Last Friday, April 17th, our lovely, colourful friend, irreplaceable event manager, and centre of our community, Freek Bouricius, passed away.
For over ten years, she organised lectures and events about diverse topics, with endless enthusiasm. Her personal love for English literature and poetry always created a beautiful mix of known and lesser-known subjects. The lectures were often enriched with music or a recital. The founding of the Mayflower Theatre Company, of which she was a driving force and a permanent actor, led to the blossoming of the event programming.
Freek’s first event, about one of her favourite poets, John Donne, took place on the first of February in 2015. Three weeks ago, around ten years later and many dozen events, lectures, and festivals later, was her last lecture about To Kill a Mockingbird. We look back with great pleasure on the yearly performance of Dinner for One and the theme festivals in November about authors like Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde.
From the first day that Freek strolled into our shop and we got acquainted, we shared the same dream. The dream to create a community of our Mayflower Bookshop. Together, we have come a long way. We will miss her immensely in our journey to further achieve this dream.
Friday, April 24, we will say goodbye to Freek. The Mayflower was her second home. So, we will remember her at her favourite spot in Leiden. At 16.00, we will come together in the shop to reminisce and drink a glass of wine to toast our Freek. Everyone is sincerely welcome.
The shop in Leiden will be closed for the rest of April 24, and our yearly Shakespeare memorial will unfortunately be cancelled this year.