Columnist and etiquette expert Beatrijs Ritsema died on Thursday at the age of 69. That has newspaper Fidelityfor which she worked for twenty years, on her website on Friday let them know. Ritsema died of lung cancer, for which she had been treated for some time.
Ritsema studied psychology at Leiden University and was editor-in-chief for many years Free Netherlands. She gained fame with her column Modern Manners, which she wrote in for two decades Fidelity. In the column she dealt with questions about social interaction in a humorous way. The questions included complicated weddings, difficult funerals, unwanted gifts and nagging colleagues. appeared on Friday advices in the newspaper for the last time. As an NRC columnist from 1983 to 2006, Ritsema also made hundreds of contributions to the back page of NRC. She also wrote many book reviews. She wrote her last NRC article in 2018.
Also read this story about what Beatrijs Ritsema learned from her mother
In a 2018 NRC article, Ritsema describes her young self as “a docile child who liked to do her best”. She also devoured “one book after another.” In a comparison with her mother, she says that in discussions about politics she had to “reluctantly” always agree with her. “One time things went differently, in a conversation about elevators. She thought that was parasitic, I said: ‘But that car is already there anyway.’ I remember my triumph when she admitted the reasonableness of my argument.”
Trouw editor-in-chief Cees van der Laan calls Ritsema “of great significance for the newspaper and the readers. She was very popular, also for her sometimes very special, contradictory advice.” According to Van der Laan Fidelity I often hear from readers that Ritsema’s advice at breakfast on Saturday mornings caused discussion. “Her advice made you think and find solutions,” says the editor-in-chief. “Her advice reflected the zeitgeist. With Beatrijs we lose a beloved employee, but also a special, honest and pleasant person.”