Jenneke Bertine Klasina Stinis

Q: But you tried to go to Schoevers again in September 1983.

A: Afterwards, that was "maybe" the biggest mistake of my life.

Q: Why?

A: Well, I still didn’t feel 100% and, like a year earlier, typing was still a nightmare for me. My wrist was hurting all the time and sometimes I had to stop halfway the lesson, because I couldn’t do anything with my hand anymore or, when I continued, it took me hours before the pain was gone again. I’m not a person who gives up something I started easy so I continue how hard it was.

Q: Wow. That’s very brave of you, but you never made it till the end of the schoolyear didn’t you?

A: Don’t ask me about that. The whole year has been a struggle to survive and in May 1984 our neighbors (on number 136) started to do some renovations in their house just when I had my exams. They were breaking and rebuilding from early in the morning till late in the evening. Fine when you’re still dealing with a terrible headache almost every day. I tried everything I could, but just one day before the exams I got a nervous breakdown.

Q: No wonder after all you been going trough the last couple of years. But you had no clue that that would happen?

A: No, I didn’t. Not at that moment. Afterwards there were some signals but I never realized that all these things could have such an impact on someone’s life. It took me months to overcome everything and sometimes I still have problems with it. When I’m tired my head is hurting again but I got used to it by now. Till that time I’m at home.

Q: And found some other hobbies to spend your time.

A: Yes I did. In 1992 I made a dollhouse "Berenglore". I had a dollhouse when I was younger as you can see of these photos but Berenglore

is much bigger and so beautiful. I even made a videotape of the whole building of Berenglore and it’s so funny to watch this tape from time to time.

So I found some other hobbies to fill in my spare time.

Q: Spare time? What keeps you so busy that you can speak about "spare time"?

A: I guess, you heard that I’m a big fan of the American singer/actor Don Johnson since 1986 and that I’m the president of The Dutch Don Johnson Fan Club since 1994. I met a lot of people over the years that became real friends. One of them helps me with the website of the Fan Club and with some other friends we celebrate Don’s birthday every year. That really became a tradition now and it’s so great to see each other again then. (Click here to go to "The Dutch Don Johnson Fan Club" to read more on this site about my hobby or go directly to the website of The Dutch Don Johnson Fan Club on the Internet).

Q: I can imagine now, after reading this page and seeing the website of the Fan Club that running a Fan Club takes a lot of your time. And you are still living at home aren’t you?

A: That’s right. My mother isn’t that mobile anymore and you can imagine she’s glad that I’m around to help her with things. But she’s not sitting in a chair the whole day as she did in the past.

Q: What do you mean by that?

A: After she left the hospital in 1978 she received a lot of medicines. They didn’t help only made her, as I said before, sitting in her chair and didn’t do anything at all. That took several years till she went to the hospital again in 1990. Her blood wasn’t good. She was very tired at that time. So in April 1990 she went to the hospital for 6 weeks. In the beginning they had no idea what was wrong with her. She have had troubles with her blood during her whole life so maybe that was just the reason. The only thing they could find where some gallstones and they decided to operate her to remove them. Maybe you can imagine how afraid I was by then, loosing her as well, but everything happened without any problems. Of course I visited her every day only missed one day when I had the flu myself. When she arrived at the hospital, the doctors gave me all the medicines back she used before and till that time she only uses some medicine for her bloodpressure and to control her blood. That’s all. She’s really doing well now and she said: "I missed so many years of my life using medicines I didn’t need" And that’s a fact.

Q: I heard you got some new neighbors on number 136 in 1988. Is that correct?

A: Oh that’s a funny story. The new ones wanted the house so much that they ordered the old ones to move out before the end of 1988. The new ones moved in January 1989 but only lived there till June 1990! Then they split up and we got new neighbors again.

Q: That’s strange. Considering the fact that they wanted the house so badly.

A: There were some arguments between them. We heard them yelling against each other from time to time, but we never had much contact with them so we didn’t miss them that much.

Q: Is there anything else you like to talk about? Where there interested things you want to mention here?

