Page 18 - ATA

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Tuesday 5 June 2018

A Dutch Lady’s Love for Aruba – Beyond Death

ORANJESTAD — Jannie de Hoop was the daughter of Li-
jkele de Hoop, head of DOW (the Public Works Depart-
ment) from 1944 to 1949. Upon his arrival in Aruba, Mr.
de Hoop moved into the right side of the duplex at the
Lagoen (now Caya Mario E. Harms), next door to where
the Harms family lived and we remained neighbors for the
next eight years. The daughters Jannie and Tine attended
the same school as the Harms brothers and we became
good friends.

In 1951 Jannie married Fokke Haakma in a beautiful cer-
emony in the San Francisco Church in Oranjestad. Fokke
was an officer of the Aruban police force who had come
from Friesland, the same province as the De Hoop family.
Soon thereafter Jannie and Fokke migrated to New Zea-
land where I had the pleasure of visiting her a few years
later when I travelled to Australia. During this visit Jannie
impressed me with her reminiscences of Aruba and her
Jannie de Hoop lived more than 7 years in this building at the Lagoen in Oranjestad enduring love for our island.

Jannie’s love for Aruba was for real. More than half a
century after she left Aruba, and living on the other side
of the globe, Jannie passed away, but remembering the
happy years she lived at the Lagoen, before her death
she asked her children to have her ashes strewn in the
waters around Aruba. When I was asked where that
could be done, I suggested the Lagoen itself, as this is
where I too have planned to wind up.

Last month six members of Jannie’s family arrived in Aruba
on the cruise ship “Celebrity Equinox” carrying an urn with
her ashes to carry out her last wish: Her daughter Jan with
her husband Geoffrey Potter and their daughter Christie;
the other daughter Edie Haakma-Swney; Lieke Raspe,
Jannie’s niece with her husband Cees Meeusen.

From the cruise dock they walked to the south side of the
Lagoen where they opened the urn containing a paper
bag with the ashes. One by one, the members of the
Edie Haakma-Swney spreads Jannie’s ashes in the Lagoen in front of where she had lived for 7 family, with tears in their eyes and a silent prayer, took
years. their turn to spread a handful of ashes until the bag was
completely empty.

With a simple but very touching ceremony, the family
carried out Jannie’s last wish to express the undiminished
love she had for Aruba in life and in death, a love that
neither distance nor time could end.q

After spreading her ashes in the Lagoen, the family tearfully bid farewell to their beloved Jannie.