“I only stop when I fall”, it is the words of the Hoogeveense Jenneke Drooglever (74). She has been selling wedding dresses for 55 years and if it is up to her she will continue to do so for a long time.
It is quiet in the bridal store Mariaages along the Hoofdstraat in Hoogeveen, but that has a reason today. The case is closed, because together with the staff she celebrates the milestone she has reached this month.
“For 55 years a store, that is long,” laughs Drooglever. A hobby called the Hoogeveense, but one that she still enjoys every day. “I would not do anything else in life.”
For Drooglever, the adventure started at a young age. When she was ten years old, she already made wedding dresses for Barbie dolls and at the age of nineteen years old she came to work in her parents’ fabric store.
“At one point my father asked if I wanted to take over the business. I wanted that, but immediately said: those patches can be stolen to me. From that moment on the focus was entirely on wedding dresses,” says the entrepreneur.
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