By Marcus Uhe
The residents at the Botanic Gardens Retirement Village in Cranbourne took the opportunity to showcase their incredible talents and celebrate the fruits of their lockdown-labour with a Hobbies, Arts and Crafts display.
Over the weekend of 26 and 27 February, the Village welcomed visitors to observe all manner of creations, including woodwork, paintings, quilts, floral arrangements and so much more.
One display belonged to Alan Lazarus, who taught himself to play the harp 10 years ago and recorded his first CD during the pandemic.
“I took up music when I retired at 65 because my hobby used to be flying planes, but at 65 I couldn’t pass the medical,” Mr Lazarus said. “When you get to our age, music exercises both sides of the brain and keeps you mentally alert, and it’s great fun, too.”
His debut album ‘Footprints (Back in Time)’, which he gave the crowd a sample of with a live performance during the display, features a combination of cover tracks and originals, inspired by artists such as American folk group ‘Carter Family’, Hiram ‘Hank’ Williams and Merle Haggard.
Mr Lazarus said that the motivation of being able to return to the stage helped him get through the various lockdowns.
“When Covid-19 hit and we couldn’t get out anywhere, like most musicians everywhere, there was nothing going; we couldn’t play anywhere, so I just sat at home and started writing songs, and it turned out pretty well.
“It was hard at first but once you get used to the fact that it’s going to pass, so on the first day that we’re allowed to get out, I’ve still got to be able to get out and perform or something like that, so I spent most of my time just writing, rehearsing and practising stuff over and over again.
“It worked out okay.”
While vaccinations became all the rage as our number-one defence against the virus, Rhae Nelson was focused on needles of a different kind.
“I’m 91 and I’ve knitted all my life but I had never made a beanie until lockdown,” Ms Nelson explained. “I suddenly got inspired, I picked-up my needles and started, and I’ve done about 250 beanies since.
“It was just something different. I had stacks of wool, not enough to do anything with except make a beanie, so I did.”
She even held a beanie-fest and sold more than 100 winter-warmers last July, with plans to match that tally or even exceed it at the next edition later in the year.
Tricia McGill used the time stuck in her property to get to work on novels number 21 and 22, ‘Sweet Bitterness’ and ‘When Destiny Calls’.
‘When Destiny Calls’ drew inspiration from the pandemic, with the story beginning in the early stages of the outbreak in March 2020 as the world began to shut-down before the main character travels back to 1940 as bombs reigned-down on London during the Blitz.
While Ms McGill is accustomed to spending long hours at her computer, she said that she found isolation from the other residents to be the most difficult part of lockdown.
“For me, the only thing that I missed was the social life that goes on here because we were in lockdown quite a bit,” Ms McGill said. “For years, I spent an awful lot of my day just sitting at my computer, so to me, it’s just another day.
“The hardest thing was not being able to have contact with other people.”
She was blown-away by the display and the brilliance of her community.
“I cannot believe that there’s so many clever people here, and this is marvellous because it’s given them the chance to show what they can do.”
The Village will endeavour to hold a market later in the year for members of the public to purchase some the communities’ contributions, such as Ms Nelson’s beanies and Ms McGill’s literature.
You can listen to ‘Footprints (Back in Time)’ on Spotify at open.spotify.com/artist/6jX7uckeAIeyR0dCwyE3zZ
To purchase one of Ms McGill’s novels, head to triciamcgill.com/
