~ On the occasion of her 42^nd year with Notary Office SPS ~

By Alita Singh

 All clad in her trademark lily white attire and ever present smile, Millicent “Millie” Acuña Lopez-de Weever has a quietness and calm about her. There is no hurried pace or raised voice; just the carriage of a woman in charge, used to being listened to without the need to exhort too much authority or rank. And for 42 years, she has made her mark on what is today Notary Office SPS, a firm she joined just months after Jose Speetjens (symbolized by the first “S”) opened the first notary office on St. Maarten.

 This is a story to pay homage to “my cousin” Millie, although she was explicated in her instructions that this was to be a story about the notary office’s 42 years in business on November 24. However, the three notaries – Speetjens, Henry Parisius and Jan Schaepman – were also firm in their outline to me. “This is about Millie,” they said. “We want to honour her.”

 So “Cousin” Millie was outnumbered, because there was no way I was going against three notaries appointed by Her Majesty the Queen. Why, one may wonder, am I referring to Millie as my cousin? This privilege was afforded to me; and its coming into being is a hallmark of Millie’s ability to take life in stride, have strong emotions and still be a lady.

 The year was 2009. There was a change of government, and word got to me that moves were being made to replace Millie as acting Lt. Governor. I wrote about it after checks and double checks. However, the denial of the facts was great, and I faced one of the lowest points in my career as a journalist, because I was doubted by even the people who were supposed to have my back. The issue played out and eventually Millie was replaced. She never said a word during the whole fiasco.

 Millie and I met each other some weeks after the issue came to a head and it was clear that she would be replaced. I was walking on Front Street and Millie was driving. She stopped and called out: “Hello, Cousin Alita.” I smiled a puzzled smile and she laughed at my expression. Then she told me the story of “someone” making it their business to see her and tell her that they know that the only reason I was pushing the “untrue” story was due to us “being family.”

 Though Millie and I have many ties as we all do on St. Maarten, we are not blood relatives; but thanks to the very inquisitive person, Millie and I are now “cousins.” I told this story to lay the groundwork of how Millie touches lives, how her level-headed approach has served her well in her career as the office manager of Notary Office SPS for more than four decades, as a member of the Netherlands Antilles Parliament, acting Lt. Governor and of course as a mother.

 ‘Mrs. Notary’

Notary Jan Schaepman wrote in an e-mail: “Now that I live in Amsterdam and the days get rainy, cooler and shorter, I think often back to the office of which I had the honour to be the ‘boss’ and that bore my name and that of my predecessor. While the rain pours against my windows from a grey sky, I like to play Tanny and the Boys and remember the good days on the Friendly Island, the capable women, who formed the core of my office, and of Millicent – the heart of it all! She’s charming, beautiful, multilingual, always friendly to everyone, emphatic, and the support (steun en toeverlaat) for all; in fact, the real (office-) manager. I have a deep respect for her, and always worked with pleasure with ‘Mrs. Notary.’”

 Total dedication

Notary Henry Parisius, who was very involved in this project, called me into his office in Speetjens Arcade, just off Front Street, and sat me down for instructions. “No matter what anyone tells you, this is about Millie.”

Parisius: “The first thing a visitor notices in our notary office is the omnipresence of Millicent de Weever, our office manager.” This “great lady makes our clients feel at home by genuinely treating them as if they were family. She has a phenomenal knowledge of the people of St. Maarten. She reaches out, gives a helping hand where needed and goes the extra mile. Her example creates a pleasant work environment and inspires a positive attitude on all of her co-workers. In short, total dedication to the job.”

 Beginnings

Of the three notaries, Speetjens has known Millie the longest. Though retired, he still spends some of his time in the office when he’s on island. “A force of habit,” he told me, as he outlined his story about Millie. An avid writer and chronicler of history, Speetjens put the story of the beginning of SPS and Millie into perspective.

