The 92-year-old Sieb de Boer, better known as ‘De Rotondeman’, gets his own bench at his favorite roundabout in Assen. The municipality places the seating furniture on Monday, so that it no longer has to sit on his walker when he waves local residents.
The idea arose from alderman Jan Broekema (SP). On Thursday morning he handed out coffee at the station in the context of the week against loneliness and saw the story of Sieb passing by at RTV Drenthe. “We have to do something with that,” he decided. For example, ‘De Rotondeman’ now has a permanent place to continue his daily round greetings.
Sieb has been happy to spend about a year around the roundabout. In this way he is known in the neighborhood as ‘De Rotondeman’. “I sometimes walked by to do groceries, and then I thought: how cozy it is here for a city. That surprised me. In Groningen they are a bit stiffer. But here everyone greets so kindly.”
Sieb decided to put his walker pontifically next to the roundabout, exactly at that point where everyone shaves past him. Here he feels less alone. From Monday he can sit on a bench instead of a walker. So that there is also room for the people who want to chat with him.