It is exactly ten o’clock when Jan Snoeren parks his car right in front of the entrance of De Vossenberg in Kaatsheuvel. He is there to pick up 92-year-old Riekske and take him away for a pleasant morning of coffee and cards. “You take the elderly out of their loneliness. This way they can go away for a day and mingle with people again,” he says proudly.
Jan will be busy all Friday as a volunteer at AutoMaatje, an initiative of the ANWB to help the elderly with door-to-door transport. “I’m busy all day,” Jan says as he helps Riekske get in the car. “I start at a quarter to ten in the morning and I bring the last one home around four in the afternoon.”
Jan has a nice chat with all those people while he takes them from A to B. “Sometimes you take people to the hospital or physio and other times to a birthday or they just go for a coffee.”
“You experience a lot with the people and they tell all kinds of things.”
This is also the case with Riekske de Nijs-Bergmans. She lives in the De Vossenberg nursing home in Kaatsheuvel and always goes to Mantel Match on Friday morning, an initiative where elderly people meet each other, drink coffee and play a game. “It’s very important to me. I like going here. I don’t think I would get there otherwise. I always drove a car, but that’s over and it’s too far by bike.”
When AutoMaatje started in Kaatsheuvel five years ago, the now 81-year-old Jan had no hesitation and signed up. “This is actually tailor-made for me. You experience a lot with people and they tell all kinds of things. You actually offer a listening ear.”
That generally makes volunteer work a lot of fun, but Jan sometimes also experiences very sad things. “I recently took an elderly couple to the hospital. There they received very bad news, because the man was told that his cancer could no longer be cured. Then you have to take them home and we had a nice conversation from Tilburg to Kaatsheuvel. That was also nice for those people.”
“I also meet people I haven’t seen in 25 years.”
Recently the 81-year-old volunteer even received a present. “I once took a lady to cataract surgery in Den Bosch. She asked if I ever had a drink. She opened her bag and I got a bottle of whisky,” says a beaming Jan. “People are super grateful. It is very much appreciated.”
Every now and then he runs into old acquaintances. “I regularly take my old boss from the municipality to the doctor. I also meet people I have not seen for 25 years. Then we start talking about the past, about our parents for example. That is also a way for me to stay among people. It is fantastic work.”
“We are short of drivers, about ten to fifteen.”
The fact that he benefits from it is a side issue for the former Carnival Prince of Kaatsheuvel. “You take the elderly out of their loneliness. They can go away for a day and be among people again. That is very nice for them and that is why I do it.”
More than three thousand rides are held in Kaatsheuvel every year, but more volunteers are now needed. “We are short of drivers, about ten to fifteen,” thinks Jan. “It’s a lot of fun and you really are a volunteer. If it doesn’t suit you one day, you don’t have to.”
And does Jan also hope to be picked up later if he has to go somewhere? “Hopefully so, but for now I hope to be able to continue doing it myself for a long time to come.”