Ode to De diaconessen Rinske en Tjitske BartlemaWithout a spouse and without children of their own a happy and rich life
Deaconesses Rinske (left) and Tjitske Bartlema (right)
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Dear Rinske and Tjitske
I admire you because you did what was asked of you out of a rock-solid faith, without nagging and full of attention and vigor. Day and night you were there for others and that must not always have been easy. But your father Pieter taught you to go your way modestly and selflessly and he can be proud of you. You Rinske wrote in your letters about the terrible conditions in the Jordaan. You talked about neglected half-naked children, about fighting and screaming women and drunk men. That didn't shock you; on the contrary. You wrote that you found the work there even more delightful than ever.
Please know that I still feel your presence. Although I am not religious, I indulge in your practical view of faith. Female descendants told me that they still see you as role models. At a time when that was not at all obvious, you lived out the lesson that you can live a happy and rich life even without a husband and without children of your own.
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Ode by Ellen to the deaconesses Rinske and Tjitske Bartlema.
Disinterested and full of love, they devoted themselves to the sick and needy people of Amsterdam.
De diaconessen Rinske en Tjitske Bartlema
It was not exclusively Amsterdam women who moved to Amsterdam at the end of the nineteenth century with the desire to put their lives at the service of suffering humanity. Two Frisian famkes were up for it.