Remarkable transition of hall owner: entrepreneur Bert Balk from Zuidhorn (57) now works as a funeral director

Sitting still doesn’t suit him. That is why he now works as a funeral director at Hanneke Boersema’s private company in Zuidhorn.

Balk worked as a restaurateur for twenty-five years. This was physically hard work: “Working weeks of 80 to 90 hours were the order of the day. I covered up to 14 kilometers in the business every day.”

He had therefore been thinking about quitting the company for some time. “I had planned to continue until I was 60,” he says.

But corona threw a spanner in the works. Partly due to the forced closure of catering establishments, turnover came under pressure. Balk decided to accept an offer that his brother-in-law unexpectedly made for his business premises. “Because of Covid, I was in serious trouble and I could not refuse that offer,” he reflects.

Symbolism

The entrepreneur was not left behind by his own decision. “I have experienced many wonderful things in the business that was built up by my parents and has existed for a total of 70 years. It wasn’t a boring office job, was it?”

Bert Balk lives with his wife Marieke directly opposite the former hall centre: “At one point, only the pillars of what was once the large banquet hall were still standing. One pole was knocked down and promptly everything was flat. There was a lot of symbolism in that for me at the time.”

Initially, Balk had no idea about the continuation of his career. “Funeral ceremonies regularly took place in our hall center. My wife jokingly said to me: ‘Isn’t the funeral business something for you?’ I decided to apply at Yarden funeral company where I followed a training course in Groningen.”

Eighteen months later he switched to Hanneke Boersema’s company. As a funeral director, I basically arrange everything that comes with a funeral. I am in close contact with the family, where in some cases I even visit frequently.”

‘It consumes energy’

According to Bert Balk, there are many similarities between entrepreneurship and his new job as a funeral director:

“Service comes first. When someone dies, you find relatives in difficult circumstances. What you want to do then is ‘relieve’ the family. Although it sometimes consumes energy, it is rewarding work. I really enjoy doing it.”

He admits that it is a tough profession: “You sometimes experience very difficult cases, such as suicide and euthanasia. In the first months I sometimes went to the relatives with a knot in my stomach.”

Yet he manages to put the work aside at the end of the day: “I don’t take the difficulties home with me. I always manage to relax. In that sense I think this work suits me.”