Dutch students are living rent free for socialising with the elderly

[Music]

[Soft piano music]

>>Like most of us,

I’m afraid of getting old

and of the loneliness

that seems to come with old age.

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

Jordi is a young artist.

>>Hello. Come in.

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

in the Netherlands.

He paints and creates craft projects,

like this table he made from a piano crate.

And you do that a lot with the residents;

you make crafts and things.

>>Yeah. I try to do it.

>>And is that a picture of your family?

Can you show me?

>>My grandfather and my grandma

when I was younger.

>>It’s adorable.

>>Yeah. I love them.

I love them a lot.

>>Is it . . .

Is the relationship with your grandparents

that helps you be so good with the elderly here?

>>I think also because they . . .

they teach me so much good things,

how to go around to people that uh . . .

Yeah. Nah. Everything.

>>Not long ago,

the Dutch senior citizens who live at Humanitas

invited Jordi and five other students

to move in rent-free.

The students all told me that living here

is nothing like you’d expect.

>>One of Jordi’s favorite ways

to spend time with his neighbors

is by taking them around the town of DeVanter

by a specialized tandem bicycle.

It’s just one of the ways that Humanitas

tries to make life in its community

a little more fun.

>>It was CEO’s Gea Sijpkes idea

to offer these students rooms at Humanitas.

And all she asked in return

was that the students spend

at least 30 hours a month

acting neighborly to the senior residents.

Jurrien Mentink says that Humanitas’ offer

couldn’t have come at a better time.

Many Dutch students

in and around Amsterdam today

can’t find a room to rent at all.

>>Now I have to cook dinner.

>>Yes.

>>Jurrien is 22 years old,

and his neighbors, like Joke Van Beek,

are in their 80’s and 90’s.

Despite the age gap,

Jurrien and Joke’s friendship is a dynamic

that often seems like it’s between two teenagers.

>>Friendships like this one

are exactly what Humanitas is trying to nurture.

How Jurrien spends his 30 hours a month

of service is up to him.

His official title isn’t staff or volunteer.

It’s good neighbor.

>>At Humanitas,

good neighbor somehow means being part local,

part friend,

part grandchild,

part social worker,

part healthcare provider,

and some days it means teaching

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

[Rock music]

>>I noticed early on that the students here

often talk with a sort of calm beyond their years.

They don’t often seem much of a hurry.

Jurrien says that is one of the most

important life lessons

the students have learned

from their elderly neighbors.

The students all talk about Mrs. Hofsteede

as a role model

for living a full and happy life in later years.

She moved in a few years ago.

She lives on the seventh floor

in a spacious room overlooking the park,

and she says she feel younger

than her 88 years.

>>Hello.

>>At lunch time, the most social time,

every day at Humanitas,

Mrs. Hofsteede always sits at the same table.

You see, the Humanitas dining room

is a lot like a high school cafeteria.

Mrs. Hofsteede is quite popular,

and so she always sits

with the other popular girls,

like her best friend Antonia,

whose nickname is “the trash compacter.”

>>Appetite.

>>Yeah?

>>I like that.

>>And like high school,

lunchtime is when the rumor mill

really starts to turn.

Outside of the time they volunteer,

the students are free to live

without any special restrictions,

going out or bringing people home

just as they like.

>>And there’s a lot more flirting

that goes on than I expected to find

in an old folk’s home.

>>The students all like

teaching their senior neighbors a lesson

from time to time.

Everything Mrs. Middelburg knows

about the internet she learned from Jurrien.

>>But Jurrien says that none of this feels

like some community service.

He and Mrs. Middelburg just like hanging out.

>>And how do Jurrien's own family

feel about him living here at Humanitas?

His parents have been as surprised

as he has been to find that Jurrien

seems very happy here indeed.

>>There is, of course,

the unavoidable loneliness

that accompanies dementia.

The dementia ward is equipped

with everything you could expect.

But it has little of the warmth

of the rest of the residents.

Jordi feels an added responsibility

to help those suffering dementia.

>>Lucius is this man’s stage name,

but I was never given another one,

and I never got the chance to ask.

We didn’t get to talk for very long.

Lucius lost the ability to talk much

about the here and now.

>>I saw in Lucius immediately

the kind of kindred spirit,

and it was like a glimpse of a possible future self

set adrift in my own fading memories.

Having exchanged barely a word with him,

meeting Lucius affected me a great deal.

The hardest thing about living here,

old or young,

is how often death comes to call.

Some of the seniors are still racked

with intense longing for lost loved ones.

While many others, like Mrs. Middelburg,

seem almost unfazed by the realities of death.

A few of the students had never seen death

up close before living here.

For them, facing death has been the hardest

and maybe most valuable lesson

that Humanitas has taught them.

Jurrien is about to graduate

from a degree in urban planning,

but he is now considering devoting his career

to old age care instead.

No matter which direction

he chooses from here,

Jurrien won’t forget the importance

of being a good neighbor,

like he has been to Joke Van Beek.

That day he told me

that he had started to see the signs

of Joke slipping away,

and then only a few weeks later,

Joke passed on.

And I know that Jurrien has missed her

since she’s been gone.

It took me a litttle while to grab hold

of what makes this place different

than anywhere else I’ve been.

Humanitas hasn’t somehow

cut out the hard realities of aging.

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

through its front door.

As I went to say goodbye

on the last day of my visit,

I passed by the weekly wheelchair dance recital.

[Clapping and music]

This was the other moment

that really stayed with me.

[Upbeat Dutch music]

Again, I could see myself

reflected back years on from now,

and for that moment,

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

[Upbeat Dutch music]