Many elderly people feel lonely. For example, because their partner is no longer there, the children are busy and there are fewer and fewer people around them to have a good time. And if your family also leaves for southern Spain in the summer and your bridge club takes a summer break, that feeling only gets worse during those summer months. Stichting Met Je Hart is trying to do something about it.
Meet Anneke van Buul: an 88-year-old lady from Breugel. She has been married twice, (grand)mother of a series of beautiful (grand)children, she likes to play bridge and has a beautiful garden, if she says so herself. “I should say I’m lucky,” she admits. But Mrs Van Buul doesn’t always feel that way. She is also often very lonely.
“Then the birdhouse by the window is my biggest distraction.”
She suffers from COPD and has difficulty walking. “And sometimes there’s not much left,” she says. Her children work full time and the grandchildren can’t always come by either. In addition, she lost four friends in one week during corona time. Then at one point it became very quiet in the house. “Then the birdhouse by the window is my biggest distraction.”
Until she got a valuable tip: whether the Met Je Hart Foundation was not for her? With that foundation she can now go on a nice outing with a group of people at least once a month. Just drink a cup of coffee somewhere, for example. Or go out for a nice meal, or have lunch somewhere. In the meantime, 52 people have already been connected in the municipality of Son en Breugel alone.
“Meske, meske, meske anyway”, Van Buul muses. “You should go on such an evening. Only then will you hear how many elderly people are lonely.” For them, the foundation is a bull’s eye. Volunteer Dianne van Hak sees that too. “People are so grateful to you,” she says. “They normally don’t leave the house, but then they still have something nice to put on the calendar.”
And that is a relief for the elderly. A bright spot, they call it. Apart from the outings, the volunteers call a number of elderly people almost every day. They give them hugs and have nice conversations together. And that means a lot to someone who sometimes feels so alone. “They all deserve a crown and do really great work. You really have to write that down”, Mrs Van Buul tells us.
“Invite the neighbor to the barbecue, if you know she lives alone.”
Now Met Je Hart has a special focus on summer loneliness in the summer. If you already live alone and your petanque group also has a summer break, that feeling will only get worse. “We therefore pay a little more attention to the elderly in these months,” explains volunteer Van Hak. “But we especially want to ask others to take a closer look at the neighbor. Also invite her to the barbecue, if you know she lives alone.”
Mind you: seasonal loneliness is really just a tip of the veil. More than half of the over-75s say they regularly feel lonely. “I also think it lives all year round,” says Mrs. Van Buul. “But initiatives like this really make a big difference. Don’t underestimate that.”