"What is your dream? What would you still like to do in your life?" I asked. "I'd like to go to a nightclub with young people," she said.
If you've had a night out in Brussels recently, you may have spotted a slightly unusual sight: just over a dozen elderly care home residents dressed in their glad rags, dancing the night away and proving that age really is just a number.
Credit: Aj Omar
After working in care homes for several years, Brussels-born Youssef Kaddar (37) noticed that life seemed rather mundane for its residents. "The activities were pretty much always the same: trips to the seaside, senior citizens' dances, Christmas and spring dinners," he tells The Brussels Times.
So, in 2015, he began brainstorming with the residents and asking what else they would like to do, and Papy Booom was born. The name, he says, comes from the post-war baby boom generation who are now reaching retirement age, and are therefore now the "grandparent boom" generation.
The non-profit initially started as a YouTube series, with short films featuring people of all ages. The idea was to create connections and break the sense of isolation felt by elderly people. Then in 2016, Kaddar took the project further by organising extraordinary outings for the care home residents.
From night clubs and hot air balloon and helicopter rides to indoor sky dives, jacuzzis, speed dating and go-karting, there isn't much these residents haven't done over the last decade.
Daring days out for people their age, some might think – reckless, even. But Kaddar stresses that "just because they are elderly, it doesn't mean we should stand in their way when it comes to activities like this. They are human beings who want to experience something new."
The night clubs in particular have made headlines recently. The idea came from a 94-year-old Argentinian woman who had never been to a nightclub in her life, Kaddar says. "One day, I asked her, 'What is your dream? What would you still like to do in your life?' She said, 'I'd like to go to a nightclub with young people. I got married very young, had children, and then I had to take care of my children, and then my husband died, so I never really had the opportunity to do that.'"
Credit: Aj Omar
So far, there have been five club outings. The most recent was at the end of April. 16 people participated – the oldest of whom was 99-year-old Guillaume Vanderweyen.
The party went on until the early hours and although the group began to peel off from 01:00 onwards, there were five who insisted on staying until the club closed. "By 04:00, we had to tell them to stop because we were knackered and had to work the next day. We can barely keep up with them!" Kaddar laughs.
99-year-old Guillaume Vanderweyen, who stayed out past 02:00. Credit: Aj Omar
Most of the group had never clubbed before, and the last time Vanderweyen went out was 60 years ago. He says clubs have changed a bit since then: "We had to impress the women and court them; we had to move around and do acrobatics. We danced. Nowadays, there's music but no lyrics, and it goes on for a long time."
Kaddar says it's always interesting to see what the other club-goers make of the pensioners. "When young people see older people, they laugh at them. But the old man starts dancing, and then the young guy who was laughing dances with him. And then they spend the evening together."
Credit: Aj Omar
Through his project, Kaddar continues to bridge the generational divide and forge connections between old and young. One time, for instance, he took the residents to a boxing gym near Ixelles. "It was funny to see the interaction between the seniors who came into the ring with their walking sticks next to the big young coaches from the neighbourhood," he says.
Afterwards, they exchanged numbers and some of the young people even went to visit them in their home, as if they were their grandparents. "That's what Papy Booom is all about: breaking down isolation."
Olympics, skydiving and finding love
Kaddar even took a group of ten seniors indoor skydiving in Charleroi in May 2023. He laughs remembering how, just after starting the activity, he had to evacuate them and put all their dentures in separate, labelled water glasses, to avoid teeth whizzing around the turbine of their own accord.
Indoor skydiving in Charleroi in May 2023. Credit: Airspace Indoor Skydiving
He also organises activities to bring Brussels' care homes together, such as the annual Inter-Home Olympics. 16 homes participated in the last edition and collaborated with a local school.
Papy Booom also holds speed dating events among different retirement homes in the city. The only problem was that, in the latest edition, 75% of participants were women and 25% were men – "because men don’t live as long as women!"
"The speed dating would have made you laugh," Kaddar chuckles. "Every time a phone number was exchanged, we threw confetti."
Confetti after a couple exchanges numbers at the speed dating event. Credit: Aj Omar
He recounts the moment when the two oldest people in the room (98 and 99 years old) sat down together. "The man turned to me and said, 'I think she's so beautiful.'" His date lived in another nursing home and after the event they would call every day at 16:00 and talk for hours. "It was like that until the end," Kaddar says. "Now, God rest his soul, he's passed away. But he fell in love through that event. I don't know if it was true love, but he loved this woman very much and she loved him very much."
You're only as old as you feel
As well as fighting loneliness, Kaddar is trying to change societal perceptions of the elderly.
"In society in general, when someone is elderly, they're put in a box. People say, 'You can do that because you're elderly, but you can't do that, it's too difficult.' But that's not true. Before they came to the home, they had a car, a job, a family. So why does this change when they come to a nursing home?"
He says most people spend an average of five years in a home, so he is determined to make these five years as good as they can be for residents.
And his efforts are clearly bearing fruit, given the positive feedback he has received. "One woman told me, 'I feel alive again'. Others say it allows them to discover new things, because their lives have become monotonous. So this allows them to live again, and brings a bit of excitement into their lives."
Kaddar's dream is for Papy Booom to go international someday, meeting people's needs across the globe as a show of appreciation.
"When it comes to the elderly, they are generally a little bit neglected. That's why I think it's a shame that we don't invest more in their social lives, because they are our grandparents and it's thanks to them that we have the society we have today. They are kings and queens."
