A sense of community…

For many years now I have basically had my social supports and contacts from people I work with. Maybe one or two I have had the odd social contact out of work with, but mainly it is just social chat and people to share lunch with and we don’t seem to catch up outside of work. Now that we have moved to Kaiapoi things are changing for the better.

My husband and I have always been such a close unit, that we haven’t really needed to gather a group of friends together. We enjoy being together and also have the sort of relationship where we can also have our own friends or do things separately. With the move to Kaiapoi though, I particularly have been trying to be more open to friendships and actively pursuing them. We have a great relationship with our neighbours, especially the ones directly opposite to us and have started going to Quiz Night together. We have a great laugh but we are not going to win the top prize in a hurry.

Today, it was the closing day at the bowling club I have been going to for Saturday roll-ups for the last four or so weeks. I was invited to attend and was so thankful that they all encouraged me to come. I was talking to one of the men when I was watching play yesterday and told him one of my hobbies was writing poetry. He said to me, ‘You should write one about bowls’ so I did! I was asked to read it out after the prizegiving and everyone was very complementary and they are going to get a copy printed and framed and put on the wall in the clubhouse. I was so pleased with their reaction as they have been so lovely and welcoming to me that I wanted to give them the gift of a poem.

More and more I feel like a whole new world is opening up for me as I am a few short weeks away from retirement. If we had still been in Parklands I would have felt isolated and alone. In contrast, I feel accepted and valued and that I already have the makings of a lovely circle of friends.

Who knew that having to give up work earlier than anticipated, would open up the opportunity to have not just one more friend but a bunch of lovely people who I can enjoy spending time with. I am definitely going to have to timetable my weeks as there’s lots of opportunities in my community. I will wonder how I ever had time to work.

It feels like I really am heading into the future with friends and support and I look forward to that future with hope and positivity.

Parkinson’s was the catalyst for us moving here, so strange as it may seem, it has given me the chance of having much more support and a much better life in the future than I ever could have envisaged.