In mid-2020 around the time that the first COVID wave was subsiding, Mavis Goldsworthy decided she would get on with living as she had always done. You see, Mavis was 90 years-YOUNG; loving life and enjoying the odd piece of cake too when it’s on offer!!
Mavis had started an art class with Learning in The Hills. Art was a new interest for her and she loved it but then her car became unavailable. How would she get to class? 
Mavis on her sunny verandah
Mici Beer, Executive Officer & Program Director at Hills Community Aid (HCA) heard of Mavis’ plight and arranged contact with CarPal Community Rideshare, where volunteers detour to offer a Ride to Shut-in Seniors (in a COVID-safe way) on a trip they were taking anyway.
A meeting with CarPal ensued on Mavis’ sunny back patio in August 2020 with masks aplenty and hand sanitizer at twenty paces. As a result, Mavis decided to try Community Rideshare to solve her temporary transportation problem. And so, Mavis came to rely on CarPal as her transportation backstop.
Fast forward to 2022 and, after an accident that wrote off Mavis’ car and months of rehab in 2021 for spinal fractures, she is now a regular user of CarPal and our volunteers love seeing her in their passenger seat.
Age is irrelevant to Mavis in the way she chooses to live her life. Even though she wouldn’t realise it, her example is inspirational to those who meet her. She has overcome the many challenges she has faced in recent years, although she often laments that she really misses her car and the independence it offered her.
Mavis ready for a Ride
But with her indomitable spirit for living nothing stops Mavis. Even falling on hard concrete pavement recently, breaking her nose and losing copious amounts of blood hasn’t dented her enthusiasm for life. Luckily, as it happened, a CarPal volunteer driver was just pulling up that morning and assisted Mavis while an ambulance was called.
On release from hospital following that episode, and on the Ride home, she indicated she really wanted to be back at her art class the following week and asked if a CarPal volunteer would be happy to “take her black & blue face” for another Ride. CarPal volunteers have continued to oblige. One of her regular volunteer drivers, Anne Dewar says it all, “Mavis is simply a joy to spend time with”.
As life goes on for Mavis, CarPal volunteers who assist her with Rides say they admire her spirit to live life to the full, despite the loss of independence she feels so strongly.
Mavis called on CarPal most recently to visit a Service NSW Centre so that she could renew her Mobility Parking Scheme Permit (MPS). That’s something we at CarPal are very familiar with and on which our Rideshare service depends.
CarPal Community Rideshare Volunteer, Anne Dewar with Mavis
It just so happened that HCA’s Organisation MPS permits were in need of renewal too and the majority of the funding for this came from a Stockland CARE Community Grant. Without such support the CarPal Community Rideshare service would not be able to continue to operate, as many elderly clients like Mavis can only walk short distances and often with the assistance of a walking aid.
So, we (& Mavis) say “thank you” Stockland CARE for freeing Shut-in Seniors for living by supporting the continued operation of CarPal Community Rideshare.
Stay safe,
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