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on Friday, August 22, 2025
“I don’t play anything with singers who can’t sing,” she says with a laugh. “I’m classically trained – 25 years of it! – and I just love real voices, real melodies.” Her favourites? Think Crosby, Sinatra, Jolson, and of course, her favourite genre – operetta. “Everything I sing sounds operatic,” she smiles.
It’s hard to believe she didn’t start singing until she was 30 – thanks to a moment of frustration during a TV talent segment. “I used to watch Red Faces and think, ‘I can do better than that.’ My mother used to tell me I was too loud and embarrassing,” she laughs. “But she came to every show I did at the Austrian Club, so I forgave her eventually.”
She’s performed all over Australia – from vaudeville pantomimes at shopping centres and from Austrian and German clubs, to art deco theatres in country NSW, and even on a river cruise. “Give me a microphone and I’m happy,” she grins. “We sang in nursing homes, retirement villages – all over Kalgoorlie, Mount Gambier, Tasmania – wherever we travelled.”
These days, arthritis has made performing a little trickier, but Loris hasn’t slowed down. “I’ve just shifted to radio,” she says. “I love the connection. Some listeners have been calling in for over two decades. One man even invited me to his birthday party – twice!”
She’s a familiar voice to many who live alone, and during COVID she was one of just 15 volunteers who kept the station going, and chatted to listeners who’d call in. “Some people were completely isolated,” she recalls. “Being on air gave me a purpose, and it meant a lot to those listening. It meant a lot to me too. Connection goes both ways.”
Voracious reader Loris is determined to stay in her eloved home in Warrandyte, where she's lived since 1977.
"Peopple say it'stoo big for me," she says. "How's it too big? I can cope with it. I can only make one little dirty spot at a time, and I clean it up before I move onto another spot."
Like many people in their 70s and beyond, Loris’s body occasionally disagrees with her mind. “I might have titanium knees and a titanium toe, but my head hasn’t caught up with my birth certificate yet. See how these numbers don’t match after a while? Some people rush toward it, though they get there prematurely. They dress old, they act old. They think old.”
My kids used to always say, ‘When are you going to grow up Mum?’ I thought ‘I’ll tell you when I get there’, and I don’t think I have yet. My surname is Young, so what hope have I got?! My dad used to say the same thing, that he didn’t feel his age,” she grins. “So I’m determined to stay right where I am.”
That’s where Care Connect comes in. With our support Loris has been able to make small but important changes – grab rails, a bit of gardening and someone to help with the vacuuming once a month. “I clean up after myself – it’s just in my nature – but it’s good to have someone do the whole house properly. And she’s the most gorgeous lady who lives locally.”
What would Loris say to someone thinking they might not be able to manage in their home anymore?
“Don’t wait too long. I wish I’d known who to ring, who to talk to. We all need help and the older we get, the more help we need. The help is there, and it makes all the difference. You don’t have to give up your independence – you just need a bit of support to keep going the way you want.”
And Loris is definitely going – out for lunch with the radio crew, to the Entertainers Club, to the Frank Sinatra Society. “I don’t get bored. If all else fails, I schedule a day at home and enjoy doing absolutely nothing – book in hand, feet up. But then I’m off again.”
Loris’s secret? “Curiosity, a sense of fun, and doing something you love. Life doesn’t slow down unless you let it.”
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