LYN Hill and her husband Arthur had been renting for three years. They wanted to buy the house but couldn’t afford it. Then they saw their present home and Arthur said “Take it, take it.”  “I didn’t want it because it didn’t have a separate lounge room,” Lyn explains. But eventually she came around to the idea because of its location.

“It was in the middle of everything,” she says. “It’s close to the highway and Kmart, we can walk there, and it’s close to everything else by car.”

 The Crusoe Road address has been home now for about 14 years, although sadly, Arthur passed away three years ago.

“We were married once and then split up,” Lyn explains. “I moved down to Geelong and remarried. After my second husband died I came back to Bendigo and Arthur and I got back together again.”

Lyn loves the street.

“The neighbours are good. I put oil in my car one day in the wrong place. My next-door neighbor, Russell, came and changed it, cleaned it all out and refilled it,” Lyn says.

“I forget that it’s my birthday, but Sharon and Rick across the road have come over with a birthday sponge for the last two or three years and have a cuppa with me.

There used to be a lovely lady opposite -  Mrs Dendall. 

“Every November she’d walk both sides of the street and invite everyone up for a Christmas cuppa. The beautiful china and silver would come out.

“I’ve got a big garden with an apricot tree, ferneries and plants all along the back.

“I do everything; mow the lawns, prune, weed.”

Despite caring for a big garden Lyn still finds time to care for others. She works voluntarily in casualty one night a week, chatting to patients, giving them a cuppa or a meal and she has been a member of the Valkyrie group for 13 years, making bags for cancer patients. Her job is to pack the bags and deliver them to the hospital.

Also a keen reader, Lyn enjoys visiting the Kangaroo Flat library, which is close to home, for books and DVDs.