Ginette Lucie Balland Lenz, age 91, died peacefully in Tampa, Florida on January 21, 2019. She was born on May 11, 1927 to Vincent and Elisabeth Balland in Algiers, the capital of French Algeria in North Africa. Her father Vincent was a tailor; her mother Lucie was a seamstress. Vincent was a veteran of World War I who had fought at the Battle of Verdun. He was also an enterprising investor who owned several apartments in Algiers, as well as a superb athlete who would dive off thirty-foot cliffs into the water. Ginette was also an athlete. She was a sprinter in high school. After high school she attended the University of Algiers.
After World War II she traveled to study English in London, so that she could become an English teacher. London was still recovering from the terrible bombings during the war. It was not always a safe place. However, Ginette lived in a convent set up by Spanish nuns for single girls. They had very strict rules for the girls who lived in the convent. Ginette got around those rules by having her friend let her in through a window after curfew.
In London, Ginette met José Carlos Lenz, a bright young Cuban engineer studying for his master’s degree on scholarship at the Imperial College of London. When José first worked up the courage to ask Ginette to go to the movies, she replied, “Why not?” They fell in love, and on July 19, 1949 they were married at St. Charles Monceau Church in Paris, France.
The young couple moved to Havana where Ginette embraced Cuban culture, learning Spanish quickly and learning to cook Cuban favorites. Soon there were two daughters, Christine Michèle, and her little sister, Michèle Marie. There were also grandparents: José’s mother and father, called Abuela and Abuelo, who would take care of the girls every weekend. Remember, this was Havana in the fifties: the Tropicana Club, cha-cha-chá, mambo. This young couple was not going to miss out on all the fun.
Then, on January 1, 1959, Fidel Castro and his guerillas marched into Havana and took control of Cuba. Castro was welcomed as a hero. He had overthrown the brutal dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Everyone loved Fidel. Even Ginette, caught up in the excitement like everyone else, would listen to Castro’s hours-long speeches on the radio. But José saw through Castro’s façade and realized that he was setting up a communist dictatorship. Within a year, he had moved Ginette and her family to Miami, Florida.
They moved into a lovely home on Gerona Avenue in Coral Gables. There Ginette would take her girls to the beach or the library every day during the summer. The years that followed took the family to Sao Paulo, Brazil; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and York, Pennsylvania, until they finally moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they lived for 20 years. In 1990, José and Ginette moved back to Miami for their retirement years.
Ginette was an adventurous traveler, an excellent cook, and an avid reader. She lightened every gathering with her laugh, her French style, her joie de vivre and her love of champagne. She was always elegantly dressed and perfectly coiffed in every venue and at every age. She never said yes, only “Why not?” or “Je ne dis pas non” (“I don’t say no”). She instilled a love of the French language and all things French in her family.
Ginette was preceded in death by José Lenz, her husband of 63 years. She is survived by her two daughters: Christine Michèle Lenz Hyde (husband Thomas Hyde) and Michèle Marie Lenz Richards (husband Peter Richards); five grandchildren: Charles Hyde (wife Chantal), Michèle Hyde (husband Matthew), Joseph Hyde (wife Elaine), Dominique Richards, and Ryland Richards; and nine great-grandchildren: Pi, Zeno, William, Daniel, Möbius, Madeline, Thomas, Christian, and Elisabeth.
The family will be holding a private memorial service.
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