Don’t stop to smell the roses

Never let anyone tell you that when you get older you should sit down and relax, volunteer and Queensland’s Trinder Park retirement village resident, Chris Graham, says.

Ms Graham spends two or three days a week with residents in Trinder Park’s high care area, helping them with activities such as going on outings, manicures, playing bingo and going for walks in the garden.

Ms Graham and her husband recently moved to Trinder Park, on Brisbane’s southside. She has been a regular volunteer at Trinder Park since her mother, Else, was a resident more than six years ago.

Volunteering creates the type of community she wants to be part of, Ms Graham says. Being a volunteer, while also predicting that one day she may benefit from others volunteering, completes the community circle in her mind.

“Mum was in one of the cottages (retirement units) for two years then when she got ill she went to Lillypilly (in the nursing home) … and my husband and I built a garden we named Else’s Retreat,’’ she says.

Ms Graham sees a clear link between her continued activity and health. “You can’t just sit down, you have to keep as busy and healthy as possible.’’

She takes a gentler approach to her volunteering.

“We just do what we can with residents, keep them active but without stressing them.”