Hendrika ‘Rita’ Hasert Bandsma, 76, of Montgomery Village, Md., died Feb. 26, 2013. She was born to the late Gerardus Bandsma and Julia Louise Alida Bandsma-Kleijweg on Sept. 25, 1936, in the city of Endeh on the island of Flores in Indonesia.
Rita graduated from high school (H.B.S.) in 1956. She married the late Hendrik Marinus Hasert on the first day of spring in 1959 in Haarlem, the Netherlands.
Henk and Rita immigrated to the United States in 1969 where they transferred several times while Henk worked for Nestle´ and finally made Burlington, their home in 1975. Rita was a stay at home mom and went back to school when their kids were older and graduated ultimately from Alverno College in Wisconsin with a BSN. She loved working as an orthopedic nurse in Burlington and at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C., until she retired a few years ago. She was passionate about making a difference in the lives of her patients. Henk and Rita had 32 wonderful years together before Henk died in Burlington in 1991.
Rita loved being a Girl Scout with her sister growing up. She enjoyed her friends and family and loved to travel and read. She also loved opera, art museums, her book clubs and opera club.
Survivors include her daughter, Mariken Hasert (Daniel) Deist, Gaithersburg, Md.; son, Duco Hasert, Lake Geneva; sister, Louise Geertje Bandsma, Amsterdam, Netherlands; grandchildren, Harrison and Chase Deist and Cecilia Brink-Hasert, and the loving family of Daniel Deist who she adopted as her own extended family.
In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to the American Cancer Society, 801 Roeder Road, Ste. 800, Silver Spring, MD 20910, American Red Cross, 8550 Arlington Blvd., Fairfax, VA 22301 or to the Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, KS 66675.
Services were March 2, at DeVol Funeral Home in Gaithersburg, Md.
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