Princess Beatrix will turn 85 on January 31. For this series, we asked North Hollanders about their special encounter with the former queen. This time it is former Artis animal caretaker Sacha van Rietschoten. She met the Queen in 1988, during the zoo’s 150th anniversary.
Small zoo tour
To her own surprise, having only worked at Artis for a few years, Sacha van Rietschoten was chosen to meet the then Queen Beatrix during the zoo’s 150th anniversary. “Everyone else was old-timer.” The fact that she is a woman probably played a part in this. At that time not many women worked in the zoo.
“There were six animal caretakers who were allowed to talk to her,” Van Rietschoten remembers. “Three animal caretakers were in the Small Mammal House and three animal caretakers, including me, were in the Reptile House.” Van Rietschoten was a monkey caretaker, but for this occasion she was in a different place. “Because the queen didn’t go that far into the zoo at all. There was a circle mapped out for her to walk. It was all painted. It has never looked so slick.” She adds with a laugh: “But only that little circle was painted!”
“Normally you think: I’m going to dress up, because I’m going to shake the queen’s hand. Now I just smelled like monkey”
Instructions
Prior to the meeting, Sacha and her colleagues had to come to director Lensink’s office, because when you meet the queen you have to know a few things first. “We weren’t allowed Mrs say we had to Majesty say. You have to wait to shake hands until she shakes hands. I already forgot that, because the moment someone stands in front of you, you just shake hands.” The animal caretakers also had to wear their work clothes. “Normally you think: I’m going to dress up, because I’m going to shake the hand of the queen Now I just smelled like monkey.”
Special
Two or three questions the queen asked and then she went on. “You can say: what nonsense, just talk to the queen. Is that so important. But of course it is nice to have experienced that. There are only a few who can say that.”
