Apparently things were much better between Alfred and his wife, as he wrote on March 3 to his daughter, with whom he was at odds again.

A good month later, the fairy tale is over and he has put Wilhelmina at the door. In the meantime, he has put his house in the Charlottalei in Hemiksem up for sale, for which he authorizes Mr. Muyshondt from Hingene to conclude the sale. Half of the price will go to his wife after deduction of taxes and remaining debts for social security and other things from AJEKO. To the latter Alfred tells his story about his wife's jealousy. It all started in 1942 when they built AJEKO in the Bosstraat. As you can see in the publicity film, a lot of women worked in the production for fixing the glass eye, making dents in Christmas balls, simple paintings, etcetera. Somehow Wilhelmina saw a threat in those women and feared she would be abandoned, trauma she might have suffered when she became an orphan. It escalated more and more, lies and gossip were told and Alfred just went crazy. He kept writing about it until his death. In fact, Wilhelmina was his wife for life, but her jealousy just made that impossible. After this some pieces from Alfred's letters to Mr. Muyshondt.

Where he speaks about Lilar, that is the lawyer of Wilhelmina who had AJEKO seized in 1951. Lilar was Minister of Justice after WWII, in other words, not a cheap guy.

Alfred did not avoid heavy language. That was an expression of frustration and anger. You'll notice he stopped working and paid 16 men because of the seizure for not losing his good glassblowers. He had to let the other 40 go. When you know that he worked with almost 100 people in the top years, it is clear that the competition was fierce. The seizure was of course a heavy drain, not only because of the wage cost but also the fact that he could not deliver and had to pay damages.

Later that year on the 27th and 28th of November his wife is suddenly at the door to pick up her clothes and personal belongings with the local gendarmerie. In his story to Muyshondt he describes what we would call a 'soap opera' today. He was almost prepared to reconcile with her but because of her tirade full of accusations he made a final decision and put an end to it. Alfred writes 2 more letters to her in December, one of which a fragment you'll find hereafter.

Essen Kleider und stoppen (die Kousen natürlich) daß hätte ich schon früher müßen machen, und nicht solange mit meine Klooten spielen lassen, durch eine Eifersüchtige Krankhafte Vrouw. Note that Alfred uses German and Dutch interchangeably and regularly uses the old German spelling in his writing.

This is the end of his 7-page farewell letter.

It started as a fairy tale, there was work and then the jealousy crept into the relationship and ended in a nightmare both human and financial.