Coosje Ayal was born in the village of
Titawaai on the island of
Nusa Laut in the
Moluccas. During the
Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, Ayal's uncle was called upon by the
Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (, KNIL) to hide weapons, food and ammunition in the jungle. When the Japanese fleet entered
Dore Bay on 12 April 1942, an armed militia of 62 persons–of which sixteen-year-old Coosje Ayal was a member–was already hiding there, led by KNIL captain . The militia remained in the jungle for thirty months. Ayal followed a nurse's training in Brisbane, Australia, as an infantrywoman in the
Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Women's Corps and she was promoted to corporal. In Brisbane she also met the
Dutch Caribbean soldier Henry Evers, whom she married in 1947. The family lived on Nusa Laut, in the Netherlands, and in the
Netherlands Antilles. In 1964 they returned to the Netherlands, where Coosje Ayal first worked in a packaging factory and later founded her own catering company. From 1988 she received a
Resistance pension. Ayal always took part in the
National Remembrance 15 August 1945 ==Honors==