Feed the peacocks, deer and sheep every morning in all weather conditions. At De Erebergkamp, the deer camp in Nieuw-Roden, they could always count on Marinus van der Veen. But now, after twenty years, that is necessarily coming to an end.
“Walking becomes much more difficult. I have to use the stick,” says Marinus. Today he makes his last tour of the animals. And lately that has become increasingly difficult for him. “Your health fails you. And then it happened.”
Feeding the animals on Ereberglaan does not seem like a big task, but there is more to it than just spreading some bread around. For example, Marinus had to keep the pond free of ice in winter by constantly breaking it open with a stick. And when it had rained, he used a pipe to ensure that the water could flow from the land.
The board of De Erebergkamp had a hard time finding a successor for Marinus. For weeks there were notes hanging on the fence, calling for volunteers.
Ultimately, a solution was found: several people took turns feeding the animals. “That won’t be easy for them,” Marinus thinks. But the 79-year-old Nei-Roner no longer sees the point in showing up at the gate every day. “It has also become a task lately. And then you have to stop.”
It is no coincidence that he chose this date to quit. “It’s the date of my wife’s death. And I promised her I’d last another year.”
Watch Marinus van der Veen do his last lap in this video: