Charitable Work by Mrs Glenister and Mrs Thomas Of Subiaco (1949).
Searching Trove, the database at the National Library of Australia provides some wonderful stories about ordinary women and children from Subiaco doing extraordinary volunteer and paid work in the community brings many rewards.
The article 'Charitable Work By Two Perth Women', is about the volunteer work of Mrs. G. M. Glenister and Mrs. E. Thomas both of Subiaco and was published in November 1949 in the West Australian newspaper.
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West Australian, 5 November 1949.
Charitable Work By Two Perth Women
Two women who have found time to help aged sick or mentally sick persons and at the same time keep their own homes in order were interviewed yesterday.
A constant helper at the Home of Peace is Mrs. G. M. Glenister, of Subiaco. Mrs. E. Thomas, also of Subiaco, is a regular visitor and helper at the Claremont Mental Hospital. Born in Melbourne, Mrs. Thomas has lived in Western Australia for more than 40 years. She is the mother of four children and has six grandchildren. She has belonged to about 13 different charitable organisations, but now, at the age of 69, she feels that she can cope satisfactorily with only two.
One is concerned with help for inmates of the hospital and the other is an association of soldiers' wives. Mrs. Thomas said that she would never give up visiting the hospital if she could help it. She had been visiting for nine years, distributing sweets or other gifts to the patients and organising dances and parties for them from time to time. She was one of a band of six women who did this work, she said.
PUBLIC RESPONSE.
The need for this sort of help for these patients was brought home to her clearly when her daughter, who was a nurse at the hospital, stressed the need of the patients for some small comforts, she said. "The public do not seem to take an interest in the mentally sick type of invalid. I have been trying to stir up interest for many years. She said that her main ambition was to help to form an institution for the unfortunates who were crippled or who took fits but who were not mentally deficient, yet were inmates at the hospital. There were about 60 of these children, who were normal mentally. "I want a separate institution for them, where they can be taught and educated,' Mrs. Thomas said. During the war Mrs. Thomas taught more than 2.000 persons first aid for the St. John Ambulance Association, and was a member of many organisations formed to help servicemen. Among the other organisations of which Mrs. Thomas was a mem-ber were the Red Cross Society and the King Edward Maternity Hospital canteen committee.
HELPING THE AGED.
Well known to the patients and staff of the Home of Peace, Subiaco, Mrs. G. M. Glenister has been a regular visitor to the home for two years. She assists the patients in every way, shopping for them, helping to feed those who are partially or completely paralyzed, and offering them her friendship and time.
The matron of the home said yesterday that two years ago, when she had taken over the running of the hospital, there had been a great shortage of staff and that she had appealed for helpers. "Mrs. Glenister was one of the first women to come to my aid and has continued to work at the home since," she said. Quiet and retiring, Mrs. Glenister said that she had been forced to give up doing many things owing to ill health. "It is wonderful work and I know many other women who have more time than I who should be here," she said. Yesterday at the home Mrs. Glenister was visiting several of the patients. In one hand she had a packet of biscuits which she had been distributing among the women patients when she stopped to chat with them.
During the years she has been visiting the home she has arranged several parties for the patients. At present, preparations are being made for the annual Christmas party. "I have the party catered for," she said, "set the food out on paper plates and take it around to the patients myself." A widow, Mrs. Glenister is the mother of two sons.
