A mother, a father, an auntie, a daughter and son-in-law and a son – the extended Richards family –don’t have to go far to celebrate Father’s Day on Sunday.
87-year-old Cliff Richards will be spoilt by two generations of family who all live at Stockland’s Somerton Park Seniors’ Living Community in Adelaide’s west.
The Richards will have two reasons to celebrate on Father’s Day with the family’s matriarch Val celebrating her 90th birthday a day earlier on 4 September.
“Father’s Day is a special day for us and it’s a good opportunity to celebrate mum’s birthday too,” said daughter, Sherry Brandhoff.
“It’s great to have the family nearby; we don’t live in each other’s pockets but it’s certainly a nice feeling to be connected.”
Cliff and Val moved into the Somerton Park retirement village almost 23 years ago. Cliff’s sister, Joyce Richards, now lives at the retirement village as does his son, Jay. Sherry and husband, Trevor, relocated to the Stockland village two years ago to be closer to her ageing parents.
“The isolation of not having family close-by motivated us to move back to South Australia,” Sherry said. “My husband has been fighting cancer so I’ve been extremely grateful to have that family support network available.”
For Father’s Day, homeowners from Serenitas’ lifestyle communities across the nation have submitted their best or worst jokes to create a Book of Dad Jokes as a gift to their families.
This year has thrown up many challenges thanks to COVID-19. Many families haven’t been able to see their parents or grandparent as much as they’d like so the Father Day Joke Book is a gift they can share and send to their children.
David Pinnell, 69, (pictured left looking over the Book of Dad Jokes with Ron Watt) from Serenitas’ The Outlook at Albany in Bayonet Head, an outer north-eastern suburb of Albany, has felt the effects of COVID-19 first-hand.
“We live in Albany and my daughter Esther lives in Perth. In February, she gave birth to the very special Hannah Thorp. My wife and I were so excited to drive up for the birth of Hannah but of course, that’s when COVID-19 hit, and Perth went into lockdown. You would never think that something so normal like going into the hospital to meet your granddaughter for the first time would be a problem. We had to wait three days until baby Hannah came out of the hospital to meet them in the car park and drive home together.”
Even meeting up on Father’s Day can be difficult. David will be Facetiming his daughter and little Hannah to read her a couple of jokes from the Father’s Day Joke Book.
Great to see technology being used to help keep families connected in this difficult time.
