Life is opening up for me

Launceston’s Sandra Petersen says support from Anglicare’s Home Care Services has transformed her life.

“Anglicare has given me freedom,” she says. “Life is opening up for me instead of closing in”.

When Sandra first contacted Anglicare, she was recovering from major surgery and was experiencing difficulty getting around.

“I wasn’t coping and thought I’d have to go into care,” she says. “I was getting further and further behind with the housework and gardening and I was lonely because I was too embarrassed to invite friends to my home”.

In her mid-seventies, Sandra values Anglicare for the way its experienced and courteous team supports her health and wellbeing, and encourages her independence.

“I still like to be active in the garden. I trim branches here and there, and Anglicare takes away the prunings,” she said. “I have trouble bending down planting seedlings, so the gardener assisted me to plant out all my winter vegetables. My hands weren’t strong enough to put timers on the taps, but Anglicare took care of this too”.

Sandra says cleaning help from Anglicare means she can keep up with routine household tasks. “For example, I still do the washing but the Anglicare staff hang out the big sheets which I can’t throw up and over the line,” she says. “In the past, by the time I did housework I was too tired and in too much pain to invite anyone over. Now I have a table set up ready for visitors. My house is properly maintained and I have the pleasure of a well cleaned home and garden”.

Sandra says the support from Anglicare’s Home Care Service has freed up time for activities she enjoys, including artwork and catching up with friends. Recently, she was assisted to go kayaking – for the first time in years. And she has just enrolled in a university course to add to her existing teaching qualifications. “I am so excited!” she says. “I am getting more and more mobile and thanks to Anglicare I have more time to be fulfilled as an artist, a musician, a composer and now a student. Life is getting better and better”.

Find out more about Anglicare’s Home Care services.