The oldest man in Belgium, Jaak Broekx from the municipality of Bree in the Limburg province, has died on Tuesday at the age of 109. For the past three years, he lived in a residential care home.
Broekx was born on 6 August 1914, two days after the German invasion of Belgium in the First World War. He celebrated his 109th birthday in the Gerkenberg residential care home this summer.
"We are going to miss him terribly," head nurse Conny Halleng told VRT. "He had a quiet night and when we wanted to help him get dressed this morning, he fell asleep and passed away quietly."
"He was a peaceful, very calm and friendly man who was always up for a joke," she said, adding that Broekx was a very strong man, both physically and mentally. "He was sometimes ill, but he always got through it and always laughed everything away. If he could eat and drink well, he was satisfied."
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Since 2020, Broekx had lived in the residential care home, where they celebrated three birthdays with him. He never married, which he often joked might have been the reason he grew so old. His entire life, he worked on his family's farm, and only left the work in the stables to others when he turned 100.
At 109, Broekx was the oldest man in Belgium. The oldest person in Belgium is Fernande Courtoy, also 109 years old but born in July 1914. She is currently living in a residential care home in Charleroi.
