A weekend for Switzer

No one believes more passionately in the need for a secure dementia unit at Kaitaia rest home Switzer Residential Care than Marie Matthews.

Her late mother spent the final months of her life in care, initially at Switzer, but had to be transferred to a home in Dargaville.

"That was really hard on Dad," she said.

"To be honest it didn't seem to make a lot of difference to Mum, but it was awful for Dad. No one should have to go through that."

So Marie is about to make her contribution to the Switzer Trust's fundraising campaign for a secure unit by opening her four-acre Felinity Gardens at her home, 183 Te Rore Road (closer to the Victoria Valley end than Takahue) next weekend (November 16-17), from 10am to 5pm both days. Admission will cost $5, and the ladies from the Takahue Garden Circle will be delighted if visitors patronise their tea, cake and sandwich stall.

Given the reputation of Takahue catering, the refreshments could well be a real drawcard for some, but the garden will be the star of the weekend.

In 1994 it was a fraction of its current size, but has now grown to the point where Marie's partner Jim Burrough has been known to calculate how many stock units it might have carried had it not been devoted to English and old-fashioned roses, camellias, box hedging and all sorts of other eye-catching species that a layman struggles to name.

"It has a lot of everything really," Marie said.

And it's rather more than a hobby. She spends at least part of every day in the garden, except Wednesdays (which are devoted to art; she is also a very talented painter), adding up to 25 or 30 hours a week.

Incidentally, the dogs are noisily friendly and harmless, but one of the cats reportedly warrants some respect.