Hilda van Stockum Art and Writing: October 2017

Tuesday, October 31, 2017

DEATH | November 1 – HvS

Spike, 1909-1994 (L) and Hilda van Stockum
Marlin, 1908-2006. Photo taken in NJ in 1971.

November 1, 2017–Hilda van Stockum died this day, All Saints Day, in 2006. This is the 11th anniversary of her death.

Sadly this year, the main news is that Sheila died of cancer on September 25, a month before her 78th birthday. Now the living siblings are five. Olga, Brigid, Randal, John, Lis.

Sheila's life was celebrated last month in Watford at her funeral and family lunch.

The tenth anniversary of HvS's death last year was celebrated with the re-issue of a new (2016) edition of her 1975 book The Borrowed House, originally published by Farrar Straus. The family HvS Remembrances post has recently been updated.

Here are some of HvS's many obituaries and appreciations:

Reissued in 2016.

USA
New York Times, Nov. 4, 2006, New York Sun, Nov. 3, 2006, Children's Literature Network, Bethlehem Books, Publishers Weekly, Horn Book, Ana Braga-Henebry's Journal, Love2Learn Mom, Top Ten Sources - Children's Media, Hiram Library, Karen Edmisten Blog, Mailgate.
CANADA Toronto Globe and Mail, Nov. 2, 2006, National Post, Nov. 9, 2006.
IRELAND Irish Times, Nov. 18, 2006.
UK Books for Keeps, Jan. 2007, Berkhamsted Gazette, Nov. 8, 2006, World People's Blog, Achockoblog (Achuka).
NETHERLANDS (in Dutch) Het Parool (Amsterdam, WWII Underground Resistance Newspaper), Nov. 9, 2006, Leesplein.
GERMANY (in German) German-Language Wikipedia.
KENYA Daily Nation, Nairobi, Nov. 14, 2006, p. 38.
NEW ZEALAND Dorothy Neal White Newsletter.

Related Posts: HvS English-Language Wikipedia Entry . HvS Dutch-Language Wikipedia Entry . Her brother Willem . European Pilgrimage 1954-55 . New Purple House Press Edition of The Borrowed House . Remembrances by Her Family (Updated to 2016)

Saturday, October 14, 2017

SHEILA O'NEILL | Family Lunch – Oct. 14, 2017

L to R: David Hall, Brian Pigott, Jack Ray on the terrace of High Elms Manor before

the family lunch in memory of Sheila Marlin O'Neill. All photos by JT Marlin.

L to R: Sue Hall, Jill Ray, Sita Pigott.

Table 7. Lis and Cliff Paice and Sheila Petrie Leech.

L to R: Sheila Petrie Leech, Jack Ray, Randal Marlin
(in back) at the lunch at High Elms Manor.

October 14, 2017 – The family lunch on Saturday was in the same room at High Elms Manor as the funeral reception the day before.

It is also the room where the funeral reception was held for Hilda van Stockum Marlin in November 2006. Quite a few of the people who attended today were at the previous memorial meal eleven years ago.
A special guest today was Sheila Petrie Leech, one of Sheila's life-long friends from the days in 1951-54 when we lived in Blackrock and Dalkey in the Dublin area.

Table 5. Montessori School table.

Lis was the last member of the family to talk with Sheila before she died, and Lis was asked to make special mention of Sheila Leech at the memorial service as someone as someone she remembered with special fondness, along with Hazel Irwin and Eithne O'Neill, who were not able to attend the memorial events.

Table 5. Montessori teachers.

Whereas the High Elms Montessori School was most visibly represented by many pupils at the Funeral Mass, today the school was represented by a table full of teachers and others involved in running the school.

Jonathan Willoughby and Phoenix Hawkins-O'Neill.

Jonathan Willoughby and Phoenix Hawkins-O'Neill performed a reprise of the song that she sang and he accompanied on the guitar at the Crematorium service.

The song was "Singing Angel" by Sarah McLachlan.

