J.M. Stinis-van Straten
The years 1957 – 1962
1980
Q: By the end of 1957 you got problems with your health again. Am I right?
A: That was so funny. In November the dentist removed the rest of my teeth’s and in December I felt even worse. I thought that it had something to do with my teeth’s but it was still the same in January 1958 so I went to the doctor.
Q: And then you found out you were pregnant?
A: Can you imagine how surprised I was? It was almost impossible for me to get pregnant. At least they had told me that and then this! It was an easy pregnancy and on August 18, 1958 our daughter Jenneke Bertine Klasina was born. She was named after her two grandmothers and me.
Q: Couldn’t you come up with another first name as Jenneke?
A: We tried everything, but all the names we tried, sounded so strange so we decided to name her Jenneke as well.
Q: Tell me something about her first days. I asked Jenneke about it, but she said that she couldn’t remember anything anymore of these first days after her birth.
A: Couldn’t she? She was there! I’m kidding. When she was born the first thing we saw that she had beautiful blue eyes and that she looked exactly as her father. She had the same head and when you see pictures of her when she was little, you can see it yourself. She was just a small version of her father. Unbelievable.
Q: Where was Jenneke JR. born?
A: She was born in the Bronovo Hospital here in Den Haag. After 14 days we left the hospital. My mother cooked for Gerard in the meantime and Aunt Zus Swiebel cleaned the house. When we arrived home we received many flowers and from my mother Jenneke received a silver spoon and fork with inscription.
Q: I guess, it was a whole new situation for you and your husband with Jenneke around.
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A: It was but it was no problem. And we were not the only ones who got a new baby!
Q: Where there more babies expected in your family?
A: Yes, but let me tell you something else first. My mother moved to the Regentesselaan some years earlier. The people in the Tomatenstraat needed the room for their little son. One day my mother got a visit of Aunt Eline. Uncle Reinier died in December 1957 and she told my mother that her daughter expected a baby as well. Surprise: her son, Philip, was born on August 13, 1958 and is 5 days older as Jenneke!
Q: That’s indeed a real surprise to hear. And a couple of months later your mother moved again. This time to the Obrechtstraat too.
A: In December 1958 we heard that on number 298 two rooms and a kitchen were available. She lived there till she died in September 1969. And again it was my husband, who helped my mother with moving, because I hardly had time for it. Jenneke JR. took most of the time by then.
Q: I heard that you slept in the backside of the house during the summer and in the winter at the frontside.
A: That was a real nightmare. We had to switch the bed and all the other stuff twice a year because there was no heath in the backside of the house. Now with the little baby, it was almost impossible to continue to do this twice a year. Gerard discovered then something that looked like a CV but has a mother fireside and used oil. It was a solution, but the only problem was that, when it became very cold outside, the pipes to the tank with oil (the tank stood in the garden) were frozen and so we stood more then once in the middle of the night in the garden with a flat-iron trying to keep the pipes warm enough. In December 1962, my mother staid with us because she was ill and Jenneke JR. had the measles, the pipes were indeed so frozen (it was the coldest winter we had so far) that we couldn’t "save" them and we sat in the cold. Well, I guess Jenneke JR. told you already that, after the holidays, she left her old kindergarten and went to another school.
Q: Yes she did.
A: Are there more questions you like to ask me about my life?
Q: Let me think. I guess most of the later years have parallels with the lives of your husband and daughter?
A: My life became very quiet after Jenneke JR. was born. My husband and I spent most of the time with her. You could read all the highlights of my husband’s life and/or my daughters life on their pages on this site.
Q: And you never planned to give her a brother or sister?
A: No. I was 41 at the time she was born and my husband almost 51. Gerard always said that our daughter kept him young and I guess he was right. I see it myself now. I heard things about the Internet and other things I probably never heard about when she hadn’t been around. When she has been older and moved out a long time ago. It keeps me "up-to-date" if you can use these words in this context.
Q: Thank you so much for being so kind to answer all my questions and telling so much of your life.
A: I hope everybody likes to read it. It was my pleasure to tell you my life story. Maybe someday we meet again.
Q: You’ll never know!
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