Gwendolynn Gage

helped her. I searched the web daily and Annette drove Gwendolyn and gave her support when she went to inspect some of the flats. Gwendolyn knew exactly what she wanted, the Street, position in the street, the area and the cost. After three unsuccessful applications, as she was competing with the recent return of overseas students when Covid restrictions were eased, I found Flat 3, 76 Canterbury Road, Toorak on the web. She could remember the address, by thinking of the Music of 76 Trombones! Shortly before she left St Vincents, she was planning to buy a new lounge for the flat and told me she would need cash for Matthew who did her shopping.

Gwendolyn liked the nurses at St. Vincents many of whom were Asian, as she said they did what she asked, and I often heard them over the phone treating her with respect. I used to call each day during the nine weeks she was in Hospital. She mentioned a Muslim nurse and said that a Filipino Nurse was the best at finding her elusive veins when she had her blood taken. Gwendolyn was very interested in other cultures and as a result she used 13 Cabs as they had Asian Drivers. She particularly liked the Sikh drivers. Gwendolyn met her friends James and Simon, the “Boys”, at two of the clubs to which she belonged. She told me she trusted them and was right in doing so as they helped her move to her new flat, they visited her in hospital, and they have taken on responsibility for her belongings and today’s Memorial Service in place of her Family. Gwendolyn had a cousin and a nephew in Sydney, but she no longer had current addresses for them. In their absence James and Simon have taken the role of her family. Gwendolyn did say that the three of us were her current family and that I was like the sister she never had.