North Shore Times (Wednesday) (Australia)
January 28, 2009 Wednesday
1 – MB Edition

Focus was caring for her community

FOUNDER of the Armenian Rest Home Association, Mrs MARIE PATAPANIAN of
Northbridge, was very humbled when she was first notified that she had
been awarded an OAM in the general division of the Order of Australia
for service to the Armenian community in the area of aged care.

Then, she said, she decided to accept the honour with pride.

“Ultimately, it is a collective achievement,” she said. “I share
this honour with a group of women who supported me and believed in my
vision.”

Mrs Patapanian came to Australia in 1963 with her husband and young
son.

As the years went by and older relatives became frail, she carried on
the Armenian tradition of caring for the elderly at home.

Language and cultural differences would have made it difficult for
them to spend their last years anywhere else.

This is how her idea of an Armenian Nursing Home was born.

Her daughter-in-law, Lucy Patapanian, said a group of 10 women all of
Armenian background began raising funds.

“It was years and years of fund-raising,” she said. “They were all
hard-working women with jobs and they found time to arrange functions
to raise money.

“Then they applied for a government grant and, with the help of a
benefactor, it was possible to establish the Seaview Nursing Home in
Mosman in 1981 and the Alexander Nursing Home in Brookvale in 1989,
and the adjoining Spitak Apartments.”