Jane | Patumahoe
“Best thing that happened to me last week was the news that my brother and sister-in-law were going to come over this weekend, this previous weekend, just for a fleeting visit. So, very excited about that, because they live in Sydney.
Well, we come from a very close family. My brothers, my brothers and my sister are all scattered; two in Sydney, one in Taupo, with my sisters-in-law and nieces and nephews, and of course they’ve all disappeared off overseas. So, it’s special time when our family visit, because as I say, we are so close, and it doesn’t happen often enough, and because families are so disconnected now, in terms of country and time, and pressures of their own lifestyle. So, it is very precious when we do get together.
I grew up in the Waikato, with two fantastic parents, with my brothers and sister. So, we grew up in Hamilton. It was a very small city at that stage, almost rural in some ways, and I went on and trained as a nurse. So, I trained at Greenlane Hospital, which is now no longer, I believe, and have spent my life as a nurse. It’s really only in the last year and a half that I haven’t practiced, at this stage, primarily because I have been assisting and caring for my elderly parents, and moving them from their large family home to a rest home. So, that has been a fulltime job. I am now at the stage where they’re nicely and happily settled, and I’m starting to look at reconnecting with the community, and in Patumahoe and Pukekohe are new for me, so I’m starting to look at some of the options available.”