Annemarie Boschetti – van der Griendt is de hoofdsponsor van de Pietro Boschetti Primary School in Lui.
I first met Annemarie Boschetti in 2009. She responded to a call in a newspaper with the request for help from our foundation ‘Help Sudan, now!’.
Annemarie was gripped by the seriousness of the situation. Children in Lui were taught by the two teachers who followed a teacher training course in Kotobe at the expense of our foundation. Because there was no school building, the children were taught in the Lui Parish Church. Often sitting on the floor because there were no chairs in the beginning.
From my first meeting, I have visited Annemarie almost every Friday afternoon after work. We drank Italian coffee (Coffee Lungo) with chocolate. Then invariably a Spumante (Italian champagne). Annemarie lived in Arnhem, high up in a luxury apartment ‘Hulkestein’ with a view over the river Rhine.
Every Friday we made plans and discussed the situation in South Sudan. At an advanced age, Annemarie decided to develop apartments in her country house in Italy. Near the Lago de Magione in the province of Perugia. Part of the rental income was earmarked for the Boschetti School in Lui. We have been there on holiday a number of times; it was delicious!
In 2012, I paid a working visit to Lui together with Annemarie and a cousin of hers. Annemarie supervised the construction of the foundation and floor. She sometimes wore high boots and a hat. The children therefore called her ‘soldier’s wife’. She was clear and dominant. That she always about herself. In her last years she took a cruise along the coast of Alaska and went on vacation to Yemen for a week. Annemarie always remained driven and full of zest for life.
On a bad day somewhere in 2016, she fell while visiting her sister Marleen in Nijmegen. In doing so, she broke her little finger and ended up in the Radboud hospital in Nijmegen. She healed wonderfully. On September 7, 2017, she fell again and in approximately the same place in Nijmegen. This fall was fatal to her, help came too late. More than two years later, on September 25, 2019, her sister also passed away.
Pietro Boschetti (24 April 1919 – 27 March 1993)
Annemarie Boschetti – van der Griendt (29 May 1930 – 7 September 2017)
Marleen van der Griendt (4 April 1935 – 25 September 2019)
