ACCEPTING the transition into aged care is a task likely to overwhelm even the most pragmatic among us.<\/p>\n
But for Sara Mason, a resident of Stella Anderson Nursing Home, knowing she would one day reside in facility\u2019s Boronia Wing helped her embrace this phase of her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe come up the rise and I said to myself \u2018this is where I\u2019m supposed to be\u2019, I knew it from my visions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was content right from the time I got here, and then when I was still at my home, they gave me the perfume of the brown boronia and I\u2019m in the Boronia Wing.\u201d<\/p>\n
A person with strong sense of spirituality, Ms Mason said she listens to her guides, the spirits who travel with her, and through them finds an awareness of knowing that connects her to this life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis life, I knew it was going to be a long life and I\u2019m supposed to get to 91 and a half, so I\u2019m 84 now so I\u2019m getting there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After she moved into her room in Boronia Wing, Ms Mason started a fernery outside her window, which led to her caring for the gardens at the nursing home, a pastime she said is good therapy.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though I\u2019m in chronic pain I\u2019ll never give it up because I\u2019m not one to sit still,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The pain Ms Mason said she feels comes from a curvature in her spine, slipped disc, cracked vertebrae, an injured coccyx, and widespread osteoarthritis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still getting around, you know? And I\u2019m thinking, that\u2019s what I want to do, and my spirits they\u2019re here, they help me so I\u2019m not complaining,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her mornings involve waking, checking the residence\u2019s towel warmer, breakfast, physiotherapy, and going outside to potter in the garden and feed the birds, which includes a family of magpies who wake her with their song.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey sing, they sing,\u201d she said. \u201cI just talk to them, like when I feed them I say, \u2018now hurry up and eat,\u2019 because if crow comes in it\u2019ll be over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stella Anderson\u2019s gardens are flourishing, and Ms Mason said there is one plant in particular that catches visitors\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe garden over there, they admire that begonia,\u201d she said. \u201cI grew that from a cutting and then I used banana water.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Mason said she sometimes wonders how she\u2019ll find time to tend to all her projects, but she keeps going.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just love creating, that\u2019s all,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved creating and I couldn\u2019t change, I couldn\u2019t change I think to myself, what would I change?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m content the way I am, you know, there\u2019s nothing more that I could do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ACCEPTING the transition into aged care is a task likely to overwhelm even the most pragmatic among us. But for Sara Mason, a resident of Stella Anderson Nursing Home, knowing she would one day reside in facility\u2019s Boronia Wing helped her embrace this phase of her life. \u201cWe come up the rise and I said […]<\/p>\n