Marlene is a brightening presence at Maroba, her kindness and sincerity are shown through the love and care of the people around her.
Born in Tamworth to two loving parents, Marlene was the second oldest of 2 girls and 2 boys. In her childhood, Marlene spent 6 months in Tamworth Hospital due to an abscess in her lung which required surgery to remove it. The surgery was successful but removed part of her lung too. Marlene estimates she missed around 18 months of school due to sickness. She attributed these gaps to her distain for school. Marlene would even often ask her mother if she could scrub the floors to get out of school.
Some time later Marlene and her family moved to Kurri Kurri to be closer to her mother’s friends and family. Soon after that her father got a job in Cessnock in the mines. One day an accident at the mining site resulted in Marlene’s father needing to have his legs amputated and replaced with Prosthetics.
At 14 years and 9 months old Marlene left school to work in factories making men’s clothing. She even worked for 10 years at Aird’s of Lochinvar when it was just a small shed.
Marlene became quite close friends with her colleagues including the sister of a man that would become her husband. Marlene recalls going to the pictures with her friends and spending time as a group getting to know each other. They married in 1960 when Marlene was 27 and her husband Dick was 30. Marlene reminisced with a smile “we had a loving marriage… he helped everyone.
Sadly, Dick passed in 2017 with Marlene stating softly that it was “very hard to lose him… I wish every day I had him back.”
Marlene and her husband had a wonderful son