Elsie My Dear Grandmother.

ELSIE, MY GRANDMOTHER



Elsie Maud Cownie, my dearest grandmother.

With a small group she got off the boat. In amazement she looked around her, she was in Holland where she cheerfully was going to visit all the special places. She liked everything.

She was a decent, demure girl of just 20 years, whose father was a music teacher at the University of Edinburgh. She came from a wonderful family, who had their own ships, a very kind family with a heartwarming and sweet character.

Cheerful and happy the group visited all museums and concerts and many other things. It was an educational tour for the group from Scotland.

She, Elsie, decided to stay a bit longer with friends, she already knew in Holland, so she could take some painting lessons at the “Haagse School”. We still have a couple of her paintings hanging on our wall. She is even mentioned in the library of the "Haagse School," as a good painter.

Perhaps unfortunately she then met a tough smooth Dutch guy, a bon vivant. Dancing, dining out and concerts, followed and before she knew it, this sweet well bread gentle girl fell in love and later got engaged and married her tough bon vivant. A happy time followed, a life of a well to do family in The Hague. Elsie’s husband, Herbert, had a very big shop in the Lange Houtstraat in The Hague. He sold furniture, curtain fabrics and much more from Bas van Pelt. The only thing Herbert couldn’t handle was the enormous prudishness of his wife. Then Gwen was born (my mother) and two years later Dennis. When Gwen was 7 years, Elsie was diagnosed with a highly contagious form of TB. She had to go to a sanatorium immediately. Little Gwen was sent to a boarding school in Vught with the nuns and Dennis went to his grandparents. And so a happy family was torn apart. Two years later Elsie came home again, fully recovered. Herbert, now a rich man, had not been idle. He lived the life of a real bon vivant with dignity, hunting, sailing, riding and partying. Elsie after all she had been through didn’t fit in this kind of life anymore. Elsie wanted a divorce, wich she got, she did not want any money from Herbert and took a job as companion lady. Before her train left, Herbert said: “Elsie, are you really sure you want to do this?” “Yes, Herbert absolutely” Elsie responded. And so Elsie left, yet they remained close friends until the end of their lives. She went to work as a companion to a rich English lady in The Netherlands. Years later after an other failed second marriage, she started here own job by giving English lessons to the dutch people who emigrated. Later she rented an apartment on the first floor nearby the Lange Houtstraat and started giving English lessons to business people, emigrants and children. That she has done for the rest of her life, it gave her a good income. When she received an inheritance from her father, she went to my mother in Indonesia. Also her son, Dennis went to Indonesia with his wife Beppie Rietveld, the daughter of the famous Rietveld. And they all ended up in Japanese concentration camps.

Will be continued. Dinkie



THE STORY OF ELSIE, A VERY SWEET GRANDMOTHER