By Tyler Wright
An aged care resident has been gifted the experience of a lifetime after soaring 23 metres in the air in a cherry picker.
When Heather Cole, 78, first entered Lifeview’s Emerald Glades, she shared her memories of climbing trees at what was once her family home next door – and wished she could climb the trees once again.
On Wednesday 6 September, Heather was given the chance to venture up into the tree line thanks to her nursing home and a generous local crane operator who gifted his time to make her wish come true.
Social support coordinator at Emerald Glades, Marc Zywaczewski, said Heather would often reminisce over her time growing up on the property – which is now home to St Joseph’s Church.
“She would look outside the window for her little trees and always talk about how she remembers climbing them as a child and how she used to live here,” Marc said.
“It’s always something I’ve thought about; ‘I wish I could get her up’ …so I always wanted to try to make it happen. That was a couple of years ago now.”
On 6 August Marc made a post in a local Facebook group looking for help to source a cherry picker to help lift Heather into the trees; with Barrie Lock of Melbourne Travel Towers coming to his aid.
“I had the whole community so interested and wanted to help; I didn’t realise how viral it was going; how many people wanted to help and care,” Marc said.
“I managed to get Barrie who offered his truck; the rest is history.”
Heather was taken up into the treeline with daughter Sarah and granddaughter Lucie, followed by another journey up with granddaughter Jessica with community members watching on from the ground cheering her on.
“I’ve never been up that high around here; unless I’ve flown out on a plane or something like that,” Heather, who was a postie in the area for decades, said.
When asked if she got scared up in the air; Heather’s answer was simple.
“No, not really,” she said.
“As long as I’ve got a good grip on it, I’m fine; and I just love the view, because it’s your own town.
“You can see paddocks around – and daffodils – and you say, ‘oh, that’s such and suches house.'”
Heather has lived in Emerald since she was born – and was a postie in the area for most of her life.
“She knows Emerald like the back of her hand,” daughter Sarah said.
Despite short term memory loss, Sarah said her mum can still remember her children growing up, being a postie, and the names of people who lived in the town 40 years ago.
Heather’s impact on the town was evident, with family and community members gathering to support her special moment.
“For the community came together to do something like this is so moving,” Sarah said.
“It means everything…It’s a pretty special moment for her.”
The Lifeview Residential Care team are now discussing which magic moment they are going to facilitate for their residents.
“It’s something to make the residents today and surprise them and give them a special moment in their journey with us,” Lifeview’s executive manager of marketing and communications Cody Winnell said.
“Magic moments can be something small such as a surprise gift or something that they enjoy, whether that’s books or CDs, or we’ve had stereos for people who enjoy music.
“We’ve had outings to ballet and movies and things, but then we’ve also had something like this, which Marc’s organised here at Emerald, the cherry picker to replicate the climbing of the tree, so it’s a great program.”
