Elaine Crettenden loves spending her evenings sitting on the patio in her garden, a glass of muscato at hand, smelling the fragrance of the jasmine blossoms and hoping that a plane will fly overhead.
“I’m crazy about planes – I love watching them,” the 86-year-old laughs.
“The bigger, the better!”
Elaine thoroughly enjoys her little garden attached to her one-bedroom apartment at Uniting AgeWell’s Amarco Retirement Living Apartments in Kingsville. She’s even hung fairy lights along the side fence so she can sit out at night and watch the stars and the lights twinkle!
The retired teacher and nurse aide has a special sparkle all her own. She laughs frequently and her conversation is peppered with humorous one-liners and observations.
So, it stands to reason that when Elaine moved from Adelaide to Melbourne nine months ago to be with her daughter, she was determined to make friends.
She chose Amarco Apartments because it ticked all the boxes. It’s very secure with a concierge on duty; is close to the shops and public transport and is joined to Uniting AgeWell Kingsville Community, should she need full time residential aged care one day.
It’s also geared up to facilitate making friends. There are shared communal areas – a lounge with a cosy fireplace, TV and billiards table; a well-stocked library; a reading room with newspapers; a club room leading out to the barbecue area; a gymnasium Elaine enjoys with an exercise physiologist holding weekly sessions, and so much more.
Then there are all the activities on offer.
“There’s bingo, happy hour with up to 25 residents normally turning up, pizza night, scrabble … you name it, I’m there!” says Elaine.
She also enjoys catching up for afternoon tea in the club room with like-minded residents she now calls friends.
Elaine, who is widowed, is also enjoying getting to know Melbourne, thanks to the Uniting AgeWell Social Connections program. She’s visited Melbourne Zoo, the Mornington Peninsula and the Yarra Valley.
Find out more about Amarco and arrange to go on a tour of the apartments which include a private basement car space and start from just $365,000. Phone 1300 783 435 or visit www.unitingagewell.org/our-services/independent-retirement-living/amarco-apartments
