BABIES HEADBAND

Apple Bottoms "Plush Peace" 3-Piece Outfit (Sizes 12M - 24M) - black, 12 months

For a look that's all her own, check out this striking outfit by Apple Bottoms. She can wear these pieces as separates or together - either way, she'll look fabulous! Includes: Jacket: plush Sherpa fleece, full zip, ribbed trim, jersey hood lining, embroidered logo near hem. (Shell 100% Polyester; Hood Lining 60% Cotton, 40% Polyester) L/S T-Shirt: soft jersey, easy-change snaps in back, peace-heart logo graphic with glitter highlights. (60% Cotton, 40% Polyester) Jeans: raw-style denim, touch of stretch, elastic waistband, logo embroidery on front thigh and back pockets. (98% Cotton, 2% Spandex) Machine Wash Cold, Inside Out Made in China

# Certificate of Burial of GUILLERMO / WILLEM VAN DER GROEF , from the year 1893 - my great-grandfather was born in Sommelsdijk in Holland in the year 1842 and he , very tragically , passed away on 18 October 1893 in Rosario de Santa Fe in Argentina - this document is evidence that he was buried in a protestatnt cemetary in Rosario that same day .


## Life was harsh , bitter and ofter cruel in those days - and so life must have been for my great-great-grandparents JACOB VAN DER GROEF and PIETERNELLA DONKERSLOOT , who lived in the 19th century on the island of Goeree-Overflakke in the Netherlands .
Jacob and Pieternella had eight children , but just three of their children would live long enough to reach adulthood - one of these children was my great-grandfather WILLEM VAN DER GROEF .


### The course of life of WILLEM VAN DER GROEF , born february 11th 1842 in Sommelsdijk on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee in the Netherlands , would turn out to be both remarkable and astonishing , but regrettably far from easy , pleasant and comfortable ...

Working man by profession , protestant by religion , Willem van der Groef would become the husband of THREE wives and the father of all together ELEVEN children .
Willem would outlive all of his wives and he would also have the atrocious task to bury five of his eleven children during his lifetime .

Most of his life Willem lived in Nieuwe-Tonge , a small village where ten of his eleven children were born .
From time to time Willem moved to an other place on the island , Melissant , in order to find proper and suitable work to sustain himself and his growing family , but he didn't succeed in doing so ....

In the year in which my grandfather was born , 1888 , Willem and his third wife IDA VAN MAASTRIGT were still so very poor that they couldn't even afford to buy milk for their just born baby , and so they started feeding my grandfather with the only 'alternative substance' they could afford : coffee ! [ but my grandfather would still reach the age of 86 finally , so it can't have ruined his early health all too much ..... ]

This may very well have been one of the depressing circumstances of life in those days that caused my great-grandparents to decide to seek a better life and a possible brighter future for themselves and for all of their children far , far away outside the Netherlands , all the way in ....... Argentina ...

It is certainly not difficult to imagine why these people emigrated , but it still remained a small mystery , for some time anyhow , why Willem and Ida chose to emigrate to Argentina in South America instead of to the USA in North America as so many other poor and occasionally desperate people did , until we found out that from 1888 to 1890 the Argentinian authorities must have actively encouraged people abroad to emigrate to Argentina .
And so did , in and around the year 1889 , more than 5000 Dutch men and women , but as a result of poor guidance , lack of money and lack of required professional skills , a lot of those emigrants would turn back to the Netherlands , utterly disillusioned .
And in some cases they wouldn't be able to come back at all ......
Willem van der Groef as well as his spouse Ida van Maastrigt sadly belonged to that last pitiable group of people .........


E M I G R A T I O N

On september 24 , 1889 , father Willem , his (third) wife Ida , together with Daniel , Jacob and Pieternella Anna (three children from Willem's second marriage to Elisabeth Tijl) and together with Cornelia , Anna , Willem jr. and Leendert (the four children from his last marriage) left Goeree-Overflakkee - "for good" - on board of a steamer that would take these nine people to their new and unfamiliar homeland Argentina , on a very uncertain and highly hazardous enterprise .........

After a , hopefully good , journey of some weeks they arrived in Argentina and settled in the big city of ROSARIO , the third place in size of the country .

What can we tell , with certainty and probability , about the living of these people in this completely new environment ??
Well , we know for sure that one of the children , Willem jr. , must have died in Rosario sometime between 1889 and 1893 , and we know for sure that the demise of Willem jr. wasn't the very last disaster that would take place within this family here in Rosario .........

Notably the memories of Willem's daughter Anna of her Rosario-years are a strong indication that Wiilem , Ida and the children must have had a miserable time in Argentina .
The overall impression is that the four years in Argentina were very unhappy and even tragic years ....
Later in her life Anna told her family that she and her sisiters would scour the boxcars , where the sugar was carried in , for bits of sugar , and also that the girls had been searching through the trash cans ....... so the very sad ascertainment is that the children really must have been desp

Holly's mum died when she was 2 weeks old. She was bottle raised. When we got her she was 8 weeks old but the size of a very small 4 week old. She was a bundle of fluff with big big eyes.

I love her fluffy little feet. So cute. Tugging at my heartstrings.

03-05-09 Had Holly to the vet today. She has something wrong and they just can't work it out. So many possibilities and they are all bad. She is such a darling. There is a good chance she may have hydrocephalus. If that is true, she will have to be put to sleep. These next couple of weeks are going to be so hard. We are trying everything to avoid this. It just tears my heart out to think I could lose my precious baby girl.

Holly is now coming up for two years of age. She didn't end up having hydrocephalus. They never worked out what was actually wrong although she seems highly stressed. She was on anti-stress medication for a couple of months and that seemed to help. She has come along way since then.

19-11-2010 Holly went missing on this day. I later found out that she had been hit and killed instantly by a car near our home. I don't know what happened to her body. My beautiful girl - I miss you so much. She was really starting to open up and get really close to me. She had come ahead so much in the previous 3 weeks. I have so many photos of you my darling - but all I want is a cuddle. Miss you.