Sufi Remembrance

Karima was born as Olga on the 18^th January, 1949 in Eindhoven, in the south of The Netherlands. She grew up in a Catholic family, with two brothers (including her twin brother) and three sisters. She was educated as a nurse. She worked for more than 25 years in a hospital in Tilburg. Karima had a lot of experience with very ill and dying patients. The last 8 years of her life, she worked as a homecare nurse. She had only a few patients and some of them she visited several times a week. She was very attached to her youngest patient, a little boy. From her first marriage she had two daughters.

After a long spiritual journey, Olga recognised her ideals in the Sufi Message of Hazrat Inayat Khan. In August 1999 she received her Sufi name Karima. She was very attached to this name. “Karima means Divine kindness”, she wrote to her friends, “I like it when you call me so”.

Karima did a lot of work for the Sufi Movement. She was secretary of the Sufi Centre Breda and she made a lot of robes for the Cherags. Karima loved to dance. As a child she collected ballet pictures from magazines and newspapers. She loved the Dances of Universal Peace and she followed an education as dance leader by Noor and Akbar in Hilversum. With love and devotion, Karima spoke in the Sufi Universal Worships. She made several speeches: “The voice”, “Simplicity”, “Living in Truth”, “The secrets of the Heart”, “The prayer” and “Inspiration and creativity”. In her speeches she talked about her personal experiences and she always told funny Sufi stories.

After her sudden death in September 2007, her speeches were collected in a small booklet (in Dutch), entitled “Karima’s toespraken”. This book is illustrated with some of her drawings. Karima worked with pleasure for hours on her Mandela paintings.

Olga-Karima’s most important message was to love each other. She will stay in my heart as a very kind and loving person, a real Karima.

Frans Roza