Stories & Achievements: Angie’s Story
Angie’s story: loving the Central Coast
I’m originally from Sydney but since moving up to the Central Coast I’ve been supported by Headstart for about five years now. My main support worker has been with me for three and a half of those years. She’s helped me get out of a difficult time of grieving. I’m thankful for that. She still does four days a week with me and we have a great relationship. She’s a good support worker because she can understand how my brain is and my downfalls and how I am with it.
I love the Central Coast and would never go back to Sydney, it’s much more relaxed up here and you don’t have to get dressed up to the nines.
“This is the best place on earth. I’ve been to Bali and Fiji and there’s nowhere else I’d want to live than here!
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The physio comes to my house every week, which is good, giving me new exercises to do. They’re helping my back a lot as I have a neck and back injury. I had two very bad car accidents in 1981 and 1989 and I’m stuck with the injury from that and I’ve just deal with the pain and keep taking medication.
My brain injury was caused by lack of oxygen to the brain. I had a very bad knock on my head at high school and came back home with a migraine. I took a shower as I always did and my mother was out shopping so I was alone. I had epileptic fits and on top of that I was gassed by an old gas heater and was resuscitated by the local fire brigade up the road.
I was in hospital for a couple of weeks after that. My memory was affected, and I couldn’t learn. I wasn’t able to continue with school and they gave me a certificate based on the grades I had already got, and that was up to fourth form.
The retentive part of the brain was damaged and I just kept getting lost even three blocks from my house. But it was only the left side of my brain which the doctor’s said was ‘dead’. It’s sad that my friendships were lost right away. When you’re 15 you don’t understand and don’t learn about things like brain injury.
“But it could have been a lot worse, I could have not been here at all.”
My mother has been an enormous support over the years. It was a confusing time for both of us because it was really bad at first things did get a little better with time. But I still can’t read a book because I forget what I’ve just read. I still misinterpret things quite a lot.
Rachael is my main support worker and it’s hard not to become good friends with a role like this. She’s very professional and that’s how I’ve got to respect her and treat her. She’s very helpful with getting me motivated and understanding things. I really like Rachael and she is the one that was the right pick for me. I’ve had a few great workers too, but they’ve moved on.
“I like doing things that make me happy. I want to die happy, so I try and do the things that make me happy. ”
We go around The Entrance and go to different places for brunch. We do walking because that’s good for my back. We go swimming at Mingara. We do cooking because I’m not a good cook but my support worker has the know how and helps me there. It’s good food, and we make it up and put into containers and freeze it up so that we don’t have to do it every day. We do a bit of baking too. We tried to do a bit of gardening on my small balcony but it’s hard to get things growing. Cactus is good!
I’ve always liked orchids and plants - I’ve always had lots of gardening books and they remind me how to look after them and re-pot them and so on. We go to gardening expos, orchid shows and nurseries. We go to Bunnings to get equipment and plants and things. Growing things like pansies isn’t easy though as I have limited space and all I have is pots. Some are growing really well, some I think they got too hot and died. But I like to try.
I need to have routines otherwise I’m a bit scattery. Support workers help to keep me organised and keep me doing things to keep my mind off the past which wasn’t easy.
We also go to the shopping centre to pick up things and I just like to buy myself a little something every fortnight. Even if it’s a little plant, I don’t care. Being a pensioner I don’t have tons of money so we find stuff that I can afford to do like diamond paintings, or cooking.
I like going to the beach and having a walk. Places like Toowoon Bay, Shelly beach, Bateau Bay. It’s a beautiful part of the world especially down by the water.
When it comes to swimming I call Rachael ‘little turtle’ but I just paddle round and use the noodle thing and use my muscles because I can’t do laps. We go to an indoor hydro pool and have just recently gone to the ocean baths at The Entrance a couple of times.
We recently went to see the movie “The War With Grandpa” for a rec activity. Because of COVID many of the things I did with Headstart were cancelled. So it’s been nearly two years now since we went to the movies. Comedies are my favourite! Many of the rec activities were cancelled last year. It’s good that we can start to go out more now.
Dale, Rodney and I have been doing things together lately here on the Central Coast. We went bowling a couple of times, not like we have any great skills! I like the social side of things and I’ve gotten to know them because we’ve been out a few times.
“My approach to life is to always be positive. Sometimes you’ve just got to pick yourself up and get on with it. ”
You’ve got to make yourself happy and you can’t depend on other people to do that. Other people can help, but it’s mainly up to you. Even if that means to give yourself a good kick!”