The acoustics were superior today at High Elms Manor and I was able to make out more of the words of the lovely song than yesterday.

The last two lines are:

You're in the arms of the angel

May you find some comfort here.

Ailise,

, Catrine O'Neill.

Table 4

Two Friends of Ailise, Ailise O'Neill.

Table 7. Brian Pigott, Brigid Marlin, Lis Paice. Note that the catering staff member was
moving around so fast she appears as a blur.

L to R: Sita Pigott, Brigid Marlin, David Hall on the terrace of High Elms Manor.

Table 7. Jack and Jill Ray, Sita Pigott.

Jonathan Willoughby and sister
Janet Willoughby.

Old Movies, Inside.

Angela and Vojislav Mihailovic.

Pianist.

Table 4

, Anna.

Anthony Newell, Gini Zdesar.

Other Posts: Sheila O'Neill, R.I.P. . Sheila's Funeral

Name Index, Family Lunch

Blanchard-O’Neill, Oscar

Hall, David

Hall, Sue

Hawkins-O’Neill, Phoenix

High Elms Manor

High Elms Montessori School

Hilton-O'Neill, Cian

Hilton-O’Neill, Fin

Marlin, Brigid

Marlin, Elaine O’Brien

Marlin, Hilda van Stockum

Marlin, John Tepper

Marlin, Olga

Marlin, Randal

Marlin, Sheila

Mihailovic, Alex

Mihailovic, Angela

Mihailovic, Vojislav

Newell, Anthony

Northcott, Max

O'Neill, Ailise

O'Neill, Catrine

O'Neill, Liadain

O'Neill, Roisin

O’Neill, Sheila Marlin

Oakley, Desmond

Paice, Cliff

Paice, Lis

Petrie, Sheila

Pigott, Brian

Pigott, Sita

Ray, Jack

Ray, Jill

van Stockum, Hilda

Willoughby-O’Neill, Zodiac

Willoughby, Janet

Willoughby, Jonathan

Zdesar, Gini

I am told that to comment on this post now seems to require a Google account and password etc. I'm really sorry about that. No one should have to go through such a rigamarole and I will look for solutions. Meanwhile, if you wish to send a correction, request or comment, please write to the blogger at teppermarlin[at]aol.com. I have substituted [at] for @ to try to thwart bots that look for email addresses embedded in posts.

Friday, October 13, 2017

SHEILA O'NEILL | Funeral – Oct. 13, 2017

Sheila Marlin O'Neill
1939-2017

Watford, UK, Oct. 13, 2017 – My sister Sheila's Funeral Mass was held today at St Saviour's Roman Catholic Church in Abbots Langley, Watford, Herts., UK – 17 miles northwest of London.

Father Richard officiated at the Mass and the Committal at the Crematorium.

Fr Richard Says Mass at St Saviour's.

Sheila attended the church while she was alive.

She lived nearby at High Elms Manor.

She founded and was Principal of the High Elms Manor Montessori School.

When she was considering buying the run-down manor, anyone with any familiarity with property management had the same negative reaction (the roof had long been leaking in many places, for example).

Sheila persisted, rounded up support from several reluctant sources including family, and bought it. Over the next two decades she has transformed it and left an astonishing legacy for the community.

Fr Richard prays for the soul of Sheila O'Neill. Photos by JT Marlin.

Fr Richard closes inside and outer curtains at
the Crematorium. Goodbye Sheila, and to 72
years of there being six living Marlin children.

Sheila's four daughters largely took over the school before she died, and also put the Manor to work as a location for conferences, weddings, film sets and other events.

The transition was prompted by, and the subject of, episodes of a television series, "Country House Rescue," produced by Ruth Watson.

Despite the fact that Sheila had spent more on repairing and renovating High Elms Manor than she spent on purchasing it, Watson's advice was to spend even more, and she and her daughters did just that. The result is a gem of a school and community center.

Alan Jones and his wife (L) and Brigid (R).

