Eefje passed away early this morning in the hospital, near to where she lived and where I keep “Fleetwood III” . We said goodbye on September 26^th when I returned from Amsterdam to “Fleetwood IV” in Virginia. I have known Eefje since she was 16 in 1956. But we did not shake hands until June 6, 2003. That day started a romance that was not meant to be. I was already working on getting “Fleetwood I” ready for my circumnavigation. But it turned into a good friendship from the time that I sailed “Fleetwood I” to Amsterdam in 2009 and continued until her passing.

Eefje lived only a 10 minutes bicycle ride away from where I worked/lived on the boat at the Yacht Club “de Schinkel”. I would visit her every Sunday after the 10.30 mass at the St. Augustinus church, for coffee. Often part of her extended family would be there as well. She is survived by her sons Peter and Frans and her daughter Ellen and her eight granddaughters and one grandson. And a sister.                                                  All dear friends, gorgeous, successful and a very close family relationship with their grandmother. I have seen them grow up since 2003. They will dearly miss their oma.

Evelyn was always very caring for me and made me laugh with her limetless assortment of jokes. She visited me and my family and friends for Thanksgiving 2003 in the N.W.

Her physical problems started with a young boy rearending her in, around, 2011. She had back problems from then on. Never an insurance settlement or an apology from the parents. She stopped using her bicycle and more recently sold her car. She kept falling. She had good day care. But in early September I took the night watch. When I left she appeared to recover and manage without the night watch. She called me after I arrived on the 27^th of September in Virginia. I feared that my good bye on September 26^th might be the farewell. But the message from her daughter Ellen came still as a shock. May Eefje rest in Peace and her love and care and jokes continue to warm our hearts.

Now on a lighter note there is a somewhat hilarious background to the period from getting to know Eefje in 1956 until I shook her hand in 2003.

I worked in 1956 as a trainee for a large hardwood importer in the port of Amsterdam. On my way home from work I passed Eefje’s home in de Scheldestraat and she would always be at her front door and wave at me. Through mutual friends I knew who she was, but I was 19 and I was not going to mess with a 16 year old. And I had a girl friend my age. I left Holland for a new life in the USA  on January 11, 1957. My twin brother was still going to school to learn to be a shipbuilder. He had a hand me down bicycle and I gave him my English fancy Humber Clipper, red frame, white fenders, racing handlebars.

One of the first letters I received from my brother, after arriving in California, was that Eefje was now his girlfriend. So, Eefje did not have a crush on me after all, it was the bike.

In 1965 I worked for Weyerhauser in Belgium until 1970 and I would see my brother occasionally and we would wonder where Eefje might have ended up after my brother’s friendship with her ended a year or so after my brother managed to have my red and white Humber Clipper stolen. He married in 1962 and he has managed to find true love instead of an affection for my two wheeler and has managed to celebrate a 63^rd anniversary. His twin has only managed to achieve 1/3 of his married bliss.

In May of 2003 I flew to Holland to visit my European customers for my company American & Tropical Forest Products Company and to see the launch of the restored “Groote Beer” botter yacht. See: https://cometosea.us/albums/GrooteBeer%20webpage.pdf

One of the hood’s kids I grew up with, Gerrit Alberts, from the Griftstraat had organized a get-together with a dozen of contemporaries on June 6th at the “Rockefeller”, a bar-bodega next to the RAI convention/trade show complex on the Scheldestraat. I happened to sit across Marleen Zemmelink, de sister of Martin one of our street brother-hood pals. I remembered that she was a friend of Eefje and I mentioned to her: “Eefje used to live across the street” . She: “Oh, would you like to talk to her?”. She punched her up on her cellphone and I got to talk to the elusive lover of my Humber Clipper. I asked her to come join us. She had been divorced for many years. I did not recognize her at all from my flashing handwaving exchanges off the saddle of the good looking bicycle. But all I wanted out of this encounter was to e-mail a photo of me with my arms around her to my twin.

Well, I might have reconsidered this if I would have known that this ended up in a 19 year retribution from my dear brother. Apparently his interest in her ran deeper than hers in my bicycle.

The first picture is the 1^st meeting at the Rockefeller and the 2^nd is at he 90^th anniversary of the Yacht Club “de Schinkel” in 2009.

June 6th 2003

I thank God, Marleen Zemmelink and the British Humber bicycle manufacturer for the love and friendship I received from this special woman and from her family.