Retirement? Not an option for Simone Rethel-Heesters. After all, her husband Johannes Heesters was 107 years old when he last appeared on stage – the actress, artist and author still has more than 30 years to live. Today she turns 75 – and she’s celebrating at home in Starnberg with a big garden party.
She doesn’t know boredom. Her credo: “The moment people have nothing left to do, are no longer needed, they become dissatisfied and often ill.” Anyone who stops taking on tasks, setting goals and being interested in things, stops participating in life. Her husband Johannes Heesters, who died at the end of 2011 at the age of 108, was a perfect example of this.
After the death of her husband, Rethel-Heesters focused more on her own career. In addition to “Sturm der Liebe”, she has also appeared in “Rosenheim-Cops”, “Soko Stuttgart” and this year in “Hubert ohne Staller”.
Jopie was “an exception”
She has always advocated an active old age, including in her book “Ageless – Limitless”. Since 2005 she has been an ambassador for the “Aging with Dignity” initiative.
If more respect was shown for old age, “then there would be no need to be afraid of it,” she says. Many people forget that young people will one day be confronted with old age themselves. But many older people are full of creativity. “We have to learn to see things differently.”
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Image: Reuters
Source: Nachrichten
