One-hundred-year-old veteran Linda (Fleischer) Westwood has vivid memories of decoding the records of Australian soldiers during World War II.
Linda enlisted at the age of 18, keen to join her brother and her sister who had both already signed up. “I just wanted to help in any way that I could,” she explains. “I was happy to do anything that was needed to be of service.”
Linda was a Corporal in the 2nd Echelon of the Australian Women’s Army based at the Royal Park Barracks in Melbourne. The deaths, injuries and illnesses the Australian service men and women sustained were written in code. Linda and her team were charged with decoding the information and then documenting and disseminating it.
Fighting in a war is not all about boots on the ground and action on the battlefields, the sea and in the air. It’s also the huge support needed to make it all happen. The army of workers behind the army on the frontline.
“We were so busy,” Linda recalls. “At one stage I worked for 13 weeks without a proper break, it was exhausting.”
Two memories remain indelibly seared on Linda’s mind: the relief she felt when her brother was plucked out of the sea alive after his ship went down, and the joy she experienced when the war ended. “We all just stopped work and ran into the streets,” she says. “It was a feeling of absolute euphoria!”
Linda, who achieved her three-digit milestone on 22 March says, “Life is funny really, I don’t feel any different and I certainly don’t feel like I’m a century old.”
She doesn’t act or look it either. Linda lives in a retirement complex which has been her home for the last 36 years. She still devotes a lot of her time to knitting for charity. Beanies, booties, squares to be stitched into blankets – her hands are constantly busy.
The great-grandmother is also a one-eyed St Kilda supporter – she’s even decorated the front of her walker with the team’s colours, not that she uses it that much!
She shares what has become a hilarious ritual after every Saints game on television. “My son Greg will phone and ask what I thought of the game. He almost always rings at the same time as my neighbour switches on her front light to let me know she’s watched the game and is also all fired up. Then of course I have to reciprocate – it’s the neighbourly thing to do. So I rush off and put my special St Kilda suitcase in the front window so my neighbour can see it. And of course I have to call out ‘Go Saints go! while doing this.”
Linda recently retired from playing croquet after 32 years of regular games at the retirement village but continues to meet with the players each week for a cuppa and a chat, and to offer some game strategies and tips. She also reads a good thriller or mystery novel in bed every evening.
Her daughter, Di, puts her Mum’s longevity down to good genes and a core of steel running through her backbone strengthened through years of hard work. After the war, Linda studied shorthand and typing and worked in a number of admin jobs. After her divorce she single-handedly raised her two children while holding down two jobs to make ends meet.
Despite her tenacity, Linda is quick to admit that living at home is only possible thanks to her government-funded home care package through Uniting AgeWell.
“I had a fall and broke my femur three years ago, and while I was in hospital, Di arranged for me to have an assessment done through My Aged Care. They advised I should go on a home care package, so Di got in touch with Uniting AgeWell because she had heard good things about them.”
Linda continues the story: “When I was in hospital, Uniting AgeWell made my unit a lot safer for me for when I returned. They put in a ramp to the back door, got me a chair for the shower, my walker, a little light in the bathroom and a personal alarm.”
Linda worked with Uniting AgeWell Care Advisor Tania Perera who arranged for her to have home services, some personal care and meals.
Linda has forged a deep bond with both Tania and Personal Care Worker Sarah Wilson, who takes her for assisted shopping, to the doctor and more.
“I chat a lot to both Tania and Sarah – in fact I never shut up!” she laughs. “I’m very aware that living here just wouldn’t work without the help I get from Uniting AgeWell,”
Find out more about Uniting AgeWell’s Home Care services