"Enough of these speeches - come, let's get some fresh air," Nettie urged, and dragged me out of the 1996 IHEU XIII World Humanist Congress being held in Mexico City. After being associated with IHEU since 1962, and after 14 years as IHEU’s volunteer Secretary General during which time she received a Distinguished Service to Humanism Award, Nettie was going to receive the IHEU’s highest recognition later that day – but there was still time for that.
Nettie was stepping down from her formal responsibilities in the IHEU at that Congress because the IHEU’s headquarters were moving from her native Netherlands to the UK. The IHEU’s Board had decided to recruit a professional to perform her duties – and I was appointed Executive Director of IHEU. Following in Nettie’s illustrious footsteps was certainly an honour. Following Nettie to the local flea market was exciting too!

The Lagunilla flea market was overflowing with wonderful things on display and sale and Nettie tried to strike conversations with many of the vendors there. A human face fashioned out of an armadillo shell caught my fancy, but it was too expensive and I gave up the idea of buying it. But before I knew it, and to my great delight, Nettie bought it and gifted it to me!

- “It’s for your birthday.”
- “But my birthday is over, Nettie.”
- “It is for your next birthday, then!”`

The armadillo-human face was on display at the IHEU's office in London for the next 9 years - rousing the curiosity of many a visitor. And I took great delight in telling them the story of this escapade, as well as of another sortie we had in Hyderabad when she was my guest in 1990. With a twinkle in her eye she had then helped me get rid of a particularly fussy western visitor from our group, and then with open curiosity experienced the delights of Muslim cuisine in the crowded old-city of Hyderabad. We also jumped into a fully packed city bus (that requires courage), where she was amused no end by the bus conductor's inquiry in Indian English: "Who wants tickets in the backside?"

When I visited her and Albert Klein in their warm and elegant home next to the German Consulate in Amsterdam, it was very interesting to discover her massive collection of cow memorabilia – a closet full of miniature cows from Friesland, India, Africa and North America!

“What do you think of the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Nettie?”
“I’ve never been there – I am not a tourist. I live in this city!”

She probably had no time for such things because she was busy organising non-religious ceremonies and being involved in many activities of the Humanistisch Verbond. She was an immensely practical person and one rarely heard Nettie expound on the theory of Humanism – she was busy living it! And she spoke with great clarity and acted with firmness.

She revealed touchingly that when her own mother was terminally ill and did not wish to continue anymore, it was Nettie who had administered the drug to carry out her mother’s wish.

“Why should a nurse do it, when a daughter could do it for her mother?”.

Nettie’s own health was on the decline for some time, and she was out of touch – but she also expressed her satisfaction that the IHEU that she breathed so much energy into was on a steady way up. She came to the 2002 IHEU 50th Anniversary World Humanist Congress at Amsterdam in a wheel chair. Seeing her always felt like seeing a member of the family – and her departure at the age of 81 too will feel like losing a member of the family to the several hundreds of people she met and spoke to when she travelled across the world to help strengthen Humanism.

Babu Gogineni is IHEU International Director, South Asia