Roy and his Roymobile

In Western Canada, Shaun Gaynor recently had a brilliant idea to honour Roy, one of her long-term volunteers who help maintain the Tudor-style buildings and 18 acres of land at the Brooksdale Centre

Roy, aged 70, lives a quiet life in a retirement facility, but the memories of good times at Brooksdale where he used to live and work created a longing to be helpful, so he accepted an invitation to come back and mow the expansive lawn. With limited mobility because of a hip injury, he uses a walker to get around and had to give up driving his beloved truck a few years back. It is with obvious delight that he climbs aboard the John Deere tractor-mower once a week to spend six to eight hours mowing the bits of lawn that the sheep are not able to graze. After mowing, Roy joins the team for lunch and cheerfully chats with any interns or visitors he meets.

One morning, Roy arrived at work to find that the tractor-mower had been newly christened ‘The Roymobile.’

‘It has my name of it!’ he exclaimed incredulously.

‘I just wanted him to know how much we value him,’ said Shaun. If Roy’s delight is any indication it seems Shaun’s plan worked well!

Last year 950 people served with us as interns or volunteers and we’re indebted to them all. Read more about the joyful community at Brooksdale on A Rocha Canada’s beautiful new website.