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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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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]
