Catharina Louisa "Toos" Sillen-House Obituary (1935 - 2023)

Catharina "Toos" Louisa Sillen-House was born on September 25, 1935, in Hulsberg, Holland to her father, Peter Hendrikus Sillen and mother, Maria Wilhelmina Catharina Veldman.Toos is survived by her husband, Ted Quillian House, and they were married for more than fifty years. After Toos' death, Ted said he lost his best friend. Toos was the oldest of five children; one sister and three brothers - her sister, Johanna "Ans" Gerarda Sillen, and her brother, Gerardus "Ger" Petrus Maria Sillen, are still living in Holland and are very dear to her. Toos also had two brothers who predeceased her: Lodewijk "Lou" Karel Wilhelmina Sillen who died on August 8, 2011, and Henricus "Harry" Pieter Nicolaas Sillen who died July 6, 2009.Toos is also survived by 7 nieces and nephews along with 8 grandnieces and nephews all of whom she loved very much and throughout the many years of her life would travel back to Holland whenever she could to visit them and never missed remembering all of their birthdays.Ted has four children from a previous marriage and Toos loved them all as though they were her own. Bonny-Lee Moleski, Robin-Ann Shaeffer, Cindy-Lou Boucher and a late son, Ted David House. Toos loved to spoil all of their 8 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren of whom she was very proud.Toos graduated from primary school in Valkenburg aan de Geul Holland and went on the secondary school MULO in Valkenburg aan de Geul followed by PABO Teachers' College in Heerlen Holland. Toos was multilingual and spoke six languages fluently: her native language Dutch, English, German, French, Spanish and Italian.Toos' love of languages led her to a teaching career, and she taught at several places in the province of Limburg before venturing to Libya from 1964 to 1966 where she also taught children from Shell, Philips and KLM employees at the Dutch school. After she left Libya she returned to the Netherlands to teach for some time before traveling to Iran in the late 1960s to teach where she met Ted who was serving in the Navy, and where they happily lived for many years in Teheran, Abadan and Ahwaz under the leadership of the Shah until he was overthrown by the government in 1979. During that tumultuous time, Ted and Toos moved back to the U.S. and settled in Homestead, Florida. From Homestead, they moved to a beautiful property on Lake Sante Fe in Melrose, Florida where they enjoyed entertaining family and friends with lots of boating and fishing on the lake. Toos continued to teach three languages (German, French and Spanish) for many years at Eastside High School in Gainesville until her retirement in 1995. Throughout their marriage, Ted and Toos continued to travel around the world. Toos was passionate about art and culture and was knowledgeable about both, and especially loved to paint watercolors. She was also an avid photographer and never missed an opportunity to capture pictures of family outings and all of her adventures throughout the world. She was truly loved by all of her family both home and abroad and will be dearly missed.Her funeral services will be held at a later date upon the death of her husband, Ted, with plans for both to be laid to rest at the Jacksonville Florida National Cemetery where Ted served in the U.S. Navy for twenty years.Milamfh.com