Mercy Health home care client and prolific green thumb Mirjana Sarajlic inspects her ever-expanding garden of plants, most of which are potted. “These plants keep producing baby shoots, so then I have to pot another!” she says.
The simple joy of working her hands in the earth and seeing new life spring forth from her eclectic collection of leafy plants is one of the things that gets Mirjana through the ups and downs of life — that and a wonderful sense of humour. “It’s important to have a sense of humour; it lifts my spirits,” she says.
Her ability to laugh in the face of hardship is an invaluable gift, because she has faced many over the course of her life. Mirjana left war-torn Serbia in 1998 with her husband Ibrahim and daughter, Alma, to start a new life in Melbourne. For many years they led a peaceful life filled with family and daily physical activity. Mirjana would go to the gym every day with her husband and swim an impressive 1.5 kilometres.
“My husband was a very strong man, very healthy, but then he got Parkinson’s disease. He used to go to the gym and I would go there with him and swim in the pool for one and a half hours — a kilometre and a half.
I was also very strong. When he died, I stopped and I have no wish to exercise now,” she says. After her husband passed away, Mirjana’s life continued along a bumpy path. In recent years she has battled pancreatic cancer and suffered a significant loss of mobility caused by her deteriorating knee replacements.
It’s important to have a sense of humour; it lifts my spirits.
“When mum lost that emotional support with dad dying, she felt that things weren’t going quite as well as they used to,” says her daughter and carer Alma.
“Her knee replacements also started to fail and since then she has been finding it hard to walk. That is why we sought help from Mercy Health.”
For the past three years, Mercy Health has provided home care supports and services to Mirjana, which have made her life more manageable and comfortable. Through a Level 4 Home Care Package, she has been able to purchase a remote-controlled recliner, a scooter and a remote-controlled adjustable bed, which Mirjana enthusiastically describes as “a lifesaver, particularly during my recovery from pancreatic cancer”.
Mirjana with the touch-screen computer with a camera, which she bought through her Level 4 Home Care Package.
Mercy Health also provides Mirjana with practical help such as cleaning, lawn mowing, window washing and driving to appointments when Alma cannot take her.
All of these supports have made a meaningful difference to Mirjana’s life, not least of all the touchscreen computer with a camera, which she uses to Skype with her beloved son and grandchildren in Serbia. “I love talking to my grandchildren. I have fantastic grandchildren — both of them are very clever,” she says.
“Typical grandmother,” Alma laughs.
“Mercy Health has been very supportive, particularly as I’m the only one looking after mum. Although, she doesn’t need a lot of looking after — she’s a very capable woman and very positive.”
Last reviewed August 15, 2021.