It takes a village

A bold experiment in inter-generational living is underway at a retirement village in suburban Sydney. And Jenny Brown finds it’s enriching the lives of young and old alike.

- Jenny Brown

Pat Brown’s eyes are alight with enthusiasm. “Oh, they’re fantastic, they’re our angels,” she says of her new best friends, the four University of Sydney students who are swapping companionship for free rent at the aged-care facility she calls home.

Aged 79, Pat is chatting animatedly about computers, handicrafts, family history and the university course on dementia prevention she has just completed. This bright-eyed, funny grandmother gets around in a wheelchair but still has “all her marbles”, as she wryly puts it. And she loves sharing life experiences with her 30-year-old neighbour Gabrielle.

Nothing too unusual about that, perhaps – except for the fact that, in a bold new initiative, they both live at a care facility in Sydney’s south, Scalabrini Bexley. That’s where Gabrielle and three other allied health students receive free rent in return for 30 hours of volunteered friendship and conversation each month.

“I tell them my door is always open any time, day or night, and they come to visit,” smiles Pat, who moved to the village three years ago when a painfully ulcerated foot finally made it impossible to stay at home. “I think there should be more dialogue between younger and older generations. If we listen, they can teach us a lot – especially about computers and phones – and we can teach them quite a bit too.”

Softly-spoken Gabrielle, a recent occupational-therapy graduate, laughs out loud. “To be fair, Pat, I think you know a lot more about phones than I do. You’re on Snapchat and I’m not!”