Round Trip to Tinogasta and a One Way Ticket to Rotterdam

"Being in love is fun, but you always have to use a bit of common sense."

I heard my mother say this countless times when I was younger. That same mother traveled all by herself to a provincial town in Argentina in the '70s, only to come back married...

The Karel Doorman

It all started in October 1968, when my father, a navy man at the time, was in the Netherlands with two colleagues. They were here to inspect the repair work on the aircraft carrier Karel Doorman, which had been purchased by Argentina. There had been a fire in the engine room, so it needed to be repaired. He stayed in the Netherlands for this job for a year.

At that time, my mother was part of the activities committee at Stella Maris, a seamen's house in Rotterdam, where various events were organized. She was often there, and when my father saw her for the first time, he was instantly smitten.

May I have this dance?

He asked her to dance, and in a moment of infatuation, she gave him her phone number. After that fateful meeting, my father called her quickly. Practical as my mother was, she initially refused to come to the phone. Nothing would come of it with someone who lived on the other side of the world. Perhaps she came up with her wise saying during this period.

My father persisted until she eventually picked up the phone, and from then on, they spent the entire year together. After a while, they even cautiously started talking about marriage! A fun detail: three of my father's colleague friends were simultaneously dating my mother's friends. By the end of August 1969, the Karel Doorman, now christened 25 de Mayo, was ready to depart, and the entire crew sailed it from Rotterdam to Buenos Aires via Brazil and Uruguay in two months.

Off to Argentina

Not long after, my mother quit her job at Mambisa, a Cuban shipping office, and booked a ticket. On January 2, 1970, armed with her birth certificate, she boarded a plane to Argentina. Of course, this was not a direct flight (Amsterdam - Madrid - Lisbon - Buenos Aires) and had its complications.

The flight to Lisbon was canceled. The next flight was early the following morning, so she had to spend a night in Madrid. Due to a mistake in the hotel's wake up schedule, my mother only woke up when she should have already been at the gate. Annoying, of course! But when she finally arrived very late, she saw several familiar faces coming off the just landed plane. It turned out the plane she was supposed to be on couldn't land in Lisbon and had returned to Madrid.

To Tinogasta

My mother had a nice sleep in and ended up on the same flight as the rest of the overnight group. My father, who had also quit his job, was already in Buenos Aires and didn't know exactly when she would arrive or what was happening. We didn't have cell phones back then! ;-)

Eventually, she made it, and together they traveled by bus from Buenos Aires to Tinogasta.

In Tinogasta, they got married on March 20 in a civil ceremony and on March 21 in the church. The church wedding took place during a regular mass, which suddenly became very special. Not every week does a Tinogasteño marry a 'Rotterdamse'! After the mass, there was a big party in their backyard, including party crashers. That it was quite an event is evident many years later when I visit Tinogasta myself and meet people on the street who still remember my parents' wedding party well.

Back to the Netherlands

Shortly after the wedding, my parents traveled back to the Netherlands together. Instead of taking the bus to Buenos Aires, they took the slow train from Tinogasta (the final stop), which took a full 36 hours. Unfortunately, this train no longer runs, but you can still see the tracks in some places. In the Netherlands, they moved into my mother's parental home, where I also lived until I was twelve. They still live happily ever after in Rotterdam!

Argentina instead of Rotterdam

I almost forgot to tell you how things turned out for the romances of my mother's friends. Two ended up going nowhere, but the third also grew into a happy marriage. That friend first went to her great love's country for three months to see if she could adjust. Then, because the groom couldn't return to the Netherlands due to his navy job, they had a proxy marriage in Rotterdam. Afterward, she returned to Argentina, got married in the church in La Rioja, and settled in Buenos Aires. She still lives there! You might have seen her because All You Need is Love brought the family together in Argentina during one of the broadcasts.