Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Tienhoven: Opoe Copier's birthplace




I do plan on writing more about childhood, but I'm having trouble moving photos from a file, and I want the photos in place with the short memories.  (Actually, the mouse on my MacBook needs to be replaced.)

So I pulled these photos off google images.  This is where my grandmother (Opoe), Jannigje DeWith Copier, was born and raised.  Tienhoven hasn't existed since 1957 when it was absorbed into Maarsen.  Breukelen, where she lived after she was married, is the next village north.

Opoe and Opa came to America in 1949 after all their children and grandchildren had emigrated to the U.S.  She was hit by a car while crossing the street at night in SLC in 1953 and was critically injured.  She lived another five years with brain damage that altered both memory and personality.  She died five years later at the age of 68.

I read her obituary today in the Deseret News, where they refer to her as "him," despite the photo of her, and said she was born in "Pienhoven."   These are the kind of mistakes that make mad hatters out of genealogists.

I love Dutch country landscapes.  I'm repeating myself.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing. Opoe Copier is someone I look forward to meeting one day. From your posts, I would surmise that you shared an unconditional love with your maternal grandmother. I wish each of us could have that experience--you with Opoe, me with Oma Sellie.

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  2. Do you grandchildren call you Oma? Tom, Opa?

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    1. No, Bonnie. We're just Grandma and Grandpa. Some of my siblings are called Oma and Opa.

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