The widow J.P. van Bommel who ran the shoe factory for 13 years starting in 1887 was illiterate. Johanna was born in 1842, a time when education was anything but a given. In 1907, the widow signed a document detailing the ownership of a piece of land with a cross. Below the cross it says: ‘The undersigned declare that the above cross is the signature of Wed. J.P. van Bommel, who declares that she cannot write. August and Janus van Bommel’.

(Image below: A Floris van Bommel logo featuring the widow's cross. The top of the cross forms the letter v in the abbreviation FvB. 2016.)

In 2016, as a tribute to the widow, Van Bommel developed a small logo featuring the handwritten cross. Exactly one hundred years after her death, the widow's signature adorned all women's shoes of the Van Bommel shoe factory.

(Image above: The document with the widow's cross at the bottom. 1907.)