My sailing boats were called after her as is our daughter. She would have turned 85 today but passed away long before the internet became popular, let alone social media. She would have loved it. Showing how pride she was of her grandchildren on Facebook (or better Instagram, she would have told me that Facebook was for the elderly), spoiling them with Sinterklaas and anxiously hoping that everybody would be at her dinner table over Christmas. Traditional turkey from the local butcher would have been served with cranberries. We might have gone to church. Just for the atmosphere. Or she would have proposed to go all together to our son’s restaurant, Café de Gaper: ‘It will be good for his revenues.’ She loved to be with us, her family.
My niece, called Lucy, never forgets her birthday. Every year she texts me. It’s wonderful to notice the ripples my mother left. The glass in the picture is hers. She was in the board of the Leidse Pieterskerk, dating back to 1121! There is a small cabinet for all the former board members of the church. She can always come by to have a glass of wine.
That would be wonderful to do together.