Page 11 - Just Better Care Possible Magazine - Issue 6

At Just Better Care, social support is all about being there to help you live your best life.
MARGARET
The sun shone down as Margaret strolled along Bribie Island, a quiet yet beautiful beach just north of Brisbane. The sky blue, the sand spongy and soft. She dipped her toes into the ocean and, after adjusting to the cold, splashed her way down the beach.
An ex-pat from the United Kingdom, the beach at Bribie certainly felt miles from the shores of the English coastline, where pebbles lay in place of sand, and the air temperate hangs much lower than Australia’s – especially on our north-east coast.
Margaret loves the beach: watching the waves roll and crash onto the sand, and the feeling of the cool water against her skin. She loves the sound of children’s laughter as they build sandcastles and chase seagulls – and then the amusement as they get told off by their parents for chasing the seagulls and getting too close to the water’s edge.
For Margaret, a day at the beach is the perfect outing, improved by a lunch of fish and chips overlooking Moreton Island. It’s worth the 45-minute drive from her home just out- side Brisbane.
Margaret likes to head out once a week with her Just Better Care Support Professional, Sue. Every week they visit the library to pick out up to six new books, which Margaret finishes before the week’s end.
On the way home, they stop for a hot drink, which always ends in laughter when Margaret orders a hot chocolate – with extra
marshmallows – and Sue orders an English tea, which is always served to Margaret; they suspect the English accent is to blame.
And every now and then, to feed Marga- ret’s adventurous habit, they go for drives high in the hills beyond where she lives.
Queensland has been Margaret’s home since the move from the United Kingdom 44 years ago. She loves to get outside and see the world around her.
When she was in her sixties, Margaret tried her hand at abseiling, white water rafting in New Zealand and before that, she rode horses past the Pyramids of Giza. Proving age is no barrier to doing what she loves, at age 72 Margaret traded New Zealand’s rapids for Canada’s, for a whirl at white water kayaking.
Thumbing through old photographs one rainy day, Margaret shared her love for the adventure and the outdoors with Sue. It was then they decided the next outing would be a day at the beach.
“I love Australian beaches. They are less crowded and so peaceful. Not to mention it’s much warmer here than the UK,” she laughed.
“It was the perfect day you wish for when you’re daydreaming about summer. It was warm and the sky was clear; it was lovely despite the seagulls trying to pinch our fish and chips. It was brilliant, we are already planning the next beach day.”
JUST BETTER CARE — 11