Jenneke Maria Stinis-van Straten

Q: Till you got married?

A: Almost till I got married.

Q: How did you meet your husband?

A: That’s another story. I’ll start at the beginning. We were still visiting Aunt Nel in the Piet Heinstraat and she told us that her cousin, Gerard Stinis, became a widower. We had met him and his wife several times. I don’t know or my husband told you something about this family background already, but I’ll do it here as well.

Aunt Nell had a halfsister, Clasien Quast. Her mother was the halfsister of Gerard’s father. Clasien was family of another part of the Quast family of my mother. A family with a lot of half sisters and brothers. Almost too difficult to explain here. Anyway, Gerard was alone now and Aunt Nell had told him before that she knew a very nice new wife for him (that was me). She told me the same thing and that was it, I thought.

Q: But you met him and then….

A: It was October 1948 when Gerard phoned me at the Centrale and asked me to come over to the Piet Heinstraat. He would be there as well. Later he walked me home and he said to me: "You had cold hands", that wasn’t true but he took my hands and put them in his pocket. That was so sweet of him and yes I guess there our romance started and never ended.

Q: He spent Christmas 1948 with you and your mother didn’t he?

A: He had dinner with us. We were engaged on May 8, 1949 and married on December 14, 1949.

Q: A week later as planned I heard.

A: We planned to get married on December 7, 1949 but at the end of November 1949 I laid in bed with angina and wasn’t permitted to go out. In the meantime, Gerard helped my mother moving again this time to the Tomatenstraat. By the end of November they transported me to the Obrechtstraat where Gerard lived with his housekeeper and at the end of the day they moved me to the Tomatenstraat where I woke up the next morning between the boxes and so on. I slept on the 2nd floor till the day I married.

Q: What kind of day was December 14, 1949?

A: A very quiet one. There were some colleagues of my husband and from the Centrale. Obvious I could wait any longer to become Mrs. Stinis, because I said, "Yes" before they asked me to do so. Everybody started to laugh and I have heard that for many years!

Q: About the photos of your wedding I heard some funny stories too.

A: We almost forgot to take them! We had no photographer and on our way home, we realized that. Luckily there was a photographer at the beginning of the Laan van Meerdervoort and he made a series photos of us. You can see more photos when you click on the photo below!

Q: And after that there was a surprise waiting in the Tomatenstraat.

A: We arrived in the Tomatenstraat, of course later as they expected us, not only my mother was waiting there but also my husbands stepfather Uncle Sier (Sierveld), Aunt Marie van Straten and the sister of my mother with her husband, Aunt Jenny and Uncle Lieuwe van Dijk. Aunt Jenny and uncle Lieuwe were lucky to survive the Japanese camps in Dutch Indies. At the end of the afternoon, Gerard and I went to the Obrechtstraat.

Q: Where did you spend your honeymoon?

A: We wanted to go to Amsterdam first for a short honeymoon, but I was still very weak after my angina so we staid at home and had dinner in the Cornerhaus a restaurant in our neighborhood. We eat there a couple of days and then I started to cook our own meals.

Q: You also got some help to clean the house. Wasn’t her name Mrs. Swiebel?

A: After a short period of time, I realized that the former housekeeper had made a mess of everything. "Zus" Swiebel had worked for Marietje (Gerard’s first wife) already and together we cleaned the whole house.

Q: In 1950 you finally had your honeymoon!

A: We spent some weeks of the summer in Hotel Veld & Boszicht in Nunspeet.

Q: The Hotel you went to with Jenneke JR years later as well?

A: Exact. It’s the same Hotel we spent our summer holidays between 1962 and 1971. In 1951 we went to Bad Liebenzell. Gerard has been there before and I loved it there as well.

Q: And Gerard made promotion after promotion?

A: He did. At night he worked very hard and I sat down reading or making some clothes for myself. We also visited Uncle Sier once in a week and he was always very happy to see us. Every Sunday evening we visited my mother and she came over to see us again on Tuesday evening.

Q: There were some other visitors too I heard.

A: You mean Maud and Herbert? They visited Uncle Sier and came from South Africa and before they would travel to New York they staid in Holland for some time. We planned to pick them up at Schiphol. Their plane was delayed till Sundaymorning and we traveled back to Den Haag to look after the heath and then traveled back to Amsterdam where we spent the night. Gerard phoned Schiphol the other morning and we were just in time to see the plane landing. The two of them had so many luggage that we had to count them from time to time or we didn’t miss one or two. Meanwhile the train to Rotterdam arrived and we put the entire luggage in the train.

Q: Oh I guess now that funny story followes!

A: Afterwards we could laugh about it, but at that moment! Well, Gerard was still standing on the platform paying the man who helped us with our luggage and then the train left the station. Of course, we thought he had made it as well, but he didn’t! So when the conductor came for the tickets we realized that Gerard was missing. Gerard went to the conductor in Amsterdam already and explained everything and we were told that everything was all right and that Gerard would arrive with the next train. We really talked about this whole experience time after time and even Jenneke JR. heard this story many times.

Q: But shortly after this visit Uncle Sier became ill.

A: You must realize he was more then 90 years old at the time and shortly after that he died.

Q: What happened with the houses in Hilligersberg then after Uncle Sier died?

A: For a short period of time Gerard owned the houses but then we decided to sell them. There was nothing left for us anymore in Rotterdam/Hilligersberg.

Q: And Aunt Betsy had died in February 1954 and Aunt Marie van Straten on June 7, 1957.

A: Aunt Marie died totally unexpected. She lived in Hoorn. Together with my mother and Gerard we went to Hoorn. A lot of people helped us there so we traveled only a couple of times to Hoorn. In 1957 we went to Braunlage in the Harz for a vacation. That was an experience, because Braunlage was situated then nearby the Russian part of Germany.

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