By Mikayla Van Loon
There’s no slowing down an 89-year-old skydiving Scotsman who recently took the plunge over the Yarra Valley to tick an item off his bucket list, wearing a kilt.
Lilydale Aged Care resident Bob Craig joined the home’s lifestyle coordinator Maureen Hincksman on 30 April to have an experience like no other.
Admitting to being a bit of an adventurous soul, Mr Craig said he enjoyed every moment of falling through the air.
“It was fun, it really was. I wasn’t the least bit nervous. I’ve always lived very close to the edge,” he said.
“My wife used to say to me, ‘for God’s sake, would you slow down’ but it’s just the way I am.”
A character both in and out of the sky, Ms Hincksman said she will often find Mr Craig knocking at her door dressed in costume.
“I sit here on the computer and next minute I hear bang bang on the door and I go over to the door and it’s Charlie Chaplin,” she said.
“A couple of days later, I’ve got Wally there or I’ve got Sherlock Holmes. So he dresses up and joins in. He’s our Father Christmas. He also takes the mail around and he does really enjoy a chinwag with the new people.”
So when the opportunity to skydive came up, Mr Craig took it as a chance to have an adventure.
Not having a moment to feel scared, Mr Craig said the view over the Yarra Valley was breathtakingly beautiful.
“It was just tremendous. You could see all the dams and they were all full and paddocks and the fields that had been planted, all laid out, it was like a patchwork quilt and it was gorgeous,” he said.
In a tribute to his wife, Mr Craig wore the kilt she bought for him before she died almost a year and half ago.
“She said ‘Bob, I’m gonna buy you a kilt’. I used to play in pipe bands back in Scotland and I used to wear a kilt a lot. She said ‘We’ve been married for 66 years and I’ve been dressing you for that long’.
“She said, ‘I know I haven’t got long but when you eventually join me, I want you to be presentably dressed’, so hence the kilt when you’re skydiving 15,000 feet up in the air, I thought I better wear my kilt in case I don’t have a soft landing.”
Although having lived in Australia since the 1960s, Mr Craig is still a proud Scotsman at heart, recalling all the years spent playing in pipe bands as a drummer.
“I started playing in pipe bands when I was 10 years of age. I was very keen on drumming and I played in a juvenile band and it was the top juvenile band in Scotland.”
When Red Hackle Whisky formed their own pipe band with the intention of going international, Mr Craig, at the age of 18, was selected to compete in the world championships three years in a row before being called up for national service.
“Highlight, in 1953 the year Queen Elizabeth was coronated, we, the Red Hackle Pipes and Drums, were invited up to the Balmoral Highland Games to play for her.”
With one item crossed off the list, Mr Craig is looking ahead to the next challenge – getting over to Perth.
“I have two great grandchildren who live over in Perth and I haven’t cuddled them yet,” he said.
“I’m going to go over some time before my 90th birthday in a couple of months’ time and meet Harrison and Emily Grace and give them a cuddle.”
Making residents’ dreams and wishes come true is all part of Ms Hincksman’s role, something she’s loved doing for the 40 years she’s worked in aged care.
“I haven’t done anything else. I don’t know how to do anything else. This is what I consider my calling, I’ve loved every minute of lifestyle,” she said.
Ms Hincksman is currently organising motorbike rides, nights at the zoo and fast laps for residents, something that has been made easier with the support of Allity and fellow staff.
“It’s just about making their day here and doing something that they want to do,” she said.
