Elsje Becker is a strong, gutsy woman. How could she be anything else after raising a troop of four lively lads, each one an even bigger (self-confessed) petrolhead than the next? This grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of one is a woman who perserveres, endures, holds her own and, above all, holds everything together (but she rarely holds her tongue…) It’s no wonder that today, on the eve of her 90th birthday, she is still capable of doing a hundred squats every day.
Her husband, Joop, also a proud and upright man who spent many years working as an electrical engineer for the former Iscor, today reads aloud his memories of the 1957 Fiat Nuova 500 in their garage in detail – and with great gusto. Joop turns 90 in October.
The Beckers are two remarkable, with-it people who celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary on 28 March 2024.
One photo hanging on their living-room wall shows Mom and Dad with three boys sporting impish dimples. Today, they are all successful in their own right. Hennie, the eldest, is an electrical engineer who retired to Nuwerus and lends support to his minister wife; Gert,
