Olive
‘It’s nice living here’, says Olive, 72, of life at the Brotherhood’s Sambell Lodge aged care residence. Olive has a lively sense of humour and enjoys singing, dancing and gardening, but most of all, she says, she values the friends she’s made at Sambell Lodge.
‘I’ve never been by myself’, Olive says. ‘I made friends from the very first when I got here.’
When she was living in her own rented home, Olive had a vegetable garden. Now, at Sambell Lodge, she still enjoys gardening, particularly in the vegetable patch and flower beds. ‘We plant flowers out the back and they are going to try to get some roses.’
The gardens demonstrate Sambell Lodge’s philosophy of encouraging residents to participate in their community and in decision-making about their lives. Residents were involved in the design of the garden, which has raised beds so that they can easily tend plants, and all produce goes to the kitchen for their own meals.
After gardening, which she nominates as one of her favourite pastimes, she enjoys visiting the Darling Gardens park across the road, listening to music in the dining room (particularly Elvis), or reading or watching television in her room.
Olive also sings, and recounts with delight the pleasures of dressing up for and dancing at the country and western dance organised for Sambell Lodge and many other nearby aged care residences in 2007.
The dance is part of a series of events called Celebration of Life, initiated by the Brotherhood and now involving 14 aged care residences. It aims to involve the residents in a pleasant social occasion, where they may develop new friendships.