Our beloved oma dona passed away earlier this week, joining my opa on the exact day he passed nineteen years ago.
To have been able to call her my oma has been the joy of a lifetime, and as more beautiful stories of her unfold, her legacy will continue. Over the years, what I cherished most from every trip to the Netherlands were evenings sitting at her dining room table or in her living room chairs, drinking coffee (or in more recent cases, gin). My sister and I would ask her all sorts of questions to get her take on things. In the summer of 2012, she told us: “Drink wine and make a joke of everything. And laugh every day.” In 2017: Reflecting on food she had enjoyed in NY -- “Bagels [with a long pause] are beautiful” and “make life easy.” Her consistent loving, bellowing refrain when someone was anxious about something working out right in the future: “ja ja, it’s coming, girl.”
Growing up, I knew I admired her most of all my family members, and I had a laundry list of reasons why. Her loud laughter. How she ran the show. Her decidedly, distinct taste. How her love was both tough + tender. But in finding a copy of a letter I wrote to her, I was reminded this week of the thing I carry with me most: She showed us how to face any problem/annoyance/challenge with humor + positivity. To not take ourselves so seriously.
It has brought me physical pain to say goodbye to her. But there is so much of her in me, and I will aim to live my life with as much chutzpah + fierce love as our very own family queen – Marie Françoise Clementine Louise Claase-van Oppen.
Dag dag oma xx
