A 60-year reunion thanks to four-legged volunteer
Recently, Resthaven Mitcham resident, Mr Ian Gambling, enjoyed a special 60-year reunion with a former colleague. It’s all thanks to Quaid—the home’s favourite four-legged volunteer!
Quaid is a regular visitor to Resthaven Mitcham, where he is accompanied by fellow volunteer, and doting owner, Diana Walters.
‘One aspect that makes Quaid a perfect volunteer, is that he gets along with everyone he meets. He absolutely loves forming special connections with residents,’ Diana says.
Now, Quaid can add another feather in his volunteering cap—facilitating a special reunion!
Diana explains, ‘We recently paid a visit to Mr Ian Gambling, who loves Quaid’s company. Whilst we were chatting, Ian mentioned that he used to be an architect before he retired.’
‘He remembered his colleagues from UniSA’s architectural school [then known as the SA Institute of Technology], and I mentioned that my husband, John, of similar age, was also an architect.’
Mr Gambling noticed Diana’s family name on her volunteer nametag and recognised John as one of his cohorts from the 1950s. He remembers, ‘We were both in the same class of about 12 or 15 students at the time, and the course ran for five years.’
After the surprising connection, Diana and Quaid soon visited Mr Gambling again—but this time, John came along too! Both Mr Gambling and John greatly enjoyed reconnecting and reminiscing about their education and careers.
Mr Gambling says, ‘Back in our day, we were able to study part time while gaining first-hand experience—something lacking these days.’
‘We did all our drawings by hand—there were no computers back then. If you made a mistake, you had to correct it and try again, or start from scratch. All drawings were hand-lettered, and later down the track we used stencils for titles.’
‘Each of the drawings took many hours, including details that would have made them a work of art, more so than the computer-generated drawings of today.’
After gaining his qualifications, Mr Gambling went on to design and supervise the building of aged care homes, before retiring and eventually moving to Resthaven Mitcham in later years.
The pair look forward to keeping in contact into the future.
What a small world indeed!
Pet lovers are welcome to visit and form connections with the older people we support. Call us on 8373 9036 or visit our volunteering page for more details.