Our Voice summer 2020

On the rooftop of Mercy Place Mont Clare in Western Australia, dozens of newly-planted roses have come into bloom. They are the promising beginnings of a beautiful sensory garden, which is being created for the enjoyment and relaxation of residents living with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease.

Six years ago, Mercy Health Home Care client Cecilia Pertout was introduced to tai chi. For Cecilia, who turns 90 on Boxing Day 2020, tai chi came easily to her as the breathing techniques required are similar to those used for singing. As a former opera singer herself, Cecilia should know.

Mercy Palliative Care volunteers Mary O’Brien and Antida* have spent the past 30 years supporting the terminally ill in Melbourne’s west and their families.

For Mercy Place Warrnambool aged care resident Dorinda Fletcher, NAIDOC Week is a significant week on the calendar. For three years in the 1960s, Dorinda, her husband and children lived on Elcho Island, a small island off the coast of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

As we come to the close of 2020 — Mercy Health’s centennial year — the extraordinary events of the past 12 months closely echo those the Sisters of Mercy lived through when the pneumonic ‘Spanish’ flu pandemic hit Melbourne in December 1918.