Bea was born in 1973 in Nij Beets. She came to Norway with her husband, Carlos, in 2005. She used to work in Rotterdam as a group leader in a rehabilitation and retirement home. Bea is qualified in the field and has mostly worked with people who have difficulty adapting to society. Now she works with Carlos in their restaurant “The Little Pancake House” in Lillehammer, which mainly serves pancakes and waffles.

Moving to Norway was like a fairy tale for Bea. She and her husband wanted to start their own business, which was difficult in the Netherlands because of the huge financial expense involved in establishing new companies. They got an offer to run a guesthouse in Røyrvik in Norway and thought, “Why not?” They were very fond of the place, mainly because of the scenery. Before they decided to move, they had been in Norway three or four times as tourists.

Bea and Carlos learned Norwegian in Rotterdam. They wanted to prepare themselves properly for life in a new country. The snowy and icy winters that met Bea in Norway were like a trip back to her childhood. She remembers such winters from the Netherlands in the 1980s.
Bea and Carlos had a child in Norway. They both think that Norway has far better child benefits than the Netherlands. Bea likes it in Norway, but sometimes thinks about moving back to her home country because she misses it. She says that when their child reaches the age of five or six, the family will have to decide between staying in Norway and going back to the Netherlands.

She is happy in Lillehammer, but she misses the sea and the time when she could sit in a cafe in Rotterdam and read the newspapers - a little moment of everyday pleasure, which the Dutch call gezelligheid.
Bea also wants her daughter to experience Dutch traditions, just as she herself experienced in childhood and remembers fondly. She thinks it is good for children to grow up in both Norwegian and Dutch culture.