Margaret’s gift of love to aged care
A charity which offers aged care residents, estranged from their family and friends, the gift of love during Christmas is encouraging Australian aged care facilities to share in spreading the festive cheer.
Founder of Boxes for Christmas, Margaret Chivers, brings the gift of love to isolated aged care residents each Christmas.
Founder, Margaret Chivers, gave a heartfelt presentation about her Boxes for Christmas charity, at the Aged & Community Services Australia (ACSA) national conference in Adelaide this week.
Bringing some delegates to tears, she spoke about her reason for personally buying, wrapping and delivering gifts to aged care residents around Australia each Christmas.
Ms Chivers’ story begins with her mother who was diagnosed with dementia and lost her sight soon after the death of her husband.
Sadly, she was denied the opportunity to see her mother, who chose to live at Ms Chivers’ estranged brother’s home, where she claims she was not welcome. Ms Chivers soon discovered, via a telephone call, that her mother had been placed into a New South Wales residential aged care facility.
Pleading through the Public Guardianship for two years to see her mother, the biggest shock came when Ms Chivers was also informed during the phone call that her mother had passed away. Ms Chivers was denied the opportunity to say her final goodbyes at the funeral as her brother had arranged it without her knowledge.
With a heavy heart, Ms Chivers – with the help of the funeral director – contacted the residential aged care facility where her mother spent her final months.
Before her visit, she raised $1,040 to buy and gift wrap Christmas presents for the residents without family and friends at her mother’s aged care facility.
Ms Chivers was taken by staff, who she calls ‘angel carers’, to her mother’s room where she had passed away.
“It felt homely; tucked away near the kitchen, and I was grateful,” she says. “Mum may not have been able to see or walk, but she could hear and smell.”
Ms Chivers told the staff that she would again be back the next year with presents for the residents, and that she would continue to do so for the “rest of [her] days”.
She then had an epiphany. “If I could buy a Christmas present for every resident at one facility, what’s stopping me from finding every elderly person and giving them gifts?” she asks. And from here, Boxes for Christmas was born.
“Mum taught me that no one should ever feel alone at Christmas. She lived her life generously and listened to people and heard their vulnerability,” she says.
Growing up with little money, Ms Chivers fondly remembers how her mother would save Christmas wrapping paper, iron it, and then fold it carefully before storing it away for the next Christmas.
“Each Christmas, mum bought two extra presents – a block a chocolate and a hankie,” she says. “She’d put it away in the wardrobe and told me if she heard of anybody in the neighbourhood who was alone on Christmas day she would make sure she had a present waiting for them.”
Ms Chivers and the Boxes for Christmas family now buy and wrap gifts, with handwritten tags, before delivering them to aged care facilities a week before Christmas.
Each present bought and wrapped is valued at $10.
“The residents who receive the gifts don’t have any family of their own. They’ve become isolated from their family and friends,” she explains. “We see elderly people as our friends; friends we have never met and, in most cases, friends we will never meet.”
Last Christmas, the Boxes for Christmas family, with gratitude, bought and gift wrapped presents for residents living in Tasmania, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and South Australia. This year they will deliver presents, for the first time, to residents in Queensland aged care facilities.
“Although we’re officially registered as a charity, I like to think of us as the Boxes for Christmas 'family'. We think of these residents as our extended family, and although we may never meet, we know they are there,” she says.
Boxes for Christmas plan to buy and gift wrap more than 1,000 presents this Christmas and, on Boxing Day, they will start the process again for next December.
Ms Chivers' message to aged care facilities around the nation is simple: “We may not have elderly friends in your facilities yet, but we hope we do soon.”
If you’d like to bring some Christmas joy to your residents living without family or friends, contact Margaret Chivers on margaret@christmasboxes.org.au to be part of the Boxes for Christmas initiative.
Find out more about Boxes for Christmas.
