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Cartoons displayed by retired pharmacist Alex Saywell helped brighten lockdown for the residents of Hibiscus Coast Retirement Village and the project will be part of an upcoming exhibition of residents’ Alert Level 4 achievements.
Alex, aged 88, was alone in his bubble as his wife Marilyn had been in Northhaven Hospital for around a year. Nine days into Alert Level 4, she died.
“I couldn’t visit her for several days, but was able to see her for the last three days before she passed away,” he says. “Like thousands of others, we had no funeral.”
He says it was also hard for residents having to stay in their units, apart from walks around the grounds.
To brighten things up for others, and to keep his mind busy, Alex began using Photoshop to make cartoons and posters, which he placed anonymously around the Village’s mailrooms.
Most people visited the mailrooms often to collect their mail.
“Only a few of my neighbours knew I was doing it, so there was an element of mystery that made people smile,” he says.
He ended up with 24 images that will be displayed in the village community centre, along with creative things that other residents worked on during lockdown.
“Now that the secret is out about who is behind the cartoons, I’m getting complementary remarks and people seemed to appreciate them as a lighter take on a difficult situation,” he says.
