“I certainly couldn’t live at home without support, there’s absolutely no question about it. I wouldn’t be able to manage now with the deterioration in my eyesight and my overall health. I wouldn’t even want to try and think about being without my home healthcare ladies.”
Lynda’s life is a fascinating one. Growing up in England and having been married only a short time, she thought her husband was joking when he came home one day saying, “Pack your bags, we’re going to New Zealand.” A few months later, the couple – with Lynda’s mother-in-law and two sisters-in-law – had made the move and were settled in Milton, South Otago. Lynda’s husband found a job at the Alliance Textile Mill but soon applied for a job with the Post Office and they moved to Dunedin.
I would have loved to have gone to art college. In fact, when I was at school, the teachers recommended that I go to learn art but those were different times. My parents decreed that I was to be trained as a secretary. From there, I went to work in a woollen mill as the office junior. I worked my way up to be the secretary at a firm of solicitors and then accountants. That was all in England. Like I said, these were different times and so, once I married, it was expected that I would be a stay-at-home mother.
Lynda fell in love with Aotearoa New Zealand the moment she arrived. She was especially attracted to Māori tikanga, particularly the art and music.
I laugh now about how little I knew when I arrived in New Zealand. We arrived in October and the weather was just lovely. As the weeks went on, it got nicer and I thought, ‘Gosh, if it’s like this in winter, I wonder what it’s like in summer.’ Of course, it wasn’t winter. I knew so little about New Zealand that I didn’t even realise that the seasons were reversed. I knew nothing, but I loved it from the minute I set foot here, absolutely loved it and that love has never gone away.
The rest of the family, however, struggled to settle in New Zealand and so they all moved back to England but Lynda didn’t last long. By 1986 she’d moved back and settled in West Auckland.
I love West Auckland. It’s full of character and is a wonderful place to be. I wouldn’t want to move unless it was to the countryside where I came from originally.
Lynda meets Visionwest
In 1998, Lynda was involved in a motor accident that left her with a severe back injury and in need of in-home healthcare. She’s been receiving visits from Visionwest Home Healthcare Support Workers for more years than she can remember.
I have my wonderful Visionwest ladies coming in on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Monday, we usually go shopping for the grocery items that have been used over the weekend, like fruit and vegetables. We might go change the books at the library at the same time and we do some housework.
On Wednesday it’s food preparation. My deteriorating vision means that cutting up vegetables and things like that are beyond me, unless you want bits of nail and finger in your salad. I’ve cut myself quite a few times and so it’s not a good idea to chop with sharp knives.
On Friday, pretty much the same thing. We’ll go out and get more vegetables and prepare them. And my bed is changed. My back injury means I can’t manage to bend and change my bed. So that help is absolutely invaluable.
Lynda is adamant in her support of in-home healthcare for older and disabled New Zealanders. She knows that, not only would she find it impossible to live at home without the support of Visionwest Home Healthcare, so would many, many others. She believes in-home healthcare is vital, especially to the aging population who are not as mobile as they once were or live with specific disabilities that hamper their ability to complete some tasks.
I notice those with eye problems because I’m afflicted in that area myself and I’m far from being the only one. If you go to the eye clinic at Greenlane, it’s chock-a-block full from seven in the morning until almost seven at night; the Waitākere Eye Clinic is just the same. These are eye problems of all sorts of degrees that stop people being mobile or from doing whatever else they need to do. Each of these people needs someone they can trust to help them with particular tasks.
In my case, it’s all those little daily tasks that can’t be completed if you’re visually impaired. For instance, I can wash dishes, but because of my eyesight I don’t know if I’ve got everything clean, or I can wipe down the work surface but I don’t know what I’ve missed. So, I need someone to at least be here to check the hygiene part of it and take care of the spots I’ve missed.
What I don’t need at this stage is personal care. I don’t need anybody to shower me or help me to get in and out of bed but there are hundreds of people who do. And how do they manage without home support? They would be forced to go into residential living, which not everybody wants to do.
So, the fact that Visionwest can deliver home support to keep people in their own homes and in familiar and loved environments is fantastic and it’s getting more and more necessary as the population is getting older.
When asked if she has a favourite Support Worker amongst those who visit her, Lynda is effusive about them all saying that every one of them is wonderful. She is quick to point out though that there is one special trait that stands out and that all of them possess – that is their kindness. Lynda appreciates that they never treat her ‘as if I’m a silly old woman.’
The fact that these ladies are prepared to come in and work hard doing the things I can’t, and that they do it with such goodwill is marvellous. Every one of my home care ladies falls into the special category which means I’m very, very lucky. You see, I think that from any vulnerable person’s point of view they want perhaps two things, kindness and respect, and that’s what I see in my Support Workers all the time.
Another thing about my Support Workers is the relationship I have developed with them. I’m sure that there may be rules about not getting too friendly or too close with clients but that is impossible because the people who do this kind of work are such caring people. You can’t help but have a relationship when you care about someone.
Many years ago, for a very short time, I did this kind of work and it’s not easy. I discovered you need to have a wonderful personality to be able to accept the awkwardness and difficulties, and sometimes the heartbreaks, that go with this sort of work. So, people who are Support Workers are very, very special people.
Lynda the inspiration
Lynda is a writer. She has had two books published already and her third, her first for children, is about to be released by Scholastic. With pictures by award-winning illustrator, Nikki Slade Robinson it’s designed for parents and grandparents to read to their children.
People often ask me how a blind person writes a book. The answer is, slowly and with difficulty. Because I’ve been a typist, I can do a little bit of touch typing, but not all of it. Looking from the screen down to the keyboard and the back again is time consuming, everything takes 100 times longer, especially with my particular eye problem which makes everything look like it’s moving. So, if I look at my keyboard, I might think I’ve pressed the L and I’ve actually pressed the key next to it. When I look up and realise, I have to go back and do it again, that can take a while.
Lynda is a knitter also. Behind her as we talk are 13 pairs of booties for the kaumātua and kuia at the local marae. As a person enters the marae it is respectful to remove their shoes. However, it is uncomfortable, especially for older people, to sit there with cold feet. Recognising this, Lynda has knitted slippers that will fit in someone’s pocket or purse and can be pulled out at the appropriate marae moment.
When Lynda first heard about this need for woollen slippers, she taught herself to knit from YouTube. It’s a slow process though because, if she drops a stitch, she’s lost and must pull her knitting apart and start again.
The way Lynda lives her life is inspirational and her attitude encouraging. She is, however, quick to point out, it would not be possible without help from Visionwest Home Healthcare and the Support Workers who call on her regularly.
People often praise me and tell me how wonderful it is that I can do all these things like writing and knitting and so on. The reality is, I couldn’t do any of it if it wasn’t that I’m able to live in the comfort and security of my own home. And that is only possible because of my wonderful Support Workers from Visionwest. Despite all that is not so good with my body, I consider myself as a very lucky woman.
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Every month, on average, Visionwest Home Healthcare provides in-home support to 6,361 older adults or people living with disabilities enabling them to remain in the comfort and safety of their own homes.
Click here to read Cameron’s inspiring Visionwest Home Healthcare Story.
**We understand that it is a great privilege when someone generously agrees to share their story. This blog and other material are shared with Lynda’s permission and we thank her for her generosity.