Geertrui Anna Catharina Van Aalsburg Nydam See

“Trudy”

Mrs. See, 93, of Winchester, Virginia, died Sunday, September 11, 2011, in a local nursing home with family members at her side.

She was born in Den Helder, Holland, in 1918, the daughter of the late Gerardus Leendert and Anna Catharina Van Aalsburg.

Mrs. See was a homemaker and a former member of Rosedale Baptist Church. She was also a driver for the Shenandoah Area Agency on Aging which was something she truly enjoyed doing.

She married James William See who preceded her in death 1994. Her first husband, Lt. Cmdr. Arend A. Nydam with the Royal Dutch Navy preceded her death in 1972.

At age 19, she married Arend A. Nydam, a Dutch officer stationed at a Dutch Naval Base in Surabya, Indonesia. When ordered to Australia in 1941 he was separated from his family. Left at the mercy of the invading Japanese, she and her sons spent five years of hell in a concentration camp in Indonesia enduring a lack of food, clothing and medicine. In the meantime, her husband was sent to Corpus Christi, Texas, and eventually to Washington, DC as a Naval Attache. After the war, she and her sons fled the camp hidden in an army convoy. They reached a British ship and went to Singapore. By chance, she heard that her husband was alive. She was determined to join him in Washington but had no passport. She and the boys stowed away on a boat to Hong Kong. When they arrived, a Chinese family gave them shelter until word came from her husband. They endured a 16 day trip to San Francisco, CA. They were met at the dock and taken to a hotel where they were reunited with her husband after three days.

She is survived by two daughters, Gloria Nydam Goode of Winchester, Virginia, A. Cathy Milburn of Cross Junction, Virginia, two sons, Gerard Arend Nydam of Snellville, Georgia, Hans Richard Nydam of Reynolds Store, Virginia and one step son, James See, Jr. of Coventry, Connecticut; two step-brothers, Cor DeRadder and Jon DeRadder; two sons, Arend Leendert Nydam and Roelof Lawrence Nydam are deceased. She is also survived by grandchildren, Catrina Mitchell, Rudy Nydam, Tammy Shipman, Anneka and Leny Nydam, Trudy, Rachel and Hilda Nydam, Brian Milburn, Cody and Nicholas Goode, Jay See, and nine great- grandchildren.

A graveside funeral will be conducted Friday at 11:00 a.m. at Shenandoah Memorial Park with Pastor Ken Smith officiating.

The family will receive friends on Thursday evening from 6-8 p.m. at Omps Funeral Home – Amherst Chapel.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Esther Boyd Animal Shelter, 161 Fort Collier Road, Winchester, VA 22603, or to the SPCA, 115 Featherbed Lane, Winchester, Virginia, 22601.

Please view obituaries and tribute wall at www.ompsfuneralhome.com.