You may have seen the 2015 film classic, The Lady in the Van, based on Alan Bennett’s book of the same name. It tells the true story of the eccentric British woman, Margaret Fairchild, who lived in an old van on Bennett’s driveway for many years. A harsh life? No doubt. But at least Fairchild’s van had space for a proper mattress and was parked in a smart area of London, on a driveway owned by a man who would both tolerate and help her. Sadly, those two advantages did not apply to the much lesser-known Dutch variant: Willy van den Heuvel, from Ede in central Netherlands.
Rather remarkably, Willy lived for five years in a Mini – one that had to be moved regularly because of harassment, threats and other woes. Indeed, Willy’s story is not a happy one. It’s a tale full of incomprehension and frustration, as well as having the saddest ending imaginable.
So, why on earth would anyone choose to live in a Mini? Willy certainly had her reasons. In the late 1970s, as a carer from the village of Ede, she owned a Mini and rented a room. But when she lost her job and had to live onthought: I’ll move in there first, before I tell the people from the council.”
