She had the document, Resettling in the UK: Information for Potential
Applicants, delivered by the British Embassy last week after she and
friends from the home were told about the scheme at a tea for its
residents at the home of the British Ambassador, Andrew Pocock.
She didn't want to be named because she fears her reluctance to leave
may prejudice her application for resettlement, if she goes ahead with
it. I am extremely happy here. We have a beautiful cottage, an outlook
we will never have again and our neighbours are all total friends, she
said. She worries about the volatile political situation, but, she
says, I feel confident we could live here and no harm would come to us
personally.
Rather, it is anxiety over the possibility of political unrest flaring
into open conflict and bringing the country's already crippled
infrastructure to a total halt that bothers her. We may be faced with
the situation where we have to go.
It will be lack of money and medical care that will make them return to
the UK. My husband's pension wouldn't buy a slice of bread, so we have
been supported by our daughter and son-in-law in Australia. He is 60
now, and getting close to retirement, and we cannot expect them to keep
on supporting us. They have their own situation to look after.
Her 82-year-old husband is in an advanced stage of a degenerative
disease. The neurosurgeon who used to treat him was killed in an
aircrash last year. They have an excellent general practitioner, but
he does not have the specialist's skills.
He is going to need more and more care. He's very vulnerable to
falling, and if he hurts himself and needs surgical attention, the
hospitals are insisting on $1,000 up front, she said. The medical aid
wouldn't pay the charge and we couldn't possibly afford that. It's also
very stressful for me, as his only carer. I am constantly anxious, she
said. When the resettlement scheme came into focus, we began to think
that we would be needing more help in our older age."
There are eight British nationals in the home, which has a total of 60
residents. Welfare workers say that severe penury amongs elderly whites
in Zimbabwe has been eliminated almost completely after a major effort
by local and international charities to provide them with food and cash.