Lina Brouwer from Oss turned 90 two weeks ago, but that doesn’t stop her from the voluntary work that she has been doing for at least fifteen years. “I have to do something,” she says. “I really can’t sit still. That’s just boring.”
Lina has a busy schedule every week. Delivering food packages from the food bank, walking with the elderly who feel lonely or shopping for people who can no longer do it themselves. Why? “Because despite my age I can still do everything,” she says, “and I feel sorry for those people that they can’t do that anymore.”
On Monday she does groceries for an 81-year-old woman from Oss. With a shopping list and two bags she drives to the supermarket in her car. “That’s how it goes every week,” she says. “I am quite busy, but I enjoy it.”
“The people I help are all younger than me.”
While Lina puts the groceries in her cart, she tells how she once became a volunteer. “I took care of my sick neighbor for eighteen years, but I wanted to help even more people. When I came across the ‘volunteers wanted’ call, I immediately signed up. That started with a shopping service.”
Lina hasn’t stopped doing that since then. As long as she can do anything, she will continue to do so. After paying, she puts the two heavy shopping bags in her trunk herself. “It’s kind of crazy sometimes, because the people I help are younger than me. But I like to do it,” she says. “When I’ve done my own housework, I’m just bored with myself. Knitting or watching TV all day is not for me. I need to do something.”
Ever since she was a little girl, Lina has always been busy. She remembers well how she wanted to help with the household as an 8-year-old girl. “I really wanted to learn how to iron. Then my mother allowed me to do the tissues. I loved that.”
“Through volunteering I keep in touch with people.”
Although Lina thinks volunteering at her age is fantastic, there is also a less fun side to it. “Many of the people I help are also old or sick. It has happened a few times that someone has died,” she says. “That’s quite heavy.”
Yet Lina tries to pick up the thread again and offer others her help. She does this mainly to help people, but also for herself. “My husband passed away years ago. I often sit at home alone. That is quite lonely, so I like that I keep in touch with people through volunteering.”
Lina has had a set schedule for years. From shopping and getting fish at the market to organizing bingo and playing cards with lonely elderly people. When she turned 90, a lot of people said that it had been nice and that she should take it easy. “Not really. I’m not even thinking about stopping volunteering for a long time,” she says with a laugh.