A: The last couple of years where very quiet except for the big renovations we have had lately.

Q: Renovations? What kind of renovations?

A: Well, it all started in 1997 here in our own house. I told you earlier that I repainted my father’s room when we moved in here. After all these years, his room became more and more a place to store things you never used again. In December 1996 I started to clean up the whole 2nd floor of the house. I never realized that we "saved" so many unuseless things over the years. It took me three months to clean up everything. And then I wanted to repaint the windows, doors and so on the 2nd floor. The windows were never 100% (just like the window in my "Office" that we had replaced in October 1996 and then we found out why it became so windy in the room. There was a hole of 3 cm between the window and the wall!), but now it would be a real nightmare to repaint them so we decided to replace them as well.

In March 1997 someone came to give us an indication of the costs and besides the windows we also wanted to replace the doors from the major bedroom and the balcony. By the end of April everything took place. It was a real sensation. With a big truck and a lot of people who worked so hard that everything was finished within 4 days. Then my work started with repainting the doors and the walls and redecorating my father’s room and the rest of the 2nd floor. At the beginning it was a real mess. On the 2nd floor and I thought it would never be a normal room again, but I just finished everything before my mother’s 80th birthday so everybody who visited us could see the new room. We were (and still are) very proud of it.

Then in August 1997 our new neighbors of 136 started with a renovation of the garden. After a couple of weeks it was possible to walk through four gardens at the same time. All the fences were moved away and in the beginning of September 1997 we got new ones.

In 1998 they renovated the kitchen and recently the bathroom.

Q: And you have plans to do these same renovations as well?

A: Oh no. We’re happy with our kitchen and bathroom. They are not up-to-date but since 1990 my mother is sleeping downstairs so I’m the only one who’s using the bathroom. Plenty space for someone alone.

Q: One last question for this moment. Do you have any pets? Your father told me that he had a dog "Max" but you never mention you have had pets yourself.

A: In the Obrechtstraat it was too dangerous to have pets with a tram crossing the house on the backside. When we moved to this new house, there was nobody in our family we could ask anymore to take care of an animal when we wanted to go out for a day or a holiday.

We decided not to take one, but since 1992 we got to know the two cats of our neighbors of number 136.They call us "Their adopted parents". I guess we saw them for the first time in July or August 1992 when they were only a couple of months old. They were born on April 13, 1992 and their names are Waus and Tijger. Since we got to know them, they were popping in here almost every day. We had a lot of fun with them. They even spent some nights here (the last time the night of December 31, 1999 – January 1st, 2000) and we looked after them when the neighbors were on vacation.

Just recently there happened a real tragedy into all of our lives. Tijger went ill and how hard we all tried to save him, we didn’t succeed and he died on April 17, 2000 just 4 days after his 8th birthday.

As you can imagine, we miss him so very much and we’ll never forget him. Luckily we still have Waus running around.

Q: But it wasn’t the end of everything, wasn’t it?

A: No not really. On August 18 (it was my 42th birthday, what a wonderful timing!), I became ill. I was in a lot of pain and I couldn’t walk or sit anymore. Everything was swollen and the best thing I could do was to lay in bed, but we had some visitors so I stayed up. I still can imagine how I made it through the day, but during the weekend I only stayed in bed. Then on Monday the doctor discovered an infektion. I got some medication but that even made me feel worser so I decided to take some medicine of the homeopathic circuit and that helped within some days. When I reduced the medicine the infektion came back, so I’m still taking them now.

Q: This must have been a terrible time for you and for your mother as well.

A: It was. Not really a time to look back to. I hope everything is over now. I’m still recovering from it all, but I’m making some progress.

Q: Thank you so much for this personal interview and when there’s something happening in your life again please let me know. Then we continue this interview.

A: You’re welcome.

Back to Contents J.B.K. Stinis

Or use the Back button of your browser to return to the last page

| Home | What’s new | Genealogical tree of the family Quast | Genealogical tree of the family Stinis | G.W. Stinis | J.M. Stinis – van Straten |

| J.B.K. Stinis | Our holidays | Our hobbies | Special occasions |