The Funeral Mass began with readings by Sheila's grandchildren Zodiac Willoughby-O'Neill and Marnie Hilton-O'Neill. (A family tree that shows all seven grandchildren is here.)

Randal (back to camera), Cliff and Lis.

The first reading was the second letter of St Paul to Timothy 4:6-8, followed by the favorite hymn, "The Lord's My Shepherd" and a reading from John's Gospel, 14:1-6.

L to R: Marnie (Roisin's eldest child)
and Phoenix (Catrine's older child).
Catrine is in back between them.

The Offertory hymn was "Jerusalem" and the recessional hymn was "This Little Light of Mine."

At the church Sheila's daughters – Roisin, Catrine, Liadain and Ailise – each read out a eulogy and at the Crematorium they read poems.

L to R: Zodiac Willoughby-O’Neill,Cian Hilton-O'Neill, Fin Hilton-O’Neill, Oscar Blanchard-O’Neill, Max Northcott. Back to camera: Brigid Marlin. Photo by JT Marlin.

At the Crematorium, Sheila's granddaughter Phoenix sang a song by Sarah McLachlan, accompanied by Jonathan Willoughby on the guitar.

Vojislav Mihailovic (friend of Sheila's
late husband Shane) and Chris Oakley.

Elaine (Randal's wife) and John.

Four of Sheila's five siblings were able to attend the funeral – Brigid, Randal (from Ottawa), John (from New York) and Lis. Olga, the eldest, was not able to travel from Kenya.

Sheila had many talents, more than she could fully utilize.

Three of the many pupils at the funeral
from the High Elms Montessori School.

Her thoughtful and well-constructed poem, "Look to the Stars," read by Liadain, describes her feelings near the end of her life when she was letting go of her attachments to the world she was leaving:

Look to the Stars

In letting go,
I have set myself free.
I ask, want for, nothing
You no longer hold me.

It's over, I'm content
Knowing you still breathe the air,
Enriching the universe
By just being there.

Stay soft and with compassion, remember me
Vulnerable, I carry the scars
Of earth, as pain and longing linger.
So – I will look to the stars!

And live on in the heavens
Where joy triumphs and reigns
With a love as pure as the angels.
There I will find you again.

Sheila's third book,
about Jacob the Goose.

At the reception at High Elms Manor, a copy of Sheila's third book, Jacob: The Famous Goose of the 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards, was waiting as a gift for everyone who came to the funeral.

Many of those who attended remembered me from the previous funeral at High Elms Manor, for my mother Hilda van Stockum.

Alex Mihailovic and Judy Vickery, at

the reception at High Elms Manor.

Among those was Judy Vickrey, who was a regular participant in the Friday noontime Writers Group that gathered in the HvS home.

L to R: Janet and brother Jonathan
Willoughby.

The group now convenes high up on the same street in Berkhamsted, at Brigid's house.

News Stories: Sheila's Retirement . Sheila's Death.

Other Posts: Sheila Marlin O'Neill, R.I.P.

Index by Name:

Abbots Langley

Blanchard-O’Neill, Oscar

Coldstream Guards

High Elms Manor

High Elms Montessori School

Hilton-O'Neill, Cian

Hilton-O’Neill, Fin

Jacob the Famous Goose

Marlin, Brigid

Marlin, Elaine O’Brien

Marlin, John Tepper

Marlin, Olga

Marlin, Randal

Marlin, Sheila

Mihailovic, Alex

Mihailovic, Angela

Mihailovic, Vojislav

Northcott, Max

O'Neill, Ailise

O'Neill, Catrine

O'Neill, Liadain

O'Neill, Roisin

O’Neill, Sheila Marlin

Paice, Cliff

Paice, Lis

St Saviour’s Church

van Stockum, Hilda

Vickery, Judy

Willoughby-O’Neill, Zodiac

Willoughby, Janet

Willoughby, Jonathan

I am told that to comment on this post now seems to require a Google account and password etc. I'm really sorry about that. If you wish to send a correction or comment, please write to the blogger at teppermarlin[at]aol.com. I have substituted [at] for @ to thwart bots that look for email addresses embedded in messages.

