THE BOND OF SISTERHOOD A Journey from Amsterdam to Park Place
Few bonds are stronger than sisterhood, and few sisters are closer than Gerrie Natelborg and Tini De- Boer, two residents at Park Place of St. John. Gerrie, 91, and Tini, 90, grew up as close as two sisters a year apart in age could be, with matching clothes, matching haircuts, matching bows in their hair. Their childhood was typically idyllic in the small village of Abcoude in the Netherlands where they lived, the two oldest children in a family of four girls. Their father Johannes (John) Fortuin was a well-re- spected horticulturist and landscape architect, and their mother assisted him in the greenhouse as much as she could. Along with their younger sister Bet- te, the sisters sang in churches at the insistence of their grandfather, forming a musical group called the Fortuin Sisters. They were a close family, but their father was certainly outnumbered at mealtime when everyone was excitedly talking together. “Sometimes he would throw up his hands and say, ‘Please be quiet,’” Gerrie says, “but we loved to talk and laugh. Eating together, with all of us, was special.” “But maybe sometimes a little too loud for Papa,” Tini adds, and the sisters laugh together.
However, World War II changed everything for their family. Their father, who stood against the Nazi regime, was drafted into the Dutch Army. John had no intention of assisting Hitler’s cause and joined the resistance movement. He had been imprisoned and sentenced to hard labor, but after developing an illness while in the prison camp, Kamp Altengrabau, was sent to a Dutch hospital. There, he was still con- sidered a prisoner and somehow, he escaped from the hospital and returned home. He went into hiding in various spots, including under the floorboards of their very own house or in a local farmhouse. “We have no idea how he escaped,” Tini says. “It was truly a miracle.” “Our Papa was no ‘sit-still,’” Gerrie adds. “He moved constantly. He could have crawled home from the hospital.” One morning, the girls were whispering in the early morning air in their shared bed on the top floor of their home when they heard heavy boots on the stairs leading up to their bedroom. Soldiers burst in, swastikas on the forearms of their uniforms, shout- ing, “Where’s your papa?”
2023 • Annual Report 3
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