Palm Lake Care Residents' Stories
“I don’t have a care in the world anymore – honestly, I am so, so happy. I feel like I’m a human again. My life has just started.”
Here, I feel at home
From the moment Rosemary Dwyer walked through the doors of Palm Lake Care Bethania, she felt safe. Whether that was thanks to the staff or the accommodation – or the fact that her best friend Lorraine lives two doors up – she’s not sure. She just knows that since moving in, she has felt like she can do anything.
It’s only been two months – but already, Rosemary feels like a weight has been lifted.
“I feel like I have my independence back,” Rosemary smiles. “Because everything here is done for our safety, I can do all these things that I couldn’t do if I was outside. Recently, my daughter took me down to the Gold Coast and we went to a light show, but trying to manoeuvre the footpaths made me feel like I was about a hundred! I really felt my age. In here, I feel young.”
Perhaps it’s the weekly Happy Hours, that Rosemary attends with her best friend, Lorraine – the ‘Batman’ to her ‘Robin’, as Rosemary says.
“Our Lifestyle Team members Bobby and Karen are the life of the party,” says Rosemary. “The whole place lights up. You can see the smiles on the residents’ faces, how they change. They dance and they carry on, and Lorraine is always up there dancing away, too!”
Rosemary met Lorraine a few years ago, through the Beenleigh Senior Citizens Centre. They just clicked.
“Then Lorraine had a bad scooter accident and ended up in hospital. They wouldn’t let her go back home, so they arranged for her to come here,” says Rosemary. “A few months later, when I’d had a particularly bad day, my daughter reached out to Lorraine’s granddaughter for more information as to what I should do, and where I should go. Her granddaughter said, ‘This is the best place out of all of them’.”
One of Rosemary’s biggest fears before moving into an aged caring community was losing the family unit. When she lived with her son, her grandchildren would come in and sit on her bed to have chat or watch TV. It turns out though, she had nothing to worry about. Not only do Rosemary’s children and grandchildren visit regularly (her 16-year-old grandson spends five hours at Palm Lake Cake Bethania every Tuesday, playing games and eating snacks!) but she has made fast friends with her neighbours and the staff.
“We go into breakfast in the morning, and I always make the effort to go to each table and say, ‘Hello, how’s your day going?’,” says Rosemary. “We’re getting to know each other. I was always very shy, but since I started going to the Senior Citizens Centre, something changed. Now, I talk to people. I engage with people. And I have Lorraine, who has made coming in here even better.
“I don’t have a care in the world anymore – honestly, I am so, so happy. I feel like I’m a human again. My life has just started.”
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