Sharing flowers
Feb 25th, 2010 by Administrator
Hedwig Roumimper-Pangkei – Surabaya, 6-Dec-1933 – Zoetermeer, 1-Aug-2003
Annie Scheepe-Grüwel – Surabaya, 18-Dec-1921 – Zoetermeer, 23-Feb-2010
Today 25 February 2010, a memorial service was held to celebrate the life of tante Annie. When mama was a young child she lost both her parents and Tante Annie took care of mama. Thanks to her, mama was able to survive the second world war and the Bersiap independence war directly after that. Having lost everything, mama did not have any papers, fortunately oom Ernst managed to arrange a passport which allowed mama to go from Indonesia to Holland. Tante Annie moved on from Holland to California where she raised her family, mama stayed in Holland where she raised us, and during all these years they stayed in close contact. In 2003 at the age of 81, tante Annie moved from Redwood City back to Holland, living close to us in Zoetermeer. Unfortunately, mama was only able to care for tante Annie for a very short while, as she passed away shortly after tante Annie returned. Mama was always very grateful for everything tante Annie had done for her, without tante Annie mama would not have survived, without tante Annie we would not exist. The strong bond between our families started with tante Annie and mama, and we will continue to care for each other and our families.
After tante Annie’s memorial service, we took her flowers to mama. As we go into the future, we will continue to share the love between our families, just like our mothers taught us to, just like they shared the flowers today.
