Retirement Village Residents – living together and apart, through photographs
While they live independently in their own units and villas, there is still much valued communality around shared activities and common spaces.Conversations in lifts and stairwells, out the front of letterboxes and garages, in the café and community centre, and during table tennis have lead to some very strong friendships amongst residents.
Thus, while friends and family relationships outside ‘the village’ remain very important, the depth and quality of friendships with fellow co- residents is a source of great comfort and joy.
Of course, along with the fun, there is sadness and loss when people pass away: ‘a part of living here is also accepting that people go’.
Aged Care Residents – living together and apart, through photographs
Residential aged care is a space made up of uniquely communal environments, with residents often eating together, sharing in group activities and meeting or seeing each other in the hallways and lounge rooms.
Of course, while aged care facilities are homes and places of belonging for the residents, they are also workplaces for staff and places of respite for transient older adults and places of visitation for friends and family.
Living in such a communal space that produces and allows for these different kinds of ‘togetherness’ is described by residents as being both a joy and a challenge. A joy because of the friendship and life each other brings; a challenge because of the fact that the friendships and the people don’t always stay.
Aged care is a place of comings and goings, meetings and partings – an important aspect of the stories that residents have captured in their photographs.
