Sisterly-love at Resthaven Marion

When Mrs Daphne (Joan) Cullinan, 94, found out that her sister, Mrs Dawn Webber, 92, had moved into Resthaven Marion in June 2024, she began making inquiries so she could live there too. Just four months later, Joan moved in, and the sisters now happily spend their days together.

‘We have our meals together on Mondays and Fridays,’ Joan says.

‘We’re always visiting each other, and we look for each other during activities,’ Dawn says.

The sisters grew up in North Adelaide, and as young women they both worked as telephonists, receiving and transferring calls at Adelaide’s central telephone exchange on Level 6 of the GPO building. The exchange closed in 1955, and Dawn went on to work for John Martins. Here she managed the switchboard and was then promoted to a training role where she taught others how to use the new switchboards that were being installed in John Martin’s stores throughout the state.

‘I enjoyed the work very much,’ Dawn says. ‘I met some lovely people, including returned soldiers who were taking on some of these new jobs.’

Dawn worked at John Martin’s for 27 years, before working as a receptionist at Ashford Hospital in her later years.

Joan found work at the Yorke Theatre, on the corner of Gawler Place and Rundle Street (now Rundle Mall), before moving to Melbourne as a newlywed, with her husband, who was in the military. They moved back to Adelaide a few years later, with their young child. They adopted a second child once the family had moved back to Adelaide.

Dawn married in her 40s, becoming a stepmother to three older children, the youngest of whom was 16 at the time.

Interests and talents

Joan started sewing when she was 10 years old.

‘I used to take handkerchiefs and other small pieces of fabric – anything I could get a hold of - and turn them into outfits for toys,’ Joan says.

Joan’s skills developed and she went on to work for Kathlyn Hecker, a top dressmaker in Adelaide. Later in life she also took on private sewing work.

‘Joan is a beautiful dressmaker,’ Dawn says of her sister. ‘She made her own bridal gown, as well as the bridesmaid dresses and the mother of the bride dress.’

‘I enjoyed the work, but I found that people wanted a lot, and did not want to pay very much for it,’ Joan says. ‘So, I went back to sewing for pleasure, and for family. A neighbour once said to me that she had noticed that anytime my mother visited she would arrive with a piece of fabric to be sewn into something!’

The sisters have remained close over the years and have shared interests in ballroom dancing and music. Dawn has also developed a love and talent for yoga, while Joan enjoys quiz shows and likes to keep up with current affairs.

The pair were both born in September (one year and 51 weeks apart!) and are already active and valued members of Marion’s vibrant site community.

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