Anneke Lucie Rutherford
passed away January 30, 2023
Anneke Lucie Rutherford, a Boulder resident for 45 years, passed away on Monday, January 30, 2023 at the age of 87. Mother to five, and Oma (grandmother) to 16, Anneke is preceded in death by four months by her husband of 60 years, Robert Rutherford. As a team, the couple built a tight, loving family. Losing one right after the other was double the blow. At least they weren't without each other for very long.
"A Rose is a Rose is a Rose," a line made famous by the poet Gertrude Stein, was one of Anneke's favorite expressions. It's meaning: a thing is beautiful simply for being what it is. Those lucky enough to have known Anneke understood that she was one of a kind. Simply beautiful for who she was.
One didn't easily forget Anneke. It was common for someone to stop her in a place like a grocery store to re-introduce themselves. Likely, it was one of her kids' grade school friends, now an adult. "I have no idea how they remember me after all these years?!" Anneke would exclaim. But the rest of us had an idea. It could be her distinctive voice. A voice few could imitate though many tried, the high pitch combined with a Dutch accent that never faded. It could be that she was the only parent who made chocolate sprinkle sandwiches and allowed indoor water fights.
And, she may have been one of the few mothers whose idea of a fun party activity was to drop her daughter and friends off in a cemetery in the middle of the night. Or it could be that she kept the Christmas tree up year round, made pretty much anyone who walked through the front door take a nap, and choreographed every family gathering into a talent show featuring the grandchildren.
Raised in a small village on the island of Java in Indonesia, Anneke spent most of her formative years under Japanese occupation during
WWII. Her father, a lieutenant in the Dutch army, was absent for years in a prisoner of war camp, his family not knowing whether he was dead or alive. In part due to this, Anneke grew up understanding that life is short, the world is big, do it all now. A philosophy she was determined to impart on each of her five children.
Long before cultural and travel programs for teens could be easily accessed on the internet, long before the internet, Anneke found ways to give her children a taste for adventure by sending them around the world at a young age. Her daughters Marla and Xenia went to schools in Belgium and Switzerland. She sent her son Doug on multiple dive trips, including Australia in order to see the "great whites." Her son Eric, at 15, was sent to Bonaire with marine biologists. When her oldest son
Ken was 14, he spent a summer in Papua New Guinea building a zoo, and the following year in Africa tracking the migration of hyenas because, well, why not. "There were no cell phones back then, and I hadn't heard from him in weeks," Anneke said about Ken's time in the remote grasslands of Kenya. "I only had his return flight information. So, I waited for him at the gate with no idea if I'd see him getting off the plane or not." In hindsight, we now appreciate that as a mom Anneke must have had to continually step out of her own comfort zone, in order to inspire her kids to step out of theirs.
Anneke will be greatly missed for everything she was: A girl from Indonesia. A woman who could sing, dance, play the guitar, and speak five languages fluently. A dance mom. A football mom. An Oma who spoiled her grandchildren and, from what we hear, also spoiled the ending to every movie she showed them. A loving mother and wife who did and would do anything for her family. A rose.
Anneke's life with be celebrated privately, in the intimate way she always preferred, surrounded by her children, and with some sort of "talent show" performed by her grandchildren.
Notes of condolences and memories can be sent to:
Eric Rutherford 4875 Pearl East Cir #100, Boulder, CO. 80303. They will be shared and much appreciated.