Annette Sharp: Mum has supreme faith in the sun’s healing power
Annette Sharp’s 88-year-old mum protested when the columnist informed her she couldn’t visit for a while, pointing to an age old cure-all that would protect her from the virus ravaging the planet.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- The star to avoid like the plague during isolation
- All the entertainment you need while stuck indoors
‘We can always sit in the sun …” my 88-year-old mum protested, rejecting the decision I’d made earlier to cancel our catch-up plans rather than run the risk of conveying the coronavirus to her retirement village door.
The sun, of course.
That great burning cure-all.
How could the sun fail to protect her from the latest infectious bug doing the rounds, even if it is one of the nastier bugs the human race has encountered in a century and particularly so for 88-year-olds living in retirement villages or nursing homes.
Hadn’t the sun cured all of her past complaints?
And if not, hadn’t it been cured with a dip in the sea or a shower or a salt water bath?
Or two Panadol and a cup of tea.
Or if you were really stuffed — or had maybe been briefly stunned senseless by a 240-volt charge from a musical amplifier plugged into a badly earthed extension lead that your well-intentioned dad had suspended a little unwisely in the rain — maybe a little lie down might be in order along with the Panadol —– but not for long because that might lead to idleness and self-pity.
These are the tonics and preserves that have stood my plucky mother in good stead for almost nine decades and supposedly helped her cope when she was handed the care of an adored little sister in the 1930s after the six-year-old lost part of her hand in a tragic farm accident, and served Mum again when severe monthly premenstrual cramps arrived with the onset of puberty during World War II.
And when a stubborn son refused to be born in the 1950s …
They were less effective in dealing with the pain of gall bladder disease that struck 40 years later and have been absolutely useless in combating the debilitating migraines that have had her in their grip in recent years.
But despite these more recent fails, Mum still has supreme faith in the sun’s healing power and its potential to keep her safe from COVID-19, even if I’m not and won’t risk a trip down to her south coast sanctuary from Sydney’s viral epicentre for the time being.
“Really, it’s quite OK for you to pop in …” she assured me. “Anyway, I had coronavirus two weeks ago and got over it.”
While my usually very sensible mother has always been health conscious — her last job, for 25 years, was as a doctor’s receptionist — these days she would literally put her life on the line for a visit from one of her own.
In this way I suspect she’s like most older Australians now counted among the most vulnerable members of the population the government is building protective isolation barriers around to keep safe from the viral pandemic that has thrown the world into a state of panic and confusion.
I’m so grateful Mum matters to Gladys and the PM.
She can still walk, albeit now with a walker, to a Woolworths store down the road from her retirement village.
The daily walk, to pick up a copy of a newspaper that might feature an article by this columnist — or a jar of Vegemite (it took her four trips down last week to get one) — is one of a handful of things she credits with helping to keep her alive and vital.
That and an occasional visit or phone call from a loved one.
The decision by Woolworths to open exclusively for the elderly for an hour each morning, has made a loyal customer for life of this grateful daughter.
There have been too few human kindnesses highlighted by media in recent times, but we can rectify that immediately by making contact — preferably by phone or a shout out over the fence — to one of our treasured older family members or neighbours this week.
Just a simple “Do you need anything? Can I pick you up some bread or fill a script at the chemist? Can I pay a bill for you or spot you a roll of toilet paper or two?” It makes a world of difference.
I made one of my greatest friends this way about a decade ago when a woman in her 70s living across the road who I’d later learnt has no family in Australia, walked over to offer me a punnet of homegrown tomatoes while I was gardening.
It was a tiny gesture and entirely of her making.
It turns out that’s all it takes.
A decade on we are now firm friends and, as her memory fades, it’s to me and my tribe she comes when her telecom provider starts frightening her with threatening letters regarding the NBN, or when she blows a fuse in her stove (harder to find now as it turns out), or when she locks herself out (last week), or loses the keys to her car (last week also), or can’t find her dancing shoes (three years ago) …
Me and my children are richer for it and I have subsequently added more elderly neighbours to my collection to further enrich my life.
So pick up the phone friends.
Ease another’s load.
We’ve a way to go to get through this strangeness yet.
annette.sharp@news.com.au
Twitter: @InSharprelief
Originally published as Annette Sharp: Mum has supreme faith in the sun’s healing power