Friendship blooms at Eventide

A beautiful friendship between a young gardener and a long-standing Eventide resident has bloomed thanks to a daily delivery of roses.

Every day for the past year Campbell Westcott has been personally delivering Lynette Barnes freshly cut roses from the Eventide garden.

Campbell said Lynette was the first person he met on his first day on the job and she took the time to heckle him.

“My first day on the job Lynny was out the front and she gave me a bit of attitude about who I was and what I was doing here,” he laughed.

“Once I got set up, I decided to bring Lynny some flowers and introduce myself and she was just so appreciative I’ve done it every day since.

“Normally if it is starting to get a bit late in the day if I don’t find Lynny she finds me.

“She is always up for a chat and she is an absolute champion, I’m just really happy that this little gesture makes her day a little brighter.”

Lynette said while she was originally unsure Campbell had proven himself to be a “nice fella” and when he had a day off one of the other gardeners dropped her roses around on his behalf.

“I used to try and pick them myself from time to time but I’d get thorns in my fingers,” she said.

“It is just so nice of him to do it for me.”

The gardening team of Campbell, Adrian Price, Mark Pugh, Steve Betts and Jason Hay said Lyn had become a special resident to the whole team.

“Lyn gives the gardening team a Christmas card every year,” Mark said.

The gardening team are responsible for maintaining almost four hectares of grounds at Eventide as well as landscaping at Charters Towers Hospital and the Charters Towers Rehabilitation Unit.

Steve said the team got a lot of pride and personal satisfaction out of seeing residents and patients across Charters Towers enjoy the gardens.

“When you see family members taking the residents through the gardens just to enjoy them is a really nice feeling,” he said.

“We’ve had feedback from the residents and their relatives that they would like some more colour in the gardens though, so we are working on a few special projects.”

Lynette has been a resident at Eventide for 10 years. Campbell has just chalked up his first year as a gardener.