Flyers about 84-year-old Grandma Willy hang in the Jordaan. She offers to mend clothes. Darning socks, buttoning or repairing linings: Grandma Willy does it for free, because she likes it. And secretly she hopes that other people will join her.
Grandma Willy has since repaired so many clothes that she gradually knows what breaks most often. “Always those boys’ underpants”, she shouts while repairing one. “What’s that dick doing in those pants? I never understand why it’s always broken there.”
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People come by three or four times a week. “It’s a cross-section of society,” says Grandma Willy. “A fashion designer, a funeral director, a swimming teacher, a hairdresser.” And don’t forget: “A conductor of the train. She’s so nice! Because she walks so upright.”
PR girl
Besides that she likes to do it, there is also another reason why Willy doesn’t ask for money: “I don’t need it.” Moreover: “The contact with people is nice, heartwarming. And I can pass everything on to people.”
“For example, I now know a pedicure. A very good one – she’s already treated me twice – but she doesn’t have enough work. I can then ask someone ‘do you already have a pedicure?’ So I’m really a PR girl. That’s why I always say: giving is getting. When you give you get thanks in return, but you can also, but you can also exchange contacts.”
Secretly, Grandma Willy hopes that other Amsterdammers will also participate. “The most important thing is that it is environmentally friendly. Recycling, that’s where we have to go.”