1 July 2022
Chris Powell, from Snells Beach, is being recognised at this year’s Long Service Awards for 15 years’ service.
When Chris Powell started volunteering as a biographer for patients she took down the life story of an elderly farmer.
Chris had grown up on a farm, too, so the farmer asked her where her family farm was.
‘Oh you wouldn’t have heard of it,’ Chris told him. ‘It’s a little place called Aria, in the King Country.’
‘Aria? I employed a young shepherd and his wife from Aria and we became good friends,’ the farmer replied. But he and the couple had lost touch and he’d often wondered what had happened to them.
The shepherd turned out to be Chris’ brother and Chris was able to reunite the two men. “They had two beautiful meetings together before this lovely farmer died,” Chris smiles.
It’s not every day you experience moments like this as a hospice volunteer, but Chris has found that every encounter she’s had with a patient has touched her in some way.
“I really do enjoy people and I’ve met so many interesting individuals over the years. With each, there has been a connection and I get so much out of the time I spend with them.”
Chris, a former real estate agent and business owner, began volunteering for Harbour Hospice 15 years ago after moving to Snells Beach. “I started off as a community visitor and then the Life Story team came about and I thought ‘yes, that’s really what I want to do’. I’ve always been interested in writing and belong to a writing group of my own.”
Chris recorded people’s life stories for 12 years before stepping back “to let others have a turn”. Now she helps with the Open Doors programme, a day programme for patients where they come together on a weekly basis to share food and one another’s company and listen to guest speakers. “I’ve probably always gravitated towards these sorts of roles because I like to gather people around me,” Chris says. “But all the other things I do are for me – I play Bridge (badly), I play Mahjong, I belong to a walking group, book clubs too. This is what I do for others, and it gives me real joy.”
