In 1836, she married Jan Baptiste Courtmans, a teacher in Ghent, who was one of the co-founders of the Gentse Maetschappij van Vlaemsche Letteroefening.

It inspired her to write an historical novel Bertha Baldwin (1871), about the 14th century battle of the Flemings against France.

Her husband taught her Flemish again, after which she wrote her first poem in 1839, which was published in the Nederduitsch letterkundig jaarboekje.

As a writer, she started to write in prose at a later age, but her first novels, such as Helena van Leliëndal were not very successful.

Probably her most famous novel, Het geschenk van de jager (Fr: Le Cadeau du chasseur, E: gift of the hunter) (1865), was rewarded with the Quinquennial Prize for Dutch Literature.