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A memory and tribute.
This statue is a memory and tribute to the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, who stayed in the monastery on the Eerste Zeine from 1910 to 1960. This street, on which the artwork is located, was then called the “Nonnezeintje”.
Life in this period, marked by the crisis years and two world wars, was far from rosy for workers in the Waalwijk shoe industry. Unemployment and poverty brought many concerns to the population. The nuns counterbalanced by promoting education, for which they established a kindergarten. A first aid post had also been set up in the monastery where the nuns gave free nursing care.
Artist Netty Werkman has given the depicted nun a bowl in her hands. This bowl symbolizes the nuns' care and charity. Striking are the heart-shaped hoods that the nuns wore
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Een herinnering en eerbetoon
Dit beeld is een herinnering en eerbetoon aan de Dochters Onze Lieve Vrouw van het Heilig Hart, die van 1910 tot 1960 in het klooster aan de Eerste Zeine verbleven. Deze straat, waaraan het kunstwerk staat, werd toen het “Nonnezeintje” genoemd.
Het leven in deze periode, gekenmerkt door de crisijaren en twee wereldoorlogen, was voor de arbeiders in de Waalwijkse schoenenindustrie verre van rooskleurig. De werkloosheid en armoede bracht de bevolking veel zorgen. De nonnen boden tegenwicht door het stimuleren van onderwijs, waarvoor zij een kleuterschool hebben opgericht. Ook was in het klooster een EHBO-post opgericht waar de nonnen gratis verpleeghulp gaven.
Kunstenares Netty Werkman heeft de uitgebeelde non een schaal in haar handen gegeven. Deze schaal staat symbool voor de zorg en liefdadigheid van de nonnen. Opvallend zijn de hartvormige kappen die de nonnen droegen
Source: Plaque (see picture)
In 2006, the Halvezolenpark was constructed on the site where the railway used to run through Waalwijk, with the Halvezolenfietspad over it. A beautiful bicycle bridge was built as part of the cycle path, which was given the name 'Nonnekesbrug'.
Neighborhood association 't Zèntje was invited by the municipal council to make a proposal for a work of art that they would like to place there. Theo de Peffer suggested the idea of having a statue made as a reminder of the sisters who lived for many years in the Eerste Zeine and from there committed themselves to education and (district) nursing in the Antonius parish.
The neighborhood committee contacted artist Netty Werkman in St. Michielsgestel, who presented the first design on December 16, 2008. The two sisters of the Congregation still working in Waalwijk at that time, Sister An and Sister Giuseppe, both made an impression of their thumbs in the bowl that day, so that their present loving work is also symbolically immortalized in the Antonius Parish.
The statue, for which students of the De Overlaat School Community made the pedestal, was festively unveiled on 25 April 2009.
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