A thousand Tilburg residents depend for their bread on BroodNodig, the foundation that continues the good work of Father Gerrit Poels. The ‘bread father’ can no longer do it himself, but his loyal volunteers continue to do it. Like Ben Erbrink (69). He has been helping out for seventeen years: “Gerrit was a second father to me.”
Ben lives in Tilburg, in the Stedekestraat, ten meters from the Pollepel. Bread is delivered there every day around noon. And then Ben is also there to sort the 123 crates full of bread: dots together, sweet together, white and brown separately. And that for seventeen years: “I’m here six, sometimes seven days a week. I’m having a good time.”
Ben is one of thirteen volunteers. He really enjoys helping people. “But you sometimes think: boy. When you hear how few people have, I think that’s pathetic.”
“Your heart aches when you hear those stories.”
He also has days when there is not enough bread for everyone: “Then your heart hurts a bit when you hear the stories. But I can’t have so much on my mind, that’s not good for me. I have to keep it a little limited.”
Ben used to have a job: he worked with glass wool, operated machines, but at a certain point that was no longer possible. His hands were warped: “The work was taking too much time and my boss had me out. I was on sick leave, got a psychosis and divorced my wife. Then I freaked out.”
“You should know: I wanted to kill myself.”
Ben slipped further and further, got drunk. It was Father Poels who saved him: “I wanted to kill myself, you should know that. I saw no way out, everything was black. But I talked a lot with Gerrit and that helped me a lot. Even at night I could go to him. Then I cycled over to him, knocked on the window and chatted. And now it’s fine. I no longer take drugs. Talking will get you far, because if you’re drinking it’s nothing.”
Ben will continue to work for BroodNodig for another year. Then he moves to his sister in Nuth, she will take care of him. “I’ll have a hard time with that, maybe I’ll shed a tear. But I’m turning seventy and the young guard should take over.”
Father Poels will always hold a very special place in Ben’s heart: “He meant even more to me than my parents. He saved me or I wouldn’t be here. He was everything to me.”
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