A Warm and Welcoming Retirement Village Community
Ineke Gardam’s journey to living at Tudor Village is like many others, it’s often a major life event like the death of your partner that brings you here. But far from being a tough decision out of necessity, Ineke has found a huge family network within the village.
“Tudor Village has been my home for more than eight years now, it was an easy choice when I came here to have a look. Tudor Village isn’t like other retirement villages where all the houses look the same and there’s a hostel feel. Every home here has an individual look about it and they all have lock-up garages. The surroundings have beautifully landscaped gardens and I love the English Tudor feel to the village”, says Ineke.
“The people here, we are all like-minded, there is no negativity and if someone needs help we all help, it’s like living within a huge family network. I’m quite involved in a number of community activities within the village, although I like to be more the silent partner with cooking for various events and being involved with the residents social events. I enjoy regular outings with my neighbour Hazel, we enjoy going shopping and having a coffee.
But I’m also very busy outside the village, with family, community and even with the mother’s group I became part of when my sons were young; we still meet monthly for a coffee catch-up. I’m also a volunteer art teacher at U3A (the University of the Third Age) and I get a lot of satisfaction helping others with their creativity.”
One of 11 children to an immigrant Dutch family, Ineke was only 6 when she arrived in Melbourne. The family lived in immigrant accommodation in Broadmeadows before eventually buying a family home in Epping.
Ineke finished school then was working as a lab technician in a factory in Thomastown when in walked her future husband Lance, who was also working there, “A cheeky Australian with long hair and a droopy moustache”, and the pair were immediately inseparable.
Ineke and Lance were married four years later, they saved like mad and bought their own home in Croydon. This home was their family home for the next forty years, and where they raised a family of three boys.
Ineke worked for many years before children arrived and she held many interesting roles including a raw materials analyst, stock controller, customer service coordinator and teachers assistant.
When her youngest son went to high school, she returned to part-time work as a home economics assistant at Mooroolbark Secondary High School, then resident’s assistant role at a local retirement village, before being asked to help cook in the kitchen.
This developed into a love for cooking, something Ineke still does regularly for her family, friends and neighbours.
“I love to cook, and I love to have people over for a meal. I am so lucky to have family living nearby with two of my sons and their families living in this area. I like to have the whole family over and we have had many happy family gatherings here,” says Ineke.
The day Ineke turned 65 she retired and put all her attention into her sons, now all young adults with families.
Ineke had lost Lance 14 years earlier and she says it was hard at first.
“It took awhile to get used to being alone, we did everything together before then, I didn’t even know how to get from A to B driving. I got a car with sat-nav, then I got stronger and more independent with the help of my sons.
I started looking for my next home, initially in the private residential market. Everything I saw was so small and squashy, and you don’t know your neighbours. Then my middle son took me around to look at some retirement living options in this area. We drove into Tudor Village and it genuinely felt like home.”
“I still had to wait three years to find the right villa. When I bought my current home, it didn’t look anything like it does now, I did a lot of renovations and a complete makeover for the back courtyard.”
Apart from family, Ineke’s great passions are her garden and her pets, an energetic two year old spoodle called Patsy, and a 14 year old cat called Opi.
The love she has put into the garden over the past eight years really shows; the courtyard is a lush green oasis of potted plants, shrubs, trees and beautiful flowering orchids.
Ineke said the courtyard was previously mainly a concrete slab, and the retaining wall and fence were in disrepair. Over the next few years, Ineke had the courtyard renovated and the retainer wall replaced with concrete sleepers that look like a wooden paling fence.
“I love that my courtyard is so private and peaceful. I spend a lot of time out there tending to the plants and just enjoying the space. Patsy and Opi love stretching out in the sun and relaxing with me in the courtyard. Opi rules the roost and keeps Patsy in line with the occasional swipe across the nose. But mostly they get on well and like to play and sleep together,” says Ineke.
