In the last years of Dina van der Laan’s life, no doubt after going through her personal possessions, Stiny de
Jong gathered up Stuit family (Dina’s mother’s family) correspondence from the years 1908 – 1912, translated them and published them in a small, 28 page booklet titled simply, “Elizabeth.” She distributed copies in June of 1994. These letters give a remarkably intimate and sobering taste of life and death during the years when Harm and Dina were still youths. Especially poignant is the Stuit family’s experience with emigration (to America), one that must have informed Harm and Dina in their own deliberations fifty years later.