Today I met a 71 year old widow, Sabah and her son Aban (not their real names).

Sabah arrived in Australia from Lebanon when she was 26 years old with her four young children and was 7 months pregnant with her 5th. Fast forward 45 years and at 71, Sabah is still a mother and a carer.

You see sadly, two of her adult children have mental health problems. Clean Queens has called in to assist her 46 year old son, Aban who needs a lot of help returning his home to a fit condition. We are there to get the bulk of this process started. Ideally, once other support services are in place, Aban can return to his home from the RPA mental health unit.

I got chatting with Sabah and she’s clearly a very intelligent woman and passionate about mental health. In her ’spare time’, she is also a volunteer in the area of mental health. We talked together about the situation where people with mental illness often end up in jail, or homeless or lost in the hospital system. Issues that are very close to my heart.

This strong, sweet, resilliant lady not only lives with the tragic effects of mental health all her life, caring for her children (remember, she’s 71!) but still she has a determination to see things change for the better in mental health services. The devotion of a mother, eh?

ps – I did a little surfing and found this interesting conference “Building Resilience: From Surviving to Thriving” Conference. I might see you there!

Today a landlord called me about one of her rental properties.

One of her tenants, after 11 years, was a few days late in rent. So, she went around to see what the problem was. There neighbours commented on an odour.

She called the local Police – who discovered his body. He’d passed away on the carpet, beside his single bed in the lounge room.

He was a reliable chap – always paid his rent on time. A smoker but not heavy. A man in his mid-50’s. Retired and never married. No signs of any substance abuse.

Inside are the classic images of bachelor living. The blinds in the unit were the 1960’s originals. The oven was over 30 years old. No lightbulb in the bed room and the toilet didn’t flush.

I discover there is no insurance to cover any costs and he had no funds to cover any funeral needs.  The landlord tells me to carry out the necessary cleaning to restore the unit to a reasonable and safe living environment.

An agent has been contacted to get the unit rented ASAP.
Another sad end.
This is what we do.