Henk was an affectionate friend, a very fine singer, guitar player, and photographer, a dedicated gardener and organizer, and a Life Member of the Vancouver Folk Song Society. Born in the Netherlands, Henk Piket came to Canada with his family in 1954 and joined “the Folk” shortly thereafter. His energy, warmth, and musicianship built up the VFSS over many decades. We will miss him tenderly, and we will carry on his legacy of friendship and music.

We offer our heartfelt condolences to Henk’s wife Cheryl, his daughters Krista, Nicole, and Carmel, and his stepdaughters Signe and Denise, along with all the other members of his family and music family.

– by Christina Ray for the VFSS

 

Here is Henk’s obituary, written by his daughter Krista.

Read on for warm memories of Henk from Roger Holdstock and Rika Ruebsaat & Jon Bartlett, below.

 

 

Gather with folk friends and family to remember Henk

Celebration of Life for Henk Piket

Saturday, Sept. 5, 2–5 pm at the Quaker Meeting House

More details to follow.

 

 

HENK AS I HAVE KNOWN HIM

Roger Holdstock

Soon after moving to Vancouver in April 1974 I found my way to the Alma Y in Kitsilano.  I met several people that first night at The Folk Song Circle—Phil Thomas, Al Cox, and Henk Piket were among them.  Even then it struck me that people in a singing community are identified by what they sing.  Phil sang “Teaming up the Cariboo Road”, Al sang “Manchester Rambler,” and Henk sang “City of New Orleans.”  I can still hear each of them sing those songs.

Henk did something else, too.  He played guitar—really well.  And his voice was warm and rich, especially late into the night among a small group of friends.  I was lucky enough to be there for many of those nights over the five decades we sang together.

As a single parent of three daughters, Henk quickly earned my admiration.  The girls would come along to the Green Cove Coffee House at Britannia and at least one would be asleep as he hauled them home afterward.  Krista, Nicole, and Carmel were at Camp Kwomais in those early days along with my kids and others.  We were all learning how to juggle parenting and maintaining the other parts of our lives, but no one else that I knew was single-parenting three kids at the time.  Henk was also the unofficial photographer.  He built  a massive collection of photos from VFSS events and the Vancouver Folk Festival’s early years.

Then Fraser Union formed in 1983.  Henk, Jill King, Tam Lundy, and I were the original group.  I believe La Quena was our first venue.  When Fraser Union became an all-male sometimes trio, sometimes quartet, we said that the women left for health reasons—they got sick of us.  Over the years, we evolved into the quartet of Dan Kenning, Barry Truter, Henk, and me.  Henk chose to sing the foundation, the bass, whenever he wasn’t singing lead.  He would “bass in” as A.P. Carter did with the Carter Family, who were very influential to Henk.   And this brings me back to the songs I identify with Henk.  There is a deep Americana vein that runs through much of his repertoire:  “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”, “Dark as a Dungeon”, “16 Tons”, “Cannonball Blues” (Carter Family), “Everybody’s Crying Mercy”, and two of my favourites from the lounge lizard genre–  “Cry Me a River” (best rendition since Julie London), and “Scotch and Soda” (way better than the Kingston Trio).

We shared a lot of milestones.  For his 50th birthday I put together a scrapbook of articles and photos related to Fraser Union.  I got to know his mother and his dad, his sister Mayo and brother Bill.   Ildi and I bonded with his partners over the years.   His 70th birthday party was at our house with a dramatic backdrop of my mother-in-law dying that night.  On one particular Faser Union road tour on the Island, Henk fell asleep before the rest of us.  We were staying at Deb Maike’s, where she decided it would be fun, with the encouragement of Dan Kenning, to paint Henk’s toenails.

We shared the stories of our lives.  He immigrated from Holland as a youngster and endured harassment when at first he didn’t fit in.   I also immigrated to North America shortly after WWII and understood the feeling of being an outsider.  Henk was a child wonder, however, on the guitar and on a racing bike.  He cycled with an adult cycling team out of Ace Cycle shop in Kits when he was a young teenager.  He knew all the folk coffee houses in Vancouver in the 60’s, places I missed out on, like The Bunkhouse, because I was in L.A. at the time doing the same there by going to The Ash Grove to hear the same performers.

