old postcards and newspaper articles so it was a huge challenge to build the model! He received the measurements from Judy and started to build it. In a couple of months, it was ready and Willem and his wife travelled to Lebanon where he finished the diorama for them. The unveiling was a big happening and this was the definite start of his career in model building. In the next 6 years he built another 32 models, all stunning on beauty, realism and detail.
He donated several models to the Lebanon Laclede Library, the Pontiac Oakland Museum in Illinois and the Route 66 Museum in Victorville, CA. They were almost all brought to the USA during vacations of the couple. In August 2014 Dries Bessels and his wife Marion Flimm were invited to the Route 66 festival in Kingman. Willem and Monique were also invited but not able to be there due to his work.
Willem asked Dries to not tell anybody but bring the model of ‘4 Women on the Route’ to the US to be presented to Melba during the festival. Melba had been nagging Willem for years to build a model of this place! Cris Rutgers created a custom box that Dries hand carried on the flight from Amsterdam to Houston and from Houston to Kingman. Before he left, he posted pictures on Facebook of the box and did the same from the airport in Houston and later Kingman. By the time they arrived at the festival everybody knew he was carrying that box but nobody knew what was inside so it was a source of a lot of curiosity. He’d been asked to give a presentation and did so while the unopened box sat prominently on the stage and by the end of the presentation, he asked Melba to come to the stage. It took some pressure on Melba (applied by her sister Renee) to get her there, especially since she did not know what was going to happen. When Dries opened the box and got the model out, she went silent! A rather unique thing so I have been told. Later when Dries was in Galena he assembled the model and it is now proudly on display in ‘Cars on the Route’ in Galena.
Unfortunately, Willem became ill in 2015 but he kept on building models. The treatment went well and Willem and Monique even went to the USA that year. In 2016 the illness got worse and he was at home most of the time. Making scale models was a much-needed pastime for him and he made 12 models that year. In December 2016 the disease became really bad and in January 2017 a group of friends went to Willem and Monique’s house for a final goodbye. During that visit Willem mentioned to Dries that he would like it very much if his models (his house was filled with them by now) would be sent to the US to be displayed in the state where the actual building was located. Dries decided he would make this happen and started a fund raiser that same day. He sent out a load of email and Facebook messages and the response was almost overwhelming. Within a day or two there was well over 4000 Euro and it was clear he would be able to help Willem with his last wish! He contacted Route 66 Associations and several museums along the route and in almost those same few days we had found locations for all of them. Locations where the models would be on display and be enjoyed, just like Willem wanted.
However, shipping such vulnerable models to the USA is a difficult thing to get done and at one stage Dries was ready to give up. He simply did not know how to deal with all the customs paper work, airway bills, shipment manifests and such. That was when he contacted DHL to ask about the cost of such shipment and they were so impressed by the story that they called him back the next day to say that they would take care of everything plus pay for the actual shipment! You can imagine how relieved we were but also how immensely happy that Willem actually got to know about this before he died.
A few days later Willem’s funeral took place and it was very difficult for our group of friends, struggling with our own sentiments and supporting Monique at the same time. A big mental boost came when we received the shipping boxes, made again by Cris Rutgers (one of the members of the association), and starting packing them up. We loaded 4 cars full of boxes and drove to the DHL office at the airport where we did the final packing and labeling together with the incredibly helpful people from DHL and we waved them goodbye. It was an emotional experience but also so incredibly good to know that the models went all along Route 66 and can be seen by all who travel the Route 66!
A complete list including photos can be found online on the Dutch Route 66 Association website at: (https://rte66.nl/index.php/ct-menu-item-39/modelbouw).