Lust for life

Youth corrections worker squeezed every last drop of enjoyment out of her retirement years with family, friends and an insatiable thirst for exotic travel

By: Ryan Thorpe

 

Truus Rijkers went on more adventures in her twilight years than most people manage to cram into a lifetime.

She got her pilot’s licence, learned Spanish, climbed mountains, traversed streams and crossed oceans to explore the far-off corners of the globe while living out of a backpack — and that was just her 60s and 70s.

By the time all was said and done, Rijkers had experienced what all six continents had to offer.

"I think anyone who you could talk to, who isn’t one of her daughters, usually the first word out of their mouth is, ‘Oh, she’s such an inspiration.’ Or, ‘I want to be just like her when I retire,’" says Adriana van Ineveld, one of Rijkers’ three daughters.

Born in The Netherlands in 1935, Gertruda — everyone called her Truus — was the third-born of 11 children. She grew up on the family poultry farm in Holland against the backdrop of the Second World War’s horrors.

After completing only a third-grade education, she dropped out of school to develop a trade — chicken sexing — and pitched in on the family farm.

She married her first husband, Ad van Ineveld, with whom she had two daughters, Adriana and Kristel, and eventually the family settled in Italy.

Following her husband’s passing, Rijkers eventually reconnected with Martin Bertens, an old high school flame; they married and moved to Canada. The couple eventually settled in Winnipeg and had another daughter, Anneke.

In Canada, Rijkers became a corrections officer and counsellor at the Manitoba Youth Centre. It was work she loved, Adriana says, adding her mother became something of a surrogate mom to many of the children in her charge.

"It was the perfect work for her. She really enjoyed being there for these kids. She worked nights there for 20 years, which allowed her to be able to do all sorts of other things during the day," Adriana says.

"She eventually got her (high school equivalency); that was probably in her 50s, and she later learned Spanish at nights so she could go to South America. She got her pilot’s licence. She did yoga and all sorts of self-improvement stuff for herself."

Rijkers retired at the age of 65 in 2000, and lived the next phase of her life to the fullest. She enjoyed playing bridge, flying, ballroom dancing and — perhaps most of all — travelling.

With her friend and travel partner Mary Lou Milhausen, a photographer who documented their trips, Rijkers experienced the world, visiting places such as the Amazon, Easter Island, the Galapagos, Antarctica, Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Everest, among others.

"They did a trek that goes around Mount Everest. That was their first big trek and they made it all the way up to Everest base camp (an altitude of more than 5,000 metres). She had white, white hair — snow white. And eventually the sherpas started calling her ‘the grandma on the mountain,’" Adriana says.

"She sort of became known by all the other people who were climbing, because she was so distinctive. By the time they came off the mountain, there was actually a little crowd at the bottom waiting for them."

When Rijkers was 78, she and Milhausen took their final trip together, to Antarctica.

"I think the really amazing part, too, about my mom is that she did this on a government salary. Her income was $35,000 a year in retirement, but she saved and travelled on a shoestring budget," Adriana says.

"It was always youth hostels, local buses. There were no hotels for her. She travelled out of a backpack."

In her 80s, Rijkers was diagnosed with cancer. She lived with Adriana during the final year of her life. The two knew her condition was deteriorating rapidly and Adriana decided it was time to start notifying her mother’s friends about her condition.

When she went through her mother’s contact list, she was shocked.

"I ended up using her email to reach people, and her contact list is just mind-boggling. The responses from every corner of the globe have been somewhat overwhelming. People know her in Malaysia, Nepal, South America. There are sherpas that are sad to hear she’s passed. She lived that kind of life," her daughter says.

Rijkers died July 17. She is survived by Adriana, Kristel and Anneke Gillis, as well as her grandchildren and siblings.

"The responses we got to her passing in emails from all around the world, aside from words like ‘inspiration,’ ‘adventurous’ — the one word everybody used about my mother was ‘strong,’" Adriana says.

"She was just a strong person. She was physically strong. She had a strong personality. She had strong convictions."

ryan.thorpe@freeprss.mb.ca