The Wrinkle Report

Good morning to all our listeners. This is Larick and Lisa from Mark and Sylvie's Home Care. We are coming to you very cold this morning and enjoying a... Well, I did enjoy a nice cup of coffee. I hope you had one too, Joan. I'm really missing myself this morning. That's how cold it is. So...

We have got one very special lady joining us today. She is one of our Mark and Sylvie's clients. She is a very, very lovely lady with plenty of stories to tell. So welcome, Joan, to your very first podcast. Thank you.

So I've done some digging on Joan and I found a bit of a bucket of beautiful things you've done, not only in your life, but how you've actually helped contribute to Mark and Sylvie's success. So I think you should be on the payroll. Well, I just said to Floyd one day, I'm here that much. I said, I'm sure I'm staff. I said, the only thing is I don't get paid.

Well, we absolutely love having you. So tell us a little bit about yourself, Joan. Well, I was widowed fairly young in life, in my 30s. So it was all very sudden when my husband just had a heart attack and collapsed and died in the middle of the night in the bed beside me, which was rather horrifying. And so I've always had to...

Be on my own sort of thing. And back in those days, if you were on your own or widowed, nobody would employ you. Like they said, the only thing you're good for is cleaning offices, you know. So I learnt to battle, if you like to say, for myself and stand up for myself way back then because you absolutely had to. But I was very lucky after we moved house and fell into a job because I've always played the piano since I was four.

and taught music and everything. And the lady next door, she heard me playing. I had a big theatre organ at that time. And she heard me playing and she came in and she said, I know where there's a job for you. And it all fell into my hands. I went up to Dandenong to the shop and said, look, I've been sent here to say that you need me for a job. Oh, wow.

And within 10 minutes he said, right, you're on the payroll. So that started, as I told you last time, I was in the music thing and so I've taught so many people to play.

And I've always done music, you know, since I was four. So I'm used to concert work and stuff like that, you know. And so I taught music for a long time. And one of my sons turned out to be a drummer, which was working at the music thing, of course, every birthday present, he got a

something for his drum kit and things like that. So that went on for a long, long time. And then after that, I decided I wanted to do something different. So that's when I went into and got bereavement counselling when I was in the first course that they did for that. And that was very interesting. It wasn't terribly long course in those days, but that was good. And I've done a lot of counselling and things like that over the years. And I

I don't know. Life just seems, jobs just sort of fall into my hands when the right thing happens at the right time. Yeah. Yeah, and so that's very good. And I've moved house a lot of times, but only everywhere we've been it's been this concert work, which I've done a lot. I think I've been to every aged care home in Melbourne, from here to Tarelgon, you know, because I used to sing with an opera singer. Oh.

He used to be in the Victorian Opera and that's how we eventually originally got together when he said, I'm looking for an accompanist for my choir, which he'd just started. Well, that didn't last a long time and then it ended up, well, we had about five women, but...

Everybody wanted to do this and do that and I wanted to sing a solo. And when it came to this solo, they said, I can do this. So in the end, it was just the two of us. Yeah. And we used to go to all these homes and the people used to love us. And that's where I got into a lot of the aged care thing. Yeah. Because you could see what the music did to the people. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And you could see as soon as you walked in, you could see how they were treated or what the home was like. You could see by the people. And so that's when I realised that being older is not always good. So you need good care. Of course. So is that how, so after all of that, you obviously are in your own home now?

like to stay in your own room so I'd like to yeah so how did you find Mark and Sylvia's

Well, I came, I moved, I'd been in Warragul for three years and I'd just moved back down here and it was about the time they opened here as Atticus. Yeah. And I had a sore on my leg here and before I went up to Warragul to live, I'd shown it to doctors in Frankston and they said, oh, it's an age spot, don't worry about it. Three times I went to different clinics up in Warragul because I was worried about this thing and they said, no, don't worry about it.

I came down here and went in and saw Floyd and he took one look and he said, "Oh, my golly, Joan, that's got to come off tomorrow." It was cancer, which I thought it was.

So one of the doctors here was a surgeon at the time and they operated on it the next day. So in a way I owe my life to Floyd because it wasn't a melatonin, it was a squamous cell carcinoma which is the next thing to it. Which means I would have died if I had stayed there. My goodness. So if it wasn't for Floyd, when he found out I'd been there for six years,

So that's why, in a way, I feel I owe this place something. Yeah. Yeah. So and he signed you up? Well, Mark and Sylvie's didn't start until about three years ago. And I'd been with another company. I had the council at first and then they sold out. And then I was with another company. But after having hip operations, I couldn't walk up the street. I couldn't drive for a long time.

because of what the operations were. And so I came in here, it was the Ritten Clinic, one day to see Dr E, I think her name was. And I noticed in the paper an ad for Mark and Sylvie's. And so I said to her at the end of my consultation, I said, where can I sign up with you? She said, pop over the hall to see Hilda. And that's how I got, I think I was about number 10,

Yeah. To sign up. And the process was quite quick? Did you have to wait longer? No. Well, you don't know anything about it. I mean, they fixed it up with the other people. The next thing I knew, the other girls weren't coming anymore. But that other lot never turned up, you know, but you go eight weeks at a stretch and nobody would come. And when you were disabled like that and living on your own...

