Helena Josefine Wilhelmina Reurop (1908-2000)

This is the story of Helena Josefina Wilhelmina Reurop (Lenie). She was the life-partner of my aunt Rie. The aunts lived in the South of France, in Gagnes sur Mer, in those days the artist village of the Cote Azur.
My aunt Rie died and after a hart attack, Lenie spent the last year of her life with me in Friesland, in the North of the Netherlands. That year we drank a lot of tea and smoked a lot of cigarettes together. I really got to know her and she told me her life story.

Helena J.W.Reurop was born in 1908 in Amsterdam. The days of gaslight and horse trams. Her mother was an opera singer, her father was ‘unknown’.

In those days that meant a lonely existence, children in the neighbourhood were not allowed to play with her. Her mother was working day and night all day and there were no other relatives. When Lenie was six, the first world war broke out and Amsterdam went hungry. Lenie stopped growing and would remain small for the rest of her life.

Small of posture, bright of mind, but studying was out of the question. Her mother decided that she should learn a trade. That way, at least you could make a living. So she followed a typing course, and went to work for Philips. There her bright mind was recognised and she was promoted on a regular bases. But then the second world war broke out, Philips closed its doors and Lenie returned to Amsterdam.

In the late forties Lenie got an offer to become the secretary of the famous Dutch entertainer Wim Sonneveld. At times he even mentioned her in his one-man shows. So in a way, she was a little famous herself.

She was intelligent, sensitive, funny and very upright.

Her employer, Wim Sonneveld had a house in the south of France and that’s how she met my aunt, Rie Pluim.

During the 35 years that ‘the aunts’ were living in France, Lenie spend most of her time on the third floor of their house.
She had a room, a little kitchen and a terrace, overseeing the Mediterranean and in the distance the lights of Cannes. She read financial magazines and she had a phone. Without anyone knowing -“Rie wasn’t aware, she was painting you see”- she build up a fortune.

“Never talk about money my dear” she often said to me, “it makes people act funny”.
Her wealth was not noticeable, she had her state-pension and an small pension from Philips. When I picked her up from the hospital she was in a ward, not a private room. Her clothes were neatly mended.

Her bank informed me that she would be able to pay for a private nurse, but still I was immensely surprised when I opened her account statement. I had never seen so much zero’s in a row:

7 million!!! That was her first moment of glory.

After that, I learned of her wish that she always wanted to spend her money on ‘those who need it’, but never knew how.(which of course is rather difficult if you never talk about money). Together we decided to form a foundation, the Gireloup foundation. Gireloup was the name of their house in France, it means ‘smiling wolf’.

The notary came, and that was her second moment of glory.

The board of the Gireloup foundation hopes to give her posthumous many more moments of glory.

januari 2000

epilogue
We are now 12 years on and we have done a lot. 8 years Choir of the Cathedral of Kaliningrad, many grants for small projects and of course the big project in Costa Rica.
In June I held a speech. “About Costa Rica, along with Leo Maarleveld about  the project ‘Ceramics out of clay we live on” in Costa Rica.
Att he end someone  from the organizationcame up to me.
“I’ve just counted” she said, “a third of 7,000,000 guilders, which were around 900,000 euros. Then came the economic crisis and you have done many things. So you must see now the bottom of your treasury
Grateful that someone had listened so well,  I took the 3 tenners that where available for such a program.
“Yeah, we’re not quite through, but everything donation is welcome”