One hundred and three-year-old Barbara Parsons was never going to leave her home for just any old aged care centre.
The Ocean Grove local promised her late beloved husband Cecil ‘Boz’ Parsons he would not be shipped off to a nursing home, a promise she kept.
But when Barb entered the modern and award-winning Deborah Cheetham Retirement Village care centre for respite, she found that it was a happy place to be.
“This place really is different, and it starts with the staff,” Barb says.
“They’re loving and they have a real warmth about them.
“Even within a few days of being here I was so impressed by everyone greeting me as ‘Barb’ and approaching me in a way where they knew me.”
In March, Barb’s adored husband of 77-years, RAAF pilot, Distinguished Flying Cross recipient and Geelong Grammar housemaster, Boz, died aged 105.
His passing led to Barb making her respite visit to the care centre permanent.
“I wanted to get away from cooking and I’d already got to know people here,” she says.
Barb enjoys life in a spacious room with an adjacent lounge area, allowing enough space for her to continue a favourite pastime.
“The staff set up my bridge table and I have friends around to play,” Barb says.
While the care centre is her base, she is certainly not confined to it.
In fact, Barb still owns and frequently visits the home she retired to with Boz in the 1980s - it’s just a 10-minute drive from the village.
“We bought a little cottage in the middle of the 60s, and we used to visit for holidays. In about 1981 we came down to live,” Barb says.
Barb and Boz were active members of the Barwon Heads golf and tennis clubs, forming friendships which still endure today.
While she is surrounded by 24/7 care at the village if she needs it, Barb relishes the opportunity to go to her other home to enjoy a roast with her children or a game of bridge.
Barb’s daughter Jane says while it was not an easy decision to have her mother move to care, it had brought a sense of security.
“I know if something happens to me, or I want to go away, that mum is safe and well looked after and that couldn’t be more important,” Jane says.