Grace was born in Surabaya, Java, on one of the islands known today as Indonesia.  At the time, Java was a Dutch colony; the Dutch having occupied the area since 1619, when Batavia (now Jakarta) was the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company.  In Dutch, this company was known as het Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC).   By 1799, the VOC had become corrupt and seriously in debt, so the Dutch government revoked the company's charter and took over its possessions.   Ever since her ancestor, Jochem Neijndorff, a VOC storekeeper who traveled to Batavia and married Maria Magdalena Latour in the 1740s, Grace's family, along with many other "Indos" retained their Dutch citizenship and were raised as Europeans living in the colonies.

Although Grace lived in two other countries during her lifetime, she was proud of her heritage and enjoyed telling people about her birthplace and background. Although she ate very little near the end of her life, she still enjoyed Indonesian food - as you can see in this photo taken on August 6, 2005.

Grace was not able to attend the actual luau dinner and activities before her last week in this world, but she always loved to participate in activities wherever she lived.  She loved talking to people of all ages, telling them her stories. She also loved to play games and entertained more than one generation with her card tricks, songs, and stories!