International Day of Older Persons is tomorrow, 1 October. It is an opportunity to highlight the important contributions that older people make to society and raise awareness of the challenges of ageing in today’s world.
City West Housing’s oldest resident Huan celebrated her 91st birthday earlier in September. She has been a resident for 27 years and lives with her daughter Alice in one of our apartments in Pyrmont since 2015. Prior to that they lived in one of the terraces City West Housing owned in Ultimo.
Huan shared her story when City West Housing staff visited her on her birthday. She was born in Greater Guangzhou City, China to a very poor family. She always had to be thrifty and relied on friends to help her secure food and supplies for her family during the Japanese invasion of China and the occupation of Guangzhou.
Her mother arranged her marriage to her husband when Huan was 19, “That was how it was back then,” she added. They had seven children. Although looking after them and doing all the housework took up most of Huan’s time, she also worked many jobs outside the home to help make ends meet.
Two of Huan’s daughters came to Australia as students. The government granted them amnesty to stay in Australia after the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 and they eventually gained citizenship. Huan then followed her daughters to Australia in 1990 when they were starting their families. She looked after her three young grandchildren while her daughters worked.
Huan said, “Having access to affordable housing for my family meant stability and a happy, normal childhood for my grandchildren. They went to the local Ultimo Public School and grew up with other kids from the area coming over to play at our place. I was able to help my daughters raise their children and even though we weren’t rich, we still had a good life.”
Huan’s grandchildren are all grown now, and she is enormously proud of the effort they put in to get a good education. “They’re now working professionally as an architect, a construction manager and an engineer.”
When asked to share her secret for a long life Huan said, “There’s no secret. I think just do lots of exercise, work hard and stay active.”
Below: City West Housing CEO, Leonie King (left) brought Huan flowers for her birthday, pictured here with her daughter Alice (right)
