A JOB that began as a six-week fill-in role became a 34-year career for Tanya Hicks.
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Ms Hicks retired from her head housekeeper position at the Julie-Anna Inn on Thursday, having made up to 300 beds and cleaned more than 150 toilets each week more for than three decades.
"If I had dollar for every bed I made, I'd be a multi-millionaire," she said. "Today I have done 17 or 18 beds, some Mondays it is every bed in the place (the motel has 84 sleeping places)."
Ms Hicks said she was sad to finish up despite the work being demanding, but that the pandemic had given her a chance to consider retired life.
"It probably was COVID that spurred my decision to retire," she said. "There were stages where I didn't work for two or three weeks and enjoyed being home. It spurred me on to retire, and I also found a love of jigsaws.
"I came for six weeks because someone had something wrong with their heart. Four weeks in I was asked to stay on. I started cleaning rooms as a casual, worked up to part-time and then when the laundry lady left, the job was offered to me and the rest is history."
Some people might think a job involving cleaning up after others is thankless, but Ms Hicks has always enjoyed her work, with her co-workers remarking on the pride she took in it.
"I just always enjoyed the work but I'm nearly 60 and the work is hard. I don't want to get to 65 or 70 and have my body let me down, I have a lot of travelling to do," she said.
"Never once have I looked to find another job in 34 years. I was always happy here and was always treated well by all five bosses (who came through).
"I'm an early-riser, I always make my bed before I leave my house because I'm always scared my house will get broken into and my bed won't be made. So I'm always up two-and-a-half house before work starts to do housework before I get to work at 8am."
Through the years Ms Hicks has come face-to-face with famous faces including former Prime Minister John Howard, actress Miriam Margolyes, music acts The Wiggles and Silverchair, Merv Hughes, Simon O'Donnell, and Ian Botham and his English teammates
"Dorothy was may favourite, I got to have a cuddle with Dorothy the Dinosaur," she said. "When Silverchair was here we had to stop the groupies going up the breezeway while (the band) was in the pool.
"The English cricket side had a big pool (party) with Ian Botham and little Johnny Howard always said hello.
"But they got treated the same as every other guest. The only woman I look up to is the Queen. I'm a real royalist and she's the only one I would treat different. To me they are guests and should be treated the same as other guests."
The flip side of her job has seen her tackle some cleaning tasks that would make others squirm.
"There's been some horrific rooms over the years but it's part and parcel of the job. I might get in there and bitch and think 'what a pig' but you've just got to do it," she said.
"I find it interesting how some people live and wonder if they would live like that in their own houses. But they pay for a service and we're here to do it for them.
"There's been lots of rooms with vomit or people wetting the bed.
"Some people don't seem to know what a rubbish bin is. We have had beds destroyed and, once, I thought there was a dead guy in a bed but he was just so drunk I couldn't wake him up. I had to get a waiter to (help)."
In her retired life, Ms Hicks plans to continue regular travel adventures with her husband in their new caravan and spend time with her children and grandchildren.
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