Friendship link
Through the Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme (ACVVS), Anglicare NT supports volunteers to visit older people who are at risk of social isolation and loneliness. We coordinate volunteer visitors across the Territory, including in Darwin, Palmerston, Nhulunbuy, Katherine, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs.
Angelique Glasson has been a volunteer visitor with Anglicare NT in Alice Springs for over ten years. In that time she has formed bonds with three special ladies. She is still visiting Ishy, while Edna and Kate passed away in 2015. Angelique shared her story of friendship and connection with us…
I first started visiting Edna. Over several years she became like a surrogate Nanna to me and I adored her! When Edna moved to Darwin to be close to her daughter I missed her terribly, but I knew she was where she wanted to be. Her daughter kept me up to date with how Edna was and would take her cards and presents from me.
After a brief break from visiting, I was paired up with Kate. Kate and I hit it off straight away and the conversation just flowed between us. Kate had dementia and large parts of her memory were gone, but she always remembered me. From her photos I could tell Kate had travelled a lot. However, it was only in the last weeks of her life that I found out she had been a Mother Superior in the Catholic Church. She later converted to the Bahá’í faith, to which she was devoted until her passing at 95 in December 2015.
Through Kate I met Ishy, who was also an old friend of Edna’s. Ishy and Kate were both Bahá’í and as close as sisters.
Edna and Kate both passed away in December 2015. Their funerals were held in Alice Springs in the same week. I was very touched to be asked to do a reading at Kate’s funeral. I took Ishy to Edna’s funeral and we were able to meet Edna’s family who came down from Darwin. Several weeks after the funeral I received a box from Edna’s daughter. In the box was a rug that had been Edna’s that she wanted me to have and a mug with a blessing on it that she wanted me to give to Ishy.
Since 2015 I have visited Ishy nearly every week, if not more often. We have decided we have adopted each other and after all this time she is definitely like family. Ishy adores my husband John – who she calls Big John – he is very tall!
Each year for Ishy’s birthday we take her to her favourite restaurant, which is Vietnamese. On her recent 94th birthday we went with some other lovely friends of Ishy’s. It was a fun afternoon with many stories told of everyone’s younger years.
I have been, and continue to feel, very lucky to have met these wonderful women and to have created our friendship link. Ishy is such a blessing and an inspiration in my life, and I would be lost without her.
To find out more about volunteering with the Aged Care Volunteer Visitors Scheme anywhere in the Northern Territory, phone 8985 0000 or email volunteers@anglicare-nt.org.au
Ishy and Angelique share a special friendship
