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Croiset the Clairvoyant - Jack Harrison Pollack

Nothing on earth pleases Gerard Croiset more than what happened in the tiny town of Heeten, Holland, on July 23, 1962. An eighteen-month-old infant named Marijke Alfering disappeared. Hundreds of policemen, firemen, and neighbours searched for the missing little girl. They dragged in all the ditches, canals, and nearby cornfields and waters without finding a trace.

It grew dark and the child had still not been found. The burgomaster, A. J. Groteboom of Raalte, then telephoned Croiset. Before he had uttered a single word, Croiset told him what the call was about:

"The child is alive! It is sleeping near a ditch!"

The anxious searchers resumed their hunt, this time near the ditches. But the baby was still not found. The desperate burgomaster phoned another clairvoyant, G. H. Groot Enserink of Ruurlo, who independently confirmed Croiset’s impressions.

It was now so dark that the searchers could not see where they were going. They spread out at different spots in the area indicated by Croiset. They remained there, listening for any sounds that might reveal where the child was. Hours passed.

At last, one of the men heard a baby's whimpering. He rushed to see what it was, and there found Marijke lying in the mud of the ditch. She probably fell while playing and, being so tiny, couldn't pull herself out of the mire. The sleepy child was taken home, bathed, and put to bed. The next morning she was playing again as if nothing had happened!

To Marijke’s anguished parents, the Utrecht paragnost’s message - "The child is alive!" - rang like a cathedral bell through their hearts. Their joy at discovering the correctness of child-loving Gerard Croiset's vision was worth more to them than all the guilders and gold in the world.