1 September 2011

Photo: Ivy (left) is assisted by Spiritus care worker, Michelle Simpson (right) with domestic chores.

The Spiritus minibus doesn’t look much like a time machine but for the seniors who are regular passengers it takes them back through the years and can even find and reunite old friends separated by the decades.

84 year old Ivy Cashin is one of the regulars and looks forward to going places she has not seen since her youth and to meeting others who have a lot more in common than they might have first thought.

It was on a Spiritus trip to the Glasshouse Mountains that Ivy discovered mini-bus time travelling.

“It was after morning tea and we were waiting for the bus and because everyone is so friendly we introduced ourselves and one chap said his name was Skinner,” recalls Ivy. “I grew up in Paddington in the 1930s and after more of a chat it turned out that his sister and I went to Ithaca State School together.”

Ivy says it’s not unusual for everyone on the bus to know people in common. We all have stories about the places that we travel through.

“That’s what old age is,” says Ivy. “The memories; I could go on and on. On another bus trip, it turned out three of us grew up in the Paddington area, so when we went to Paddington for one of our trips, the memories and the stories really flowed. I hadn’t been there for forty or fifty years.”

Ivy remembers a very different Paddington to the gentrified suburb of today.

“It was unsavoury and had gangs,” she says. “I was a bit of a snob and used to say I lived in Upper Paddington, not the rough part.”

Nevertheless, the working class inner city suburb had a big influence on Ivy’s life. And a bit like the little mini-bus ... could bring friends together, for life.

“During the war I worked at the Paddington cinema, which used to be opposite Lang Park, and that’s where a lot of Air Force men were billeted. I met up with one of them and after work I’d go over the road and we’d walk along the fence talking and talking. He’d be on one side and I’d be on the other.”

Ivy married that young man and in the 1960s moved to Arana Hills to build their family home and raise their four children. Ivy continues to live independently in her family home, with the assistance of Spiritus care services. These days Ivy regularly welcomes her more than fifty grandchildren and great grandchildren to her home. And as well there’s the ‘time travel’ of course.

“We only look on the bright side,” Ivy smiles as she mentions Spiritus mini-bus driver and care worker, Michelle Simpson. “It’s because we have a leader who laughs. We have a lot of laughs.”