When Stephen Channon and Frances Green started spending time together, little did they know the friendship that would ensue.
The pair – both in their 90s – met at an aged-care facility in Peakhurst about a year ago.
Mr Channon had moved into the nursing home with his wife Cecilia Channon. Sadly, his wife died shortly after the move.
It was not long until the grieving Mr Channon was introduced to lively resident Mrs Green, herself a widow.
The pair shared a meal together one day at the nursing home and have since become the closest of friends.
“They are inseparable,” Uniting Nunyara Peakhurst staff member Tam Isaacs said. “When we do bus trips and activities, if one of them doesn’t want go somewhere, the other one stays behind as well. They do everything together.”
Mr Channon said after his wife died it was very lonely.
“It can be very lonely otherwise and Frances is good company.”
Now the pair are often spotted around the home holding hands or watching a film together.
“We have all our meals together,” Mrs Green said. “We don’t go dancing or anything like that – although I’d love to – but we do spend our time together.”
She said she first spotted Mr Channon not long after he moved into the home.
“I used to see him when I went for walks around the area,” she said. “I remember seeing him with his wife and I admired him. He was a total gentleman.”
She said after having a few meals together they became very close “companions”.
“We started having meals together and that was how it started. We had a lot in common – that was the main thing.
“He told me he had lost his wife. It was a very sad time for him,” she said.
“We have been companions ever since.”
Mrs Green will celebrate her 100th birthday on July 24.
