“We had never seen something so beautiful,” says Johan van Broekhoven (88) from Schiedam. He came to see the flower parade in Zundert for the first time this year, together with his wife and her family from Germany. But when he returns home, the mood changes. He has lost his hearing aid and a new one is very expensive with his state pension
This year, around 50,000 people joined Johan to take a look at the parade in Zundert, where the most beautiful floats covered with dahlias passed by the crowd.
And for the first time, Johan was one of them. After all, it had been up for a long time bucket list of things he wanted to do someday. That’s why he specially drove from Schiedam to Breda by car on Sunday, to take the bus to Zundert. “My hearing may be failing, but I’m still very spry,” Johan chuckles about his journey.
“We sat all day on a wall in Burgemeester Manderslaan, opposite a statue.” He suspects that it must be lying there somewhere in the garden.
“This makes for a sad ending.”
Due to the crowds and noise of the crowds, he did not notice it in Zundert. “Not until I felt my ear,” he says. And that doesn’t sit well with him at all. “A new hearing aid costs me 500 euros, but I am a state pensioner with a small pension. So I am at my wits’ end. This makes for a somewhat sad ending to such a beautiful day.”
That’s why he still wants to try to track down the device. “We were helped there by residents, who offered us pillows and were dressed in pink shirts,” he remembers. “They were very nice people and the day was wonderful and beautiful.” Maybe they found something. Or perhaps other people who have been to this street.
Do you have a tip for Johan, or have you found his hearing aid? Then email to [email protected].