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[Music]

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[Soft piano music]

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>>Like most of us,

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I’m afraid of getting old

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and of the loneliness

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that seems to come with old age.

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But maybe things don’t have to be that way.

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Jordi is a young artist.

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>>Hello. Come in.

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>>And he lives in a unique old folk’s home

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in the Netherlands.

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He paints and creates craft projects,

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like this table he made from a piano crate.

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And you do that a lot with the residents;

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you make crafts and things.

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>>Yeah. I try to do it.

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>>And is that a picture of your family?

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Can you show me?

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>>My grandfather and my grandma

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when I was younger.

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>>It’s adorable.

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>>Yeah. I love them.

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I love them a lot.

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>>Is it . . .

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Is the relationship with your grandparents

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that helps you be so good with the elderly here?

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>>I think also because they . . .

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they teach me so much good things,

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how to go around to people that uh  . . .

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Yeah. Nah. Everything.

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>>Not long ago,

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the Dutch senior citizens who live at Humanitas

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invited Jordi and five other students

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to move in rent-free.

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The students all told me that living here

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is nothing like you’d expect.

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>>One of Jordi’s favorite ways

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to spend time with his neighbors

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is by taking them around the town of DeVanter

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by a specialized tandem bicycle.

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It’s just one of the ways that Humanitas

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tries to make life in its community

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a little more fun.

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>>It was CEO’s Gea Sijpkes idea

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to offer these students rooms at Humanitas.

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And all she asked in return

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was that the students spend

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at least 30 hours a month

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acting neighborly to the senior residents.

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Jurrien Mentink says that Humanitas’ offer

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couldn’t have come at a better time.

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Many Dutch students

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in and around Amsterdam today

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can’t find a room to rent at all.

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>>Now I have to cook dinner.

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>>Yes.

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>>Jurrien is 22 years old,

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and his neighbors, like Joke Van Beek,

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are in their 80’s and 90’s.

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Despite the age gap,

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Jurrien and Joke’s friendship is a dynamic

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that often seems like it’s between two teenagers.

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>>Friendships like this one

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are exactly what Humanitas is trying to nurture.

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How Jurrien spends his 30 hours a month

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of service is up to him.

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His official title isn’t staff or volunteer.

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It’s good neighbor.

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>>At Humanitas,

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good neighbor somehow means being part local,

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part friend,

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part grandchild,

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part social worker,

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part healthcare provider,

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and some days it means teaching

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an 84-year-old woman to play beer pong.

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[Rock music]

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>>I noticed early on that the students here

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often talk with a sort of calm beyond their years.

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They don’t often seem much of a hurry.

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Jurrien says that is one of the most

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important life lessons

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the students have learned

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from their elderly neighbors.

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The students all talk about Mrs. Hofsteede

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as a role model

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for living a full and happy life in later years.

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She moved in a few years ago.

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She lives on the seventh floor

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in a spacious room overlooking the park,

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and she says she feel younger

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than her 88 years.

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>>Hello.

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>>At lunch time, the most social time,

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every day at Humanitas,

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Mrs. Hofsteede always sits at the same table.

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You see, the Humanitas dining room

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is a lot like a high school cafeteria.

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Mrs. Hofsteede is quite popular,

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and so she always sits

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with the other popular girls,

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like her best friend Antonia,

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whose nickname is “the trash compacter.”

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>>Appetite.

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>>Yeah?

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>>I like that.

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>>And like high school,

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lunchtime is when the rumor mill

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really starts to turn.

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Outside of the time they volunteer,

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the students are free to live

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without any special restrictions,

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going out or bringing people home

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just as they like.

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>>And there’s a lot more flirting

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that goes on than I expected to find

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in an old folk’s home.

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>>The students all like

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teaching their senior neighbors a lesson

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from time to time.

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Everything Mrs. Middelburg knows

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about the internet she learned from Jurrien.

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>>But Jurrien says that none of this feels

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like some community service.

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He and Mrs. Middelburg just like hanging out.

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>>And how do Jurrien's own family

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feel about him living here at Humanitas?

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His parents have been as surprised

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as he has been to find that Jurrien

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seems very happy here indeed.

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>>There is, of course,

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the unavoidable loneliness

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that accompanies dementia.

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The dementia ward is equipped

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with everything you could expect.

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But it has little of the warmth

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of the rest of the residents.

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Jordi feels an added responsibility

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to help those suffering dementia.

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>>Lucius is this man’s stage name,

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but I was never given another one,

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and I never got the chance to ask.

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We didn’t get to talk for very long.

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Lucius lost the ability to talk much

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about the here and now.

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>>I saw in Lucius immediately

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the kind of kindred spirit,

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and it was like a glimpse of a possible future self

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set adrift in my own fading memories.

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Having exchanged barely a word with him,

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meeting Lucius affected me a great deal.

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The hardest thing about living here,

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old or young,

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is how often death comes to call.

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Some of the seniors are still racked

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with intense longing for lost loved ones.

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While many others, like Mrs. Middelburg,

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seem almost unfazed by the realities of death.

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A few of the students had never seen death

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up close before living here.

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For them, facing death has been the hardest

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and maybe most valuable lesson

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that Humanitas has taught them.

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0:18:32.500,0:18:34.333
Jurrien is about to graduate

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from a degree in urban planning,

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but he is now considering devoting his career

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to old age care instead.

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No matter which direction

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he chooses from here,

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Jurrien won’t forget the importance

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of being a good neighbor,

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like he has been to Joke Van Beek.

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That day he told me

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that he had started to see the signs

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of Joke slipping away,

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and then only a few weeks later,

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Joke passed on.

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And I know that Jurrien has missed her

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since she’s been gone.

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It took me a litttle while to grab hold

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of what makes this place different

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than anywhere else I’ve been.

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Humanitas hasn’t somehow

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cut out the hard realities of aging.

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It’s just that it lets so much more than that

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through its front door.

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As I went to say goodbye

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on the last day of my visit,

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I passed by the weekly wheelchair dance recital.

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[Clapping and music]

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This was the other moment

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that really stayed with me.

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[Upbeat Dutch music]

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Again, I could see myself

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reflected back years on from now,

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and for that moment,

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I really didn’t mind the idea of getting old.

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[Upbeat Dutch music]

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