Her brother was down from Sydney, the local bowls club had been booked and the rest of her family were on their way. And so it was, just one week before Victoria’s latest lockdown, Marnie, one of Melba’s group home residents, got to have her 60th birthday party.
it's been a bit of an eventful time for Marnie, lately, because she was also one of the residents evacuated to Warragul from Wonthaggi after her group home lost power in the recent big storm. But then… life is usually pretty eventful for her, and she’ll happily chat about it, too.
“Everything I do, I love, everything I do,” Marnie said.
Firstly, Marnie has one-on-one sessions with a personal trainer three times per week. She loves it. She also loves walking… unless it’s raining, then it is rescheduled or indoors.
“I love walking, every day, long walks for me.”
Marnie also loves cooking – there’s a kitchen garden out the back, and she’ll use ingredients from that in her dishes. She likes making stir-fry in particular, and everyone sits down together to eat if they choose.
Recently, Marnie has also taken up art, making dot-style beeswax pictures. Jigsaw puzzles also feature, as with a lot of people during lockdown, and jigsaws of famous paintings are her favourites. She also loves Ten pin bowling, listening to music and having hot chocolate, usually when she goes to her day program at Connecting2Australia. And every second Sunday, she goes on a trip to somewhere fun. And each fortnight, she goes and stays at her sister’s place for a couple of nights.
Marnie’s also on Melba’s advocacy group ARROW… and she’s really, really social.
“She’s very outgoing, she’s very involved,” said Jason, who is one of Marnie’s support workers. “When you go down the street with Marni it’s like going with the queen, she’s talking and waving to everyone.”