Wednesday, October 4, 2017

CONTEST | Winner

The Prizes Are Presented to the Winner at the Oxford
Home of Brigid's Son Chris Oakley, Who Looks On.
September 20, 2017. Photo by Alice Tepper Marlin.

The results of the first Hilda van Stockum contest are in.

The prize was for finding the most error in a short biographical sketch of Hilda van Stockum.

The winner is BRIGID MARLIN of Berkhamsted, Herts.

ERRORS CAUGHT BY THE WINNER

1. "Dutch children’s book" writer. Ambiguous. She wrote in English. Only two of her books have been translated into Dutch.

2. Olga should be Hilda.

3. Hilda had six children (Olga, Brigid, Randal, Sheila, John, Lis), wrong birth order.

4. In the photo the order of names is unclear and Mother is left out,

5. Below the photo, the name of the organization is wrong the "Society of Art of Imagination" -should be "for" Art of Imagination.

6. Society name again wrong – in "Art Imagination" the OF is left out.

7. Inaccurate –"Psychic Subjects"? Does he mean Psychological Subjects? We didn't deal with ghosts & other phenomenon

8. Firsthand – she didn't know the war stories firsthand. She was in the USA during the war. Her sources had information firsthand; for her it was secondhand.

9. Dihon?

10. "A Day on Skate"- missing the final "s".

OTHER ERRORS (To be added at leisure.)

1. John Tepper Marlin is called John Boissevain twice.

SHEILA O'NEILL | Her Daughters and Grands

L to R: Liadain (Lili), Ailise, Catrine and Roisin
O'Neill, at Catrine's famed pink wedding, July 18, 1992.

October 4, 2017–Sheila Marlin O'Neill (1939-2017) is the first of the six children of Hilda van Stockum and Spike Marlin to join her parents in the next life.

She was the third daughter in the family, sandwiched between the two boys – a rose between two thorns.

In The Mitchells trilogy, Sheila's fictionalized name was Angela.

Sheila's 23-acre 63-room High Elms Manor and school in Garston, Herts., was the focus of a Ruth Watson Country House Rescue series, largely about how the upkeep of the large estate could be made sustainable, i.e., generate enough money to pay for the cost of maintaining it.

Front row, L to R: Catrine, Lili and a Friend.
Second row, L to R: Alice, Roisin, Sheila.

High Elms Manor developed new events and programs with the help of Sheila's four daughters.

The plan worked and the Manor and Manor Montessori School have been spruced up. I was impressed with what had been done there last year when I was there.

Sheila is now gone, and the daughters are in charge of the funeral for their mother. It will be on October 13. I plan to be there with three other siblings, Sheila's four daughters and seven grandchildren. For those attending the funeral or trying to keep track of the family from a distance, I have prepared he following simplified family tree as a start on appreciating this fruitful branch of the Marlin family.

Death Notice, October 4, 2017, Hemel Hempstead Gazette.

O'Neill, Sheila. Passed away on 25th September 2017, aged 77 years. Principal of Marlin Montessori School, Berkhamsted, Herts. Funeral service to take place on Friday 13th October at 1.30 pm at St Saviour's Church, Abbots Langley, followed by a committal at West Herts Crematorium at 3.20 pm.

Flowers may be sent to: High Elms Manor, High Elms Lane, Watford, Hertfordshire WD25 0JX, UK. Phone: +44 1923 663875.

If you would like to donate to the family's chosen charity please write a cheque to Save The Children and post it to the funeral director's address: James Peddle Ltd., 10 Moneyhill Parade, Uxbridge Road, Rickmansworth WD3 7BE.

See also: Visit to Watford . Sheila's Death

Hilda van Stockum Art and Writing

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