“They can only get me away between six planks.” Bertus Lansen (89) is clear about it. His good friend Cees Nuijten (90) gets tears in his eyes when he talks about the possible disappearance of ‘his’ village Moerdijk. “I just think it’s really bad. I don’t really want to talk about it.”
Almost a century ago they were born on the same street in Moerdijk, with one house in between. Cees and Bertus grew up together and both loved making music. “After we had been to church, we always went to the dike to sing songs on Sundays. Then more and more people came.”
They still see each other regularly. Bertus sings in the senior choir where Cees accompanies and they visit each other regularly. Then Cees takes the bike to have a cup of coffee with Bertus.
The idea of having to leave their birthplace affects Cees and Bertus. “It’s a matter of survival here. It’s bad for us, we don’t want to leave. But it’s even worse for all those young people who have to leave,” says Cees. His son and grandchildren are already moving. “And I often walk past there just to have a chat. That disappears.”
Meanwhile in Moerdijk
How do you continue to live as normally as possible when you have been told that the village where you have lived for years, or perhaps even where you were born, must disappear. In the monthly series Meanwhile in Moerdijkcan be seen at Brabant+we follow some residents and show their daily lives over the past month.
