M
marcovanbeek
New member
We are sad to announce the recent passing of our mother, Betty van Beek. Betty moved with her husband Jaap van Beek to Puerto Pollensa in 1974. Jaap ran his business, Sunquest, out of the office in Gommar until his death in 1994. Betty worked many summers as a holiday rep until she moved back to the UK to work full time as a physiotherapist in the late 80’s.
Betty was born Mary Elisabeth Welshman in Downpatrick, Co Down. She graduated from Trinity College as a physiotherapist and became a member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists in 1952. She met Jaap in the south of France while she was on a hitch-hiking break from her job in the Channel Islands, and he was on leave from his job in what was then the Dutch East Indies. They married in Singapore in 1954, and she subsequently joined him in Jakarta, where their daughter Bettine was born, in 1956. Having been asked to leave Indonesia they spent a year in Rotterdam, and then moved to the UK where their son Marco was born in 1962. In 1974 they decided to move to Mallorca, as Jaap had been made an offer of a partnership in a property development business.
Betty was unable to get her credentials as a physiotherapist ratified by the Spanish authorities, so spend many summers working as a holiday rep out of the same Gommar office, as Jaap sub-let part of it to the likes of OSL.
In the off-seasons, Betty began to go back to the UK to do the work that she loved, eventually deciding to remain in the UK when she was offered a full time job in the physiotherapy department at the Luton & Dunstable hospital, and when Jaap died in 1994, there was no longer any reason for her to return to the island.
She retired in the late 90’s, and moved to St Albans, in Hertfordshire. She continued to live independently until she became ill in November 2025. Betty passed away on March 22nd, 2026. Those of you who knew her will know she never liked a fuss, so her wishes were not for a funeral or a memorial, but simply to raise a glass in her memory and get on with enjoying life.
Betty was born Mary Elisabeth Welshman in Downpatrick, Co Down. She graduated from Trinity College as a physiotherapist and became a member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists in 1952. She met Jaap in the south of France while she was on a hitch-hiking break from her job in the Channel Islands, and he was on leave from his job in what was then the Dutch East Indies. They married in Singapore in 1954, and she subsequently joined him in Jakarta, where their daughter Bettine was born, in 1956. Having been asked to leave Indonesia they spent a year in Rotterdam, and then moved to the UK where their son Marco was born in 1962. In 1974 they decided to move to Mallorca, as Jaap had been made an offer of a partnership in a property development business.
Betty was unable to get her credentials as a physiotherapist ratified by the Spanish authorities, so spend many summers working as a holiday rep out of the same Gommar office, as Jaap sub-let part of it to the likes of OSL.
In the off-seasons, Betty began to go back to the UK to do the work that she loved, eventually deciding to remain in the UK when she was offered a full time job in the physiotherapy department at the Luton & Dunstable hospital, and when Jaap died in 1994, there was no longer any reason for her to return to the island.
She retired in the late 90’s, and moved to St Albans, in Hertfordshire. She continued to live independently until she became ill in November 2025. Betty passed away on March 22nd, 2026. Those of you who knew her will know she never liked a fuss, so her wishes were not for a funeral or a memorial, but simply to raise a glass in her memory and get on with enjoying life.
