Coming home

Press, 15 October 1982, Page 1

Coming home

“Marvellous” is the one word the oldest Cobham Village resident, Mrs Ivy Wicken, aged 85, chooses to describe her new home. Pictured 7 here with her granddaughter, Wendy Wicken, aged 18, Mrs Wicked is one of 16 residents at the Spreydon complex for the disabled and elderly which was officially opened yesterday by the Minister of Housing, Mr Friedlander. Two neighbouring couples formed the Cobham Trust early last year to develop the village which represents

for its residents a happy compromise between institutional life and struggling to keep their own homes. “I would hate to be in a home,” said Mrs Wicken. Instead, she is now able to furnish and care for one of the 14 self-contained cottages designed to cater for stiff joints and wheelchairs. Each cottage has its own small flower garden and vegetable

plot. “If you wanted to be a hermit you could, but they are all very nice people,” Mrs Wicken said. There was no shortage of visitors. Several residents help with a food and vegetable cooperative that the trust runs for low-income families. Others do household chores and act as “grannies” for the neighbourhood children.

Mrs Wicken is one of many who still drive cars and is justifiably proud of her 69-year driving record. “I will give up when I die,” she said. The village administrator, Miss Jan Savage, said that building a new two-storey “fellowship centre” was the next big project. The replacement for an existing house due for demolition had been estimated at $90,000. Work on two new cottages should also finish in about six weeks and an aviary was planned for the centre of the village.