Bulletin Spring 2018

THAT’S LIFE
WITH NARELLE
NARELLE TAYLOR, MSWA MEMBER
MSWA has arranged and provided me with so much
assistance, in so many forms, since I joined 22 years ago. I’ve
had lots of support workers who have helped me be good at
whatever role I was enacting at the time. I’ve grown fond of,
become grateful to, and been respectful of them, as I’m sure
they must have come to be of me, and now some of them hold
places in my memory like friends, or family members.
When I was alone at home, my children had married and
moved out, my husband had died, I was swanning about in
a place that was far too big for just one person. The support
workers would come more frequently because I needed their
help more frequently. It dawned on me that a ‘care facility’
would do everything the carers were doing, and I’d be able to
go out and come back, the bed would be made, the washing
would be done, the food would be cooked, and I would not
have had to supervise any of it.
My support worker comes here now as ‘social support,’ and
the staff here do all the other stuff. It suits me very well.
Some support workers at home had been coming for years.
One even came to be ‘social support’ at this facility when I
had moved here. My transition away from home, because I’d
chosen to do it, was not as confounding and worrisome for
me, as it seems to be for so many of the other residents here.
Ageing alone separates the individual a little bit from the
mainstream of society and then, for them to be locked into
a place like this, for their own safety of course, is so far from
their understanding. It’s so often a topic of conversation with
them. Even those residents that are now spoon-fed and in
a ‘transporter chair’ will sometimes grizzle that they could
manage at home alone and will talk of their inability to fathom
why they’ve been incarcerated.
I speak with them about it as if I am dealing with a child.
Because of their attitude, I then file them in the category of
those residents whom I’m not going to include as a close
friend. I still like them, but it’s one-way traffic. They’re out of
time with life’s background music.
One resident who has Parkinson’s, but is walking, came with
me to a nearby coffee shop. We made our way there, me in my
power-chair, and her holding on to the back of it. We crossed
two roads then arrived and enjoyed our cake and cuppa.
The young table attendant then helped us negotiate safely
past other tables and chairs, back out onto the footpath. Doris
resumed her position behind my chair and the waiter said,
“well, there you are ladies, all set to go. What are you going
to do today?”
I thought, “we’ve just done it!”
I said, “well, Doris and I spend a lot of time in the laboratory,”
he just nodded his head. He knew it wasn’t true and I hope
he realised that his question was not suitable for Doris
and I. He’s always very nice to me now and I usually go there
for morning tea with my support worker and he always serves
us with a pleasant alacrity.
I am proud of the way my support worker and I can get around.
We can go almost anywhere. The world is becoming more
wheelchair-friendly. It’s my oyster! Comparatively speaking,
we are so good. I heard recently of young sportsmen, soccer
players actually, who each needed to be sedated and wrapped
up like parcels in order to get back on track and go home. I’m
sure they’d be impressed with our form.
MSWA BULLETIN SPRING 2018 | 27