By Liz Moore.
Commemorating Anzac Day each April raises important themes around dedication, service and sacrifice – themes that have been brought into sharp focus throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, every one of us has experienced an extended period in which we’ve been asked to make challenging changes to our everyday lives.
We’ve had to isolate at times, cope with ongoing uncertainty, and forgo small and sometimes major events for the wellbeing of ourselves and our communities.
Each of us has been asked to make some sort of sacrifice for the benefit of all on a regular basis – some more than others, as was acknowledged with a national and international ‘thank you’ to our frontline health workers.
One such person is integratedliving support worker, Janine. The Tasmanian carer spent her 60th birthday in isolation from family and friends to ensure she could safely continue to care for her then 96-year-old client, Jo.
“This job is my dream job,” says Janine. “I hit the ground running. Jo’s my first client of the day, and my last, so I get to start my day with a beautiful smiley face and finish the day with a beautiful smiley face.”
This dedication to care was tested two years ago when Janine and Jo’s hometown of Burnie in Tasmania’s northwest was forced into lockdown after a COVID-19 outbreak that claimed 11 lives, infected 127 people and forced the hospital and township to shut down while the Army was called in.
“I gave up my family and friends for the nine weeks,” Janine said. “I didn’t see anybody, just went to work, went home and did the groceries at seven o’clock on a Tuesday morning when you were allowed in. I saw my dad from a distance when I bought him groceries and took them down to him, put them in the middle of his backyard, yelled out ‘I love you’ and hopped in my car and drove away.”
“I didn’t want to run the risk of catching anything or passing anything on to any of the clients,” Janine said. “A few of the [other support workers] did the same thing. We just put our lives on hold for the job.”
Arguably the biggest act of sacrifice for Janine through this time was spending her 60th birthday alone with her pets.
“I’ll never forget that. All I wanted to do was go out to dinner for my birthday. I had a florist dropping flowers off in the middle of the front path, so to speak, and then waited for them to leave so I could go out and get them.”
Janine attributes her dedication to service to her family’s strong military background.
“I guess that was instilled in me right from being young. It’s only for a set time,” she said.
“You give it up for the betterment of others and then you can go back to what you were doing before. You just had to do it. You had to get on. It wasn’t going to last forever.”
Janine was also inspired by the fact that nonagenarian, Jo, is one of the only remaining female World War II veterans in Tasmania.
Jo manned spotlights in Sydney as a teenager.
“I wasn’t old enough to join the air force at 16,” says Jo. “They told me to come back when I was 18, so I went to the army and asked them. It wasn’t long before it was ‘sign on the dotted line’. They took anyone, that’s what I reckoned.”
“It was the middle of June when I went in and it was freezing cold. We didn’t have beds. We had straw on the floor, three blankets, no pillows. Anyway, we learned how to march and how to salute and all that sort of thing. That was my introduction to the army.”
Jo says she is very grateful for Janine’s care, whether in lockdown or not, knowing she would be unable to stay in her beloved home without it.
“I appreciate it very much because I can’t do it anymore. That’s the unfortunate part. You want to do it, but you can’t. I appreciate it all, and it’s nice to know that somebody’s coming in of a day.
“I like to stay in my home. I will ‘til I can’t deal with it anymore, then I’ll see sense and do what people want me to do. But at the moment, I’m quite happy with the way things are. I’m happy here.”
And so the spirit of service and sacrifice lives on outside of the Anzac legend and, in part, inspired by it.
If it weren’t for the everyday dedication, care and service of support workers such as Janine, it wouldn’t be possible for older Australians like Jo to get their wish to stay independent and well while remaining in their own homes.
To hear more of Jo and Janine’s inspiring story, listen to the Live Well podcast here: https://integratedliving.org.au/live-well-podcast/podcast-unique-bond-forged-through-sacrifice-and-service
To find out more about integratedliving and how it can help you or your loved ones stay well and independent in your own homes, visit www.integratedliving.org.au or phone 1300 782 896.