That was quite frightening, really. But I have to say, since I've been with Mark and Sylvie's in the three years, not once has somebody not turned up. Even if it's been a girl from the office, like Maggie turned up to do my cleaning one day. Yes. Yes, we all love Maggie. She's gorgeous. She is gorgeous, yeah. But that's how I came to be with them. It was through sheer desperation, I think, but...

The fact that they're always there and all the staff, I haven't struck a bad one yet. That is excellent. So that's really good comfort to stay in your own home and you're getting amazing care from Mark and Sylvia's.

That's got to be a great comfort. Well, it is, and because the girls are so nice. Yeah. And I've been lucky with the ones, I mean, I had the beautiful Leva for a long time and got thoroughly spoiled, but now I've got Grace, who I'm sure God sent Grace to. But everybody that I've had, like a girl took me over to Frankston one day, no, Cranbourne, to get a...

to get a stress test done and I knew that most places they make you walk on that tramp thing you know until you pass out and it happened before and you can't drive after it so the girl took me over there and I was a bit terrified about getting this thing done because I know what had happened before and I know people that have died doing that test and so I

We had to wait a while, so it was good that the girl that took me, she was very chatty and nice, so it sort of calmed my nerves. And did we pass the stress test? Yes, I did. Yay! But the doctors there said, you know, they know people are scared stiff of it because of things that they've heard, so they said, you tell us when you want it to stop. That is so good. It was so nice to have somebody there for the company that, you know, made me feel good.

Yeah, that is so important. And that is important. It is very important. It's so important. So do we still play the piano in the

No, I did until when I was having my hip operations. I couldn't sit because both hips were... And if you moved your foot on the foot pedal, it hurt my hip and I couldn't sit there. And then after the operation, I had a lot of nerve problems in the back of my hips here and I still couldn't sit on the thing. So I ended up giving it to my beautiful grandson who was a musician. I think...

Yeah, he's played. When he was a baby, I bought him a little keyboard about that long to start with. And then as he progressed, you know, got to about three or four, I bought him a bigger keyboard sort of thing. But he was really good at that sort of thing. Well, I think we might go and buy a keyboard and we might go around and have a look.

you can teach us how to do it. Well, the thing is if you live in a unit when they're next to each other like that, you really can't play amplified instruments and things like that, you know. Yeah. I can play Baba Black Sheik. Oh, can you?

That's lovely. I still remember that from grade three or grade four. It's only three Ps and they're very close together. So that's all. You have to learn things and only use five fingers to start. So when you get past the next one, they say, well, how do I move my finger? That's when the fun starts. Yeah, yeah. Well, Joan, it is such a pleasure to have you here today and such a pleasure to have you as one of our clients. We all just...

Just absolutely adore you. We love your stories. I love being a Markins. I think I'm very lucky to have found you. Yeah. We feel the same. You're not just a client. You're a big part of the Markinsilk family and we absolutely love having you. That's good. But I think when we finish now, I think we should sing a song because...

You've just said that you used to be a singer. So let's sing Simply the Best because that's what you are. I don't know it. We'll just do it. We're Simply the Best. Oh, I know it's Simply the Best. You better be.

on the rest. Yeah, something like that. But that's what Mark and Sylvie's is because it's everything. And I love being connected with the doctors as well because having all those specialists there, I don't have to drive to Frankston Hospital. And that's a nightmare of a place to try and park and everything. It really is. And the car park's too far from the

doctor's room is when you're like me and can't walk all that far and it's uphill so that's another good thing yeah that is fantastic really everything that you get from here is it is it really is the best everything's nice so fantastic well thank you so so much and thank you hannah for having joan and myself here today um

Our next podcast is in another two weeks, so we will request some more of our beautiful family of clients. And, yeah, thanks again, Joan. Because you've got a lot of them now, haven't you? We do, we do. We have such beautiful clients. I keep meeting people and they say, oh, no, I'm with Mark and Sue. I have to admit, I've given out cards to people. I keep some in my bag. And no matter where you are sometimes, I was in the –

getting my eyes tested one day and there was a lady there and her mother, she was talking to me, her mother was most unhappy where she was and everything. And I said to her, look, take this and go into Atticus, like the doctor's clinic. I said, it's just next door. So she was so thrilled to get something that she knew that people would treat her mother well. So I assume she ended up

coming with you and the gardener that I used to have originally down here he got made a neuron disease and he knew that I was with Mark and Sylvia's because he was doing it at the garden through him and then he got worse and so he signed up with Mark and Sylvia's too because he knew how well I was being looked after. There we go we'll put you on our recruitment list.

Okay, well, we'll wrap it up now. But thank you so, so much, Joan. Thank you. It's good. It's a pleasure. Thank you so much.