Here are the highlights from tomorrow’s Canvas magazine. Get your premium glossy weekend magazine in tomorrow’s Weekend Herald.
When I was in my early 20s, I worked as a carer in a retirement village part-time; it helped pay the bills while I was at uni, and had the added bonus of being where my grandmother, Fred, lived. Every few weeks I'd stop off and buy us both a McChicken and some fries and we'd sit in her room and scoff them before my shift started. Fred washed her burger down her with a stiff gin and tonic; I made do with a Diet Coke.
I have lots of great memories from working there, not just of my grandmother but of some of the other residents. But what also sticks in my mind is how regularly some of the other staff, or doctors - even their sons and daughters - would patronise them, almost like breathing air. There was a lot of speaking slowly and loudly, even though most of them weren't deaf. Jumped-up middle managers got to decide who was "allowed" a glass of wine and who could not be trusted. They were put to bed, doors locked, by 6.30pm.
So it gave me real pleasure to read Australia's best non-fiction writer, Helen Garner's response to being regularly condescended to because she'd reached a certain age. Her story is on page 16. I hope you like it too.
