People of Helping Hand: Bill and Margaret

Meet Bill and Margaret, from our Prospect Retirement Village

When Bill and Margaret moved into the Prospect retirement community, it felt just like coming home. Both grew up in Prospect and were married at Prospect North Methodist Church (now Prospect Uniting Church). ‘We met in the 1960s. Margaret was State President of the Methodist Youth Fellowship and I was studying for the ministry at Wesley College’, says Bill.

For Bill, the Helping Hand connection goes back to his childhood. His mother knew Rev Arthur Strange, the founder of Helping Hand. ‘My mother used to take me and my siblings to perform little concerts and piano recitals at the aged care home in North Adelaide.’

Faith and community have been the cornerstone of Bill and Margaret’s lives. ‘I was called to Ministry and am an ordained Deacon who has always worked in the community, Margaret trained and worked in aged care and with people living with disability’, explains Bill. ‘Very little of what we have done has been planned; it has always been the result of an unexpected opportunity that we have felt called to take up. If you are committed to doing what you feel you ought to be doing, then unexpected opportunities will come your way’, says Bill.

In the 1990s, Bill and Margaret were based in Port Pirie. Another Helping Hand connection was established through Margaret’s involvement in bringing the Lealholme, aged care retirement units under the management of Helping Hand. After living in Victor Harbor for 14 years, they both felt it was time to come back to Adelaide to be closer to their family. ‘The distance was getting longer and longer. My daughter made some enquiries to Helping Hand and the next day we found out this place might be available’, recalls Bill.

‘As well as being back on home ground, we both appreciate being in walking distance to shopping, library and Council community support programs. We go on outings arranged through the Council and Margaret is also doing an exercise program. It is important to seek out what is available in your community and take the opportunities to participate and get involved’, says Bill.

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