Dinah Whitaker is embarking on a new chapter of her life and is looking forward to getting down to the serious business of having fun. Lots of it.
“For the first time, since I was a child, I’m being looked after and it’s pretty wonderful,” the 85-year-old says. “Here at Uniting AgeWell Hawthorn Community, I don’t have to worry about anything, I can just make new friends and enjoy myself.”
And Dinah has a number of exciting projects she plans on undertaking including volunteering to help start an arts appreciation group at the aged care facility, re-joining her book club in Melbourne which closed during the pandemic and helping archive the history of Lauriston Girls School she attended seven decades ago.
Dinah was living on her own in a town house complex in South Yarra and likens the months of COVID-19 restrictions last year to “being in a really bad dream.”
Between her family, her busy social life and her volunteering roles, the retired nurse led a full life and suddenly found herself confined to her home with family and friends unable to visit. “It was awful,” she says simply.
Dinah had a daughter, and her two sons and 11 grandchildren are based in Melbourne and Sydney, and all were worried sick about her staying on her own, especially after she had a fall and hurt herself.
Things came to a head when her Melbourne-based son went away with his family over Christmas and asked his Mum to “have a trial run” in respite care at Hawthorn so he didn’t have to worry about her.
So, Dinah moved in, and loved it from the get-go. She had her hair done at the salon on site, loves the exercise classes, enjoys the delicious meals and says the staff are caring and supportive. Thanks to their ministrations, the swelling in her legs has reduced and she feels marvellous.
“My respite care is up in a week, and to be honest, I’m loving being cared for and simply don’t want to go back home. So, I’m moving in permanently, and I’m also pretty pleased that the family can stop worrying about me being on my own,” Dinah says.
Dinah also loves the state-of-the-art brand-new building with its café and lovely garden and her light, spacious room with its television and everything she needs at her fingertips. Hawthorn is centrally located and she only needs to call a cab to head off to the city.
Now she’s looking forward to the next stage of what has been a very busy, active life.
Dinah is a life member of the National Gallery of Victoria after volunteering there for 30 years, including being president of its guide group. She loves art and art history, and as a member of the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society has lectured across the UK and Australia.
Her career in nursing and her love of volunteering have also seen her travel to a developing country and rub shoulders with royalty.
In 1956 she helped set up a Highlands Bush Nursing Clinic in Papua New Guinea and travelled to rural areas where they quite simply had never seen a woman in a white-starched nurse’s outfit and cap before. “We all had to stick hairpins in our scalps to keep those caps on,” she laughs.
She was a volunteer nurse at the Olympic Games in Heidelberg in 1956 and saw Dawn Fraser swim to victory. Dinah was presented with a commemorative medal for her help.
During the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Dinah was part of the volunteer team ensuring that everything ran smoothly, and was assigned to “look after” Prince Edward for the day.
“He was quite charming and down to earth,” Dinah recalls. “I called him Your Royal Highness, and he said ‘oh please don’t’ so I called him Sir instead. He told me the children who visited Buckingham Palace expected to see him on a white charger with a sword, and were quite disappointed when he wasn’t. We had a good laugh about that. I told him my granddaughter had the same name as his wife – Sophie.”
Uniting AgeWell’s Admissions Manager Sharon D’ Rozario says there is a huge need for respite care with COVID-19 leaving many older people and carers exhausted.
Sharon says carer stress is real and can change the relationship between family members, not always in a positive way. “Sometimes quality time can be replaced by practical carer duties. Carers can quickly become exhausted and the older person may worry about this too. There’s no doubt respite care can make a positive difference.”
As a result, Uniting AgeWell is offering a special respite care package of three weeks for the price of two at most of its aged care residences in Victoria and in Rosetta in Tasmania. All the sites offer 24-hour specialist clinical and dementia care, as well as a vibrant lifestyle program within a welcoming community.
And many, like Dinah, come in for respite care and enjoy it so much they end up staying.
For enquiries phone 1300 783 435.
