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| L to R: Hilda van Stockum and Henriette van Marle. |
Brigid just reported back to me who it is standing next to HvS:
That's my cousin Henriette van Marle! It could be Dublin. She visited us there when we were teenagers. I was 15 and she was 19 or 20. I wrote about her in my book, A Meaning for Danny. We were great friends when we were in Holland after the war. I was 11 and she was 16.Yes, I remember that summer. We were at De Leemküle in Hattem, near Tante Hessie [van Hall] and her Kolkhuis. It was a holiday camp in the woods, with common cooking facilities and little cabins.
Brigid reminded me that Henriette's mother and sister traded names within the family. Hilda Boissevain de Booy and Olga Boissevain van Stockum were the middle two of daughters of Charles and Emily Boissevain. Charles was the editor of the Algemeen Handelsblad, now the nrcHandelsblad.
Henriette's older sister was called Hilda and her Mother was called Olga. This Olga /Hilda exchange was started by our granny Olga, and our great-aunt Hilda Boissevain [de Booy]. They agreed to name their daughters after each other. Their daughters did the same. The tradition stopped then because our Olga didn't have kids, I didn't have a girl, and Sheila gave her girls Irish first names to go with their O'Neill surname.This an opportunity to provide an update on family news:
- My sister Sheila Marlin O'Neill, sadly, died in September, a month before her 78th birthday. Her funeral in England was last month.
- HvS's cousin Tom de Booy (son of Hilda and Han de Booy) recently died at 93. Our cousin Charles Boissevain is writing Tom's obituary for the nrcHandelsblad.
