Our Residents
Finding purpose
“If I wasn’t living at Carrington North, I would be a mess,” Peter Boyce said.
The social opportunities Peter has had since moving to Carrington have opened his world up since the passing of his beloved wife Ann.
Peter discovered Carrington during COVID. He and Ann were living in Sydney when his daughters Kylie and Megan said they were taking them for a drive. That drive was to Carrington’s Estate.
“They (my daughters) knew every part of this darn village,” he said. Like many children, Kylie and Megan had been worried about their parents and convinced them to make the move to Carrington. Peter and Ann were reluctant to move at first, but a tour of the grounds changed their minds.
They loved the gardens and the privacy each unit was provided.
“It’s the openness,” Peter said. “I’ve looked at other villages, and they’re too crowded.” He and his wife moved to Carrington in 2022. He learned about the space below Rocksalt were Residents go to socialise, a place the community have named the ‘Coffee Club’, but never had time to properly get involved in activity groups because he caring for Ann, who was ill.
“I still got around a little bit, but… I was just too involved (in Ann’s care),” he said. As Ann had a passion for quilting, Peter found himself acting as her assistant from time to time.
“I’d be crawling around the floor laying patches around and measuring (for her).”
At the end of 2024, Ann passed away. Peter remembered sitting in his home alone, a week after her funeral and thinking “what am I doing here?”
“I thought, bugger it, and I went up to the Coffee Club,” he said. Peter sat down at the table, and listened to people he didn’t know well talk about their days, when a woman came up and gave him a hug.
She said she was sorry she couldn’t make it to Ann’s funeral, and from there the community rallied around him.
“It’s just like a rollercoaster,” he said. The support has meant a lot to Peter, whose days are now very busy. Whether it be with the Wood Working Club, lawn bowls, his four grandkids, or helping out with community events, he’s always up to something.
”I’m never lonely,” he said, “it’s a place that’s made me happy.”
He and his friends at the Coffee Club have a name for their community.
“We call it the Carrington Family.”
He hopes that people who are looking for a place at Carrington find the same potential he has.
A study out of Washington University found that volunteers age slower (Kim, Halvorsen, Potter, & Faul, 2025)
