The flag is flying at the Vietnamese couple Hoa (70) and Cuong (72): the municipality has announced that they will receive a new permit. The spring roll stall will be located on the Laanweg in Schoorl. “We are very happy with this good news,” the couple responds.
After 32 years, Hoa and her husband Cuong had to retire last December forced to leave their place of employment on the edge of the Schoorlse Duinen. New regulations made the place raffled off to another party.
The couple has long since passed the retirement age, but together they cannot survive on their monthly AOW allowance. That’s why Hoa still works behind the cash register at a supermarket. “We only arrived in the Netherlands at a later age, so we are missing about thirty percent of pension accrual. We were also unable to get a job in the first few years because we did not speak the language enough,” Hoa previously stated.
New attempt
So giving up the spring roll stand after so many years was not an option. To make it easier for the couple to make ends meet in the last years that the couple can still work, they decided to apply for a permit again last March.
It remains quiet for months at the municipality, and that caused a lot of frustration for the couple. The residents of Schoorl and Bergen also did not understand it, a petition was signed 1,500 times. But now, six months later, the redeeming word comes: from now on they can stand every Sunday at the site of the herring cart, at the beginning of the Laanweg in Schoorl.
Waited a long time
Hoa and Cuong are now aiming for Sunday, September 24. “We have been waiting for it for a long time, so this news was a bit unexpected. Cuong still has a lot to prepare and prepare things. Maybe we can be there next Sunday, but only if we are ready.”