The most wonderful time of the year isn't always so great for Canberra's senior citizens.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Many of the capital's elderly residents live lonely lives separated from their family, friends and the community.
Not 86-year-old Audrey Dargan however - she'll be up and dressed bright and early on Christmas Day to receive her daily call from a volunteer at the Red Cross ACT.
"Christmas is a very hard time when you get old because everybody [you know] is dead or, if they're not, well, some of my friends are in nursing homes having partially lost their memory," she said.
"So it's lonely ... to get that call, it's very valuable."
On Thursday she met Red Cross volunteer Glen Tye for the first time - he has been calling her once a week on Monday for several months.
"He's taller in real life," she said, laughing.
Every day more than 100 Red Cross volunteers make about 150 calls to senior Canberrans, making sure they're OK, feeling positive and are up and about.
Mr Tye said often his calls provided a great comfort to his clients.
"It's a great comfort to them and it identifies them as an individual," he said.
They feel important for that five minutes, sometimes longer."
Red Cross social connections programs officer Lucy Costas said volunteers were able to give them more time if they needed it or call emergency contacts if a client didn't answer after multiple attempts.
"What Glen does is provide an upbeat human contact at the start of the day," she said.
"For some, he might be the only person they speak to all day.
He's sensitive, although he's fast, and he knows these clients andcan detect when there's a change.
"Most of our volunteers call 30 to 40 people in that one hour period and they do get to know them."
Mrs Costas said the Red Cross had been inundated with calls from volunteers to make the calls on Christmas Day, including a number of retirees.
Mrs Dargan said without the calls from the Red Cross she wouldn't have been able to accomplish everything she'd done, including a masters degree from the Australian National University.
"Knowing me and knowing how I am in the morning, I could get to ruminating in my own head," she said. "But having to get up ... I mean I'm much better now and I think I've got into the habit.
"It's a very dependable thing."
