Here, I'm making connections

Irene Richards’ path to Palm Lake Care Mt Warren Park follows most others. But what this spritely 91-year-old hadn’t expected was the pot of aged care gold at the end of her rainbow…

If you’d been a bystander on the streets of Beenleigh as the dozens of brightly coloured 2024 Cane Festival Parade floats passed by, you would’ve seen the excitable group of Palm Lake Care Mt Warren Park residents on parade in their decorated bus – and you definitely would’ve heard Irene Richards and her friends.

“We were rowdy!” the 91-year-old laughs. “We want to sit on the back of a truck in next year’s parade!”

Being part of a community at Palm Lake Care Mt Warren Park has been the unexpected joy that Irene has found since arriving here in August 2023. She’d been living by herself in a unit at Mansfield when a fall had her family reconsidering Irene’s best interests. With two of her four children living in the greater Beenleigh area, Irene said her nearby daughter was especially over the moon when the family’s application for Irene to move to Palm Lake Care Mt Warren Park was rubber stamped.

“My daughter was jumping up and down,” Irene grins. “She was so happy to have me move here.”

Irene says what happened next, however, was unexpected joy on her own part as well. A whole new and unexpected world of opportunity and happiness has opened up for Irene given the access this spritely grandmother now has to likeminded friends, a plethora of activities, a team of staff who will tell you that they genuinely delight in Irene’s company as well as the comfort and sanctuary that her suite provides her.

One look around Irene’s space and you can see why she loves it here. There’s plenty of room to move about, with warm, revitalising sunlight streaming in. Her private bathroom is equally as ample. But it’s the personal touches that make this ‘house’ a ‘home’ for Irene. There are souvenirs and trinkets adorning side tables, providing her with memories of special people and special times gone by, while the bench is stacked with framed family photos. There are the professional portraits of her four gorgeous children when they were quite young, with their matching outfits and matching white-blonde haircuts. Irene’s beloved grandchildren are there, too – all four of them together, in multiple frames, such is her pride in these kids. There are family wedding memories and pictures of her parents – the collection is a snapshot of the legacy this dedicated family matriarch has built.

Irene grew up in Coorparoo but it was an auspicious holiday to visit her uncle in Darwin, when Irene was a young woman, that would pave the path for the rest of her life. Irene says she and a friend were simply looking for adventure when they travelled to Darwin and landed office jobs there. But what she didn’t expect to land was a handsome serviceman named Jack. A motor transport fitter in the Royal Australian Air Force, Jack and Irene quickly fell in love and married in Brisbane not long after. The pair went on to have four children and the family lived “almost everywhere” in those formative years, given Jack’s work with the RAAF. Irene remembers postings in Wagga Wagga, Townsville, Darwin and Melbourne and the young family of six spent two years in Penang, Malaysia, when Jack was stationed at Butterworth. Dedicated to raising her family, Irene smiles when she remembers all those ensuing years she spent driving the growing children everywhere – the boys always had footy training and her social-butterfly girls often needed picking up from school dances at 11pm!

While there’s an obvious vibrance about Irene, on the back of a big life raising a big, busy family, she admits that, nowadays, she also loves a little time to herself. Irene’s Palm Lake Care suite is conveniently located right opposite the expansive Botanica Lounge communal area if she does want to spread her wings, watch something on the big TV and catch up with neighbours. But she says she enjoys meals, for example, in her own space rather than the community dining room – and the care team is, of course, more than happy to oblige her wishes.

Irene says she thoroughly enjoys the games that the Lifestyle Team hosts regularly (she’ll tell you she loves a game of bingo!) and she also looks forward to the various entertainers who visit her Palm Lake Care community every Friday. And then there’s the Palm Lake Care bus that enables Irene and her mates to enjoy regular outings to parks and lunch dates at the local club – and also a ‘rowdy’ community street parade every now and again!

“The staff are very good to me and I’ve made friends with my neighbours here,” Irene smiles. “I really couldn’t wish for anything better.”