Maria Stanley loves to knit communities together
I knocked on the door of Gellibrand client Maria Stanley’s shared house in Williamstown and, from where she sat behind the glass front door, she called out: “Come in if you’re good looking!” I took my chances and entered, laughing and saying I was trying my best to take care of myself. Luckily, I passed muster for Maria and we sat down for a coffee and a chat!
Maria has been a Gellibrand client since 1982 and has lived in her Williamstown shared house since then. “I love it here,” she said. “I love all the team members and my housemates.”
Maria is a staunch Willy local – she also loves meeting friends every morning for a coffee at a nearby café and she volunteers regularly at the Williamstown Community Centre.
“I help them with their morning teas and things like that,” she said, as I noted pinned to the kitchen wall five Certificates of Appreciation Maria has received for her volunteer work. Maria is a woman always eager to help people; in fact, as we chatted, an ambulance pulled up across the road and she was concerned for the health of whomever the ambulance officers were attending.
“I hope everything’s okay,” she said, spotting the heart monitoring equipment being wheeled into the building opposite.
Maria is a keen writer, scribing in notebooks regularly. The day I met her, she had, with support from a team member, just finished writing a memorial speech for the funeral of her housemate, Dianne.
“I will be reading it and I think there will be a lot of people at the funeral tomorrow,” she said with sadness.
Normally, Maria’s writing involves a happier topic for her: her love of horses and horseracing. It’s a passion she shares with her father, Leon, and he sometimes puts a small bet on for her.
“I watched the Melbourne Cup yesterday,” she said. “That was a close finish!”
Maria is very close to her family, including Leon, her stepmum Norma, her sister Natalie and brother-in-law, Ludo, and her brother Dean and partner, Linda. This year Maria went on a holiday to Queensland to visit Dean and Linda at Harvey Bay.
“It’s a beautiful place,” Maria said, adding that she watched Dean play footy for Harvey Bay. “They wear Essendon jumpers.”
The Bombers’ red and black aren’t colours that normally interest Maria; she’s a lifetime Western Bulldogs supporter and goes to all the home games at Marvel Stadium. One of the happiest days of her life was, of course, the 2016 Grand Final.
“I went and watched it at the Whitten Oval on the big screen when we beat the Sydney Swans.”
Maria definitely loves her footy – and she also loves her reading, especially when she can combine the two. When I asked her what her favourite books were, she said those by former Bulldogs’ captain Robert Murphy. She is also fond of the Bible – Mary goes to a church every week in Newport and she was getting set for Sunday’s upcoming annual general meeting.
“We will have Christmas on the lawn again this year,” she added of her church life. “Last year it was great and people came in off the street.”
Maria is grateful for the many social connections she has and the support she receives from Gellibrand to keep them active. Those connections have been especially important for her since the Scope branch in Maribyrnong closed down; Maria worked there for many years, taking the train and tram, and packing chocolate in boxes that, she laughed, was work that made her hungry.
“I miss all my old friends from Scope,” she said, remembering the day of closure. “They came into the lunchroom to tell us it was shutting down. It was very sad.”
Still, Maria is busy enough these days with all her volunteering, friendships, and church involvement. She also goes to a day program on Mondays and Fridays, where she has a go at cooking and other activities.
“I have lots of friends there,” Maria smiled, adding that she also keeps very busy with – and is well known for – her knitting. I asked Maria if that included knitting scarves in Bulldogs colours.
“Of course,” she laughed.