 Speetjens visited St. Maarten from Curaçao for the first time in 1968, and came to stay for good in 1969, on behalf of Her Majesty Queen Juliana, as the notary for St. Maarten, Saba and St. Eustatius – then called the Island Territory of the Windward Islands, a part of the Netherlands Antilles. His appointment meant that, for the first time, a fully qualified lawyer-notary was present on the islands since they were spotted by Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493.

 Speetjens was sworn in by the President of the Court of Justice, Dr. Jan Engel from Curaçao, who came to St. Maarten in 1969 for the ceremony that took place in the “just restored Courthouse.” Dr. Engel was seconded by Dr. Henry Every, a Saban, who has been acting Governor of the Windward Islands and later Court Recorder and finally Judge.

 Since this was the first time a notary was exercising his legal profession, there was almost nothing to go on because there were no predecessors. Speetjens had to start from scratch. “The people on these islands had not been properly informed that their notary was coming or was already present. [There were] no announcements. That was a good thing because I needed to get organised in the two small rooms in the Courthouse because the Court deemed it proper to appoint me also as Court Recorder for NAf. 1,400 per month, on which I could survive until sufficient notarial revenues would come in.”

 It took 10 days before the first client set foot into Speetjens’ office. “In the beginning, many people had no idea that my services had to be paid for. Many considered that in the Courthouse all services were free. When told about fees, some old widowed ladies would come the next day to pay ‘country pay’ – a bag of vegetables or a dozen eggs. This was touching and very welcome.” After a while, it became clear that Speetjens needed assistance. “Before the computer era, such an office could not be run by one person.” The notary had the assistance for some time of Greta Marugg, who moved to St. Maarten from Aruba where she had worked in a similar office.

 Asking for Millie’s hand

As the office grew, Speetjens heard about “a gifted, young lady called Millicent ‘Millie,’ the daughter of Sephus and Maria de Weever-Romney.” Millie had recently returned from vacationing in the Netherlands and was employed with S.E.L. Maduro on Front Street. “By chance, I located her while she had her coffee break in the cafe/restaurant of Mr. Stetson Risdon, across from her office.”

 On a side note, Speetjens added, Risdon was a pioneer American Businessman in Philipsburg. He was a travel agent, had a car rental firm and was an importer/exporter. He also inspired and trained many young people; some of whom became leading businesspeople.

 Back to the story of Millie, Speetjens said she seemed to like the challenge of becoming a notarial clerk. There was one thing, however; her father Sephus de Weever had to agree to this change. “I went to meet him at the foot of town, as that part of Front Street was then still called. It might have looked to bystanders that I was asking for Millie’s hand. He agreed. So with Millie aboard, the office had a better chance to grow into something big.”

 Today, some 42 years later, Millie is still with the notary office; still referred to by some as “Speetjens Officer” or “The Notary” though the official name has been from some time Notary Office SPS. “Millie became and still is, for most, the well known face of the office.”

 The cooperation between Millie and Speetjens continued until 2002 when he retired as lawyer-notary. That it didn’t end there, he continued on for another five years as agreed with successor Schaepman. “To the outside world, Millie and I were considered a professional unit and I was always glad that Millie was the indispensible professional element in the management of the office. Millie became and still is today the office manager.”

 Political arena

Next to being part of the notary office, Millie became a politician and a two-term Member of the Netherlands Antilles Parliament. (Details are chronicled in Speetjens’ book – St. Maarten/St. Martin Yesterday-Today.)

The decision to go into politics when she was asked by the late Dr. Claude Wathey – considered the father of modern St. Maarten – was only taken after a meeting of Millie, all of her brothers and Speetjens. “The venture was okayed.”

“While she was in politics part-time, she still kept her job as office manager with much efficiency. After her political career, it was noticeable that the office got a new impulse from her fulltime presence which I hope will not finish for the foreseeable future,” Speetjens said.

 “Millie, thank you for a lifetime of very nice cooperation!”