Tonny Stenis of Tilburg stops with Rijdende Winkel of Tonneke forever. The woman chose Tilburg for the sake of her health. This is why she no longer offers minimally inexpensive groceries in her SRV truck.
Ms. Tilburg is clear about her mobile store: “I’m totally done with it. Too much has happened,” she says with a sigh. Tonneke’s Rijdende Winkel survival is often hung by a thread. The previous car broke down regularly and Tony stopped herself once after a dispute over hers, but each time a solution was found and he continued anyway.
Tony has received a lot of media attention thanks to the RTL4 program that brings Chantal to work. A much-acclaimed documentary was made at IDFA, so Tony Stennis also sat at the table with Jeroen Pauw. A concert for a new SRV was organized.
According to Tony, the store also stopped operating recently. “It hurts, but it’s no different,” she says. After a short time in September, she realized that she couldn’t do that anymore because she could no longer muster her energy. “I haven’t been on the bus since then.”
However, she did drive around in her own car for a while to make up for supplies. In November, she said goodbye to her clients. Then I told the organization I supported that it was over.
The mobile shop in which products were sold at bargain prices was intended for families living on the subsistence level. Tony started it about five years ago. She drove through the working-class neighborhoods of Tilburg in her orange and white SRV. “Now I’m making choices for my well-being and asking for help,” says Tony. “The fact that I’ve stopped using the car gives my head some peace.”
Gijs Bax for the organization that supports Tonneke, understands this perfectly. “We wanted to make sure Tony could do her job with some peace of mind, but unfortunately that didn’t work out. She struggled a lot and her health was sick, but she was still sticking to her car for 120 per cent” that just isn’t enough. Keep,” he says.
He’s of course sorry that Tony stops, but she’s glad she made the choice for herself. The mobile store is still stable now, but if it were up to Gijs Bax, it wouldn’t stay that way for long. “We have a few interested parties, but we actually want the bus to have a social purpose in Tilburg. As a symbolic tribute to Tony.”
Tony herself is now focusing on her recovery and her family. “Maybe one day I’ll help people again, because that’s where it will stay.”
This video was created when Tonny started driving her shop again:
