1/2 Sjaak van Tilburg (photo: Tonnie Vossen)
Becoming a hundred years old is not very special, says Sjaak van Tilburg from Reek. “Just live your life”, is his motto. “I do what I love to do and I am always very happy.” Brabant has more and more 100-year-olds, the moment had come for Sjaak two weeks ago. That was certainly cause for celebration in Reek.
“If I had to organize it, it wouldn’t have been so big,” says Sjaak, looking back on that day. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t enjoy it. Of all the attention and the beautiful speech of the mayor. “He spoke very nicely.”
There was a large crowd and the brass band and the court chapel serenaded their honorary member. “The school children came with plants, I thought that was nice.”
The photo collages of that day are still against the wall in the hall of the apartment complex where Sjaak lives. “The neighbor is going to hang them here.” ‘That’s how you become 100’, it says next to photos of Sjaak, taken during a gym class. “I joined at 65.”
A lot of exercise is important to stay healthy and vital, says Sjaak. Although he is the oldest at the gym, he can still participate in everything. “I’m just tired faster, but that’s allowed at my age.”
Sports was certainly not always an option, he recalls. “Football wasn’t for me. I didn’t have a shot and I couldn’t walk.” And when teams had to be formed for a game, he was always chosen last. “I didn’t like that.”
“If the years are given to you, it will come naturally.”
But when, after his retirement, he was invited through the senior citizens’ association to join the gym club in Reek, Sjaak didn’t have to think twice. He hasn’t missed a week since then. “We have a very nice teacher and the group is very pleasant,” he says. On his 100th birthday, they gave him a tie with a picture of himself on it: smiling enthusiastically during a gym class.
Sjaak isn’t exactly generous with giving out good advice to anyone who wonders how to do that: grow old in good health and vitality. “If the years are given to you, it will come naturally,” he says. “I never stopped to think about it.”
“When you get older, you sometimes forget things.”
He experienced his happiest years in his early marriage when he had just moved from Schaijk to Reek. “My wife was still alive, I had a textile shop and I was a tailor.”
Sjaak joined the brass band as a musician and blew a cheerful tune on his tuba until he was 82. “I don’t remember why I stopped,” he says and adds apologetically: “That’s what you get when you get older, you sometimes forget something.”
Laughing, he confesses that he sometimes forgets to go to the joint meals of the elderly association. “But then there is always someone who remembers to come and pick me up.”
“It’s beautiful when you get that old.”
Because that’s how it goes in Reek, emphasizes Sjaak. “This is a very special village, people are very friendly and nobody needs to suffer from loneliness here.” Sjaak has been the oldest resident in Reek for seven years now. The time when he, as a tradesman, knew everyone in the village is over. But when he goes out for his daily walk, there is always someone to chat with.
He can’t say it often enough: “It’s beautiful when you get that old.”