A new role for Roger

One of Southern Cross Care’s newest volunteers is Roger Pyne, who has taken up a role at West Beach Residential Care.

Roger’s wife Carita moved into West Beach when she could no longer live at home and both she and Roger quickly grew to love the community.

When Carita passed away a year ago, Roger told the staff at West Beach he would be back to volunteer, and the welcome he received when he returned did not disappoint. 

“I went back and it was like going home,” Roger explained.

“Everybody spoke to me, they even stopped the bingo to talk to me.”

To begin with, Roger is volunteering one day a week, working in particular with the male residents to help them engage and build social connections.

Roger and Carita’s heart warming love story began in Woomera, a long term defence base in outback SA. 

After several years in the British Airforce working with long range radar, Roger had been posted to Woomera. 

Carita was working for NASA as a Computor - inputting data and making calculations about satellites. 

They met at a few local house parties where Roger regaled Carita with stories of his travels around the world. 

When she said she’d love to travel the world, Roger saw his opportunity and said, “you know you can see the world if you marry me”.

Carita said she would think about it, and waited until Roger proposed properly on one knee with a ring before she said yes.

The couple married in 1965 and had four children - two born in England and two in Cyprus - before Roger left the airforce and the family moved to Adelaide on the Ten Pound Pom scheme.

Roger became a coder for Canon, writing programs for uses such as payroll systems for nurses in aged care in the days when programming was done by punching holes in cards, then later he transitioned to a camera salesman.

The family grew to nine children, then 20 grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

In retirement Roger took up painting and now has so many paintings he is constantly on the look out for people he can give them to.

The many members of his family all have a collection of his paintings in their homes, and he still has too many in his unit!

He got his pilot’s licence at the age of 80 (mind you for model airplanes) and took up platform diving at the age of 83, diving until he tore a calf muscle while skipping to warm up.

He has also been swimming along the beach each day when the weather isn’t too cold or going for a walk to keep his fitness up.

Family has always been important to Roger and it shows in how connected his family is to this day - many of them still live in Adelaide and his grandchildren who live in Geelong remember to call once a week. 

Our residents gain so much from spending time with volunteers like Roger. For more information about volunteering with Southern Cross Care, visit our Volunteer page.