No matter where Henk moved in the Lower Mainland—East 15th Avenue, New West, Maple Ridge—he reliably showed up for our Fraser Union rehearsals once a week.  The move to Princeton, however, proved too much of a challenge.  We tried to maintain Zoom rehearsals but they don’t work.  He and Cheryl transitioned to a different rhythm of life, with Henk discovering a love of carpentry and enjoying what he called “the simple things.”  In our phone check-ins he would describe his sense of contentment.

And now here we are, in 2026, and Henk is gone.  We used to sing a duet written by Celia O’Neill that rings painfully true now: “How warm those cold and dreary nights we would sing together”.  Henk and I sang together, we travelled together, we drank together.   Henk enjoyed life, and I enjoyed his company for a good long time.

 

 

OUR REMINISCENCES OF HENK

Rika & Jon

Rika’s Early Memories of Henk

When we moved to Vancouver from the West Kootenays in 1960 my father discovered the Folk Song Circle, which we began attending regularly. My father sang with Henk’s mother in the Bach choir and the Pikets and the Ruebsaats were soon good friends. Henk always said that he discovered the Folk Song Circle through my father. Very soon afterwards Henk became a regular performer at the Song Circle and our two families became part of the Vancouver folk community.

I spent a lot of time at the Piket household because I was good friends with Henk’s sister, Carla, who was my age. I was twelve at the time and Henk was sixteen. The Piket household was always a welcoming hub of activity. There were 6 kids in the family (although the older ones were already young adults) as well as at least one or two boarders so there was always something interesting going on: stimulating conversation, singing and music, good food, people coming and going. I loved being there and felt at home with the non-nonsense, direct style of interaction. Henk’s mom had an astringent, witty way of summing up a situation, which often had me in stitches. You didn’t dare put on airs in her presence.

My primary connection to Henk at the time was through music. We both sang and played guitar, although Henk was miles ahead of me in that department; I remember many occasions where he patiently taught me licks that I wanted to master. He, my father and I were the ones who regularly attended the Folk Song Circle and Henk and I also sang at other venues around Vancouver.

I lost touch with Henk in the late 1960s as we pursued endeavours in other places. I renewed my connection with the Folk in 1975 and not long afterwards Henk reappeared. Seeing him again was like reuniting with family. There was that sense of warm familiarity that comes with having known someone since childhood.

Henk soon became a committed, active member of the Folk and remained so until he moved to Princeton. His tireless work as treasurer, president and retreat organizer helped shape the VFSS into what it is today. Henk was president of the Folk at a very difficult time. One of our longtime members had been convicted of child molestation. The situation created a great deal of tumult and division in the Folk and Henk was able to handle things with gentleness and diplomacy. We couldn’t have had a better person at the helm at the time.

Singing with Henk was always a joy. At parties people often shuffled over to his side during choruses so they could explore harmonies with him. He sang bass and provided the rich bottom notes that beautifully rounded out the harmonic spectrum. In the late 1990s and early 200s the VFFS Shanty Crew sang at events and venues around Vancouver, including the Tall Ships Festival in Richmond. For the occasion we recorded a CD called Tall Ships on the Fraser. Henk’s bass harmonies are an essential ingredient to the rich harmonies on that CD. The VFFS Shanty Crew morphed into the quartet, North by West, and we had the pleasure of sharing the stage with Henk many times including numerous Seattle Folklife Festivals, and once at a shanty festival in Quebec. We were delighted when he moved to Princeton; he became a stalwart member of the Princeton Traditional Music Festival organizing committee and a founding father of the Princeton Porch Party. Henk was never interested in stealing the spotlight; he was always there to support and contribute.

We think one could sum up Henk’s way of being in the world that way. He did not strive to be at the front of the line. He wanted to make sure that things ran smoothly and that people were supported and cared for, whether it was by singing harmony or by giving you a surprise shoulder massage just when you needed it. We will miss his loving, gentle ways.