In those first postwar years, Het Parool was more than just a cradle for new talent, it was also a volatile mix of young, euphoric people who were finally living it up after the long years of German occupation.

It was "one big game of musical beds, everyone sleeping with everyone else, all the married men going with each other's wives - parties and dates and situations and all that." Café Scheltema on Amsterdam's Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal was a favorite meeting-place for the editorial staff. Fiep was a regular there as well. One night on her way out, she literally bumped into Annie. It was a chance encounter: they looked at each other, said hello and introduced themselves. The next thing they knew, they were sitting down and chatting away, despite not knowing each other at all. It had clicked immediately and this rapport remained throughout their later collaboration and friendship.

Wim Hora Adema began arranging meetings of the women's page contributors - enjoyable get-togethers in a booth at the Poland Hotel in Amsterdam's Kalverstraat. The lively group included Jeanne Roos, Harriët Freezer, Mies Bouhuys, Hella Haasse and Annie. Fiep was painfully shy at first and much too timid to contribute to heated discussions of emancipation and women's place in society. But once she'd seen them all in action and become used to "the girls from the women's page", she dared to interrupt with level-headed, balanced remarks - usually offering them when she felt that the ladies were getting carried away and "talking nonsense". "What do you say, Fiep? You always know best," became a standard expression whenever the discussion was in danger of getting out of hand yet again.