She had a love of theatre from a young age, but after her mother objected she decided not to pursue a career in acting and became a needlework teacher instead.

The last time the Ajax team visited her she complained that the other residents of her nursing home were "hicks who don't understand football".

Several days prior to her death she told the director of her nursing home, Johan Beijering, that "It's been nice, but the man upstairs says it's time to go".

An autopsy at the University of Groningen revealed that she died of undetected gastric cancer, the tumor in her stomach being the size of a small fist.

Van Andel-Schipper had stated that the secret to her longevity was a serving of herring every day and drinking orange juice.

"[4] The complete genome of Van Andel-Schipper has been analysed by the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, who are researching longevity genes.

[1] A study published in Genome Research suggests the key to Van Andel-Schipper's longevity may lie in her stem cells, which fight off infection.

[1] The author of the study suggested personality may also have something to do with longevity as well: people who live past 100 tend to have forgiveness as a common character trait.

"[7] Another study has connected longer life spans, as exemplified by Van Andel-Schipper, to positive attitudes towards the aging process itself.