Greetsje Blanckers
Maastricht lies at the foot of a mountain called Sint-Pieter. In that mountain, a woman lived. She had been born in there, beneath a softly vaulted ceiling. For eighty-five years, she dwelled in the mountain, in a cave carved out by her family. The hollow had been simply transformed into a home: sealed with a wall, a window and a door set into it.
Inside that space of arched stone, the woman bustled between angular cabinets: solid, dark wooden furniture. A wide wardrobe divided the space into front and back, an area for sleeping and one fore living.
She would have stayed there forever, if she could. In the end, though, she ended up in a care home. There, she befriended a soft sofa, placed in front of a TV-set. She talked to the television; if it didn’t listen, she’d throw a slipper.
You could call Ms. Blanckers a Maaswachter avant la lettre (avant le project). She lived in the landscape of the Maas: every day, in every kind of weather, she was there. And now, in September, someone is present by the Maas every day too, in the name of Maaswacht—a collaboration between SoAP, TAAT, and the river Maas. Want to join as a Maaswachter? Send an email to maaswacht@gmail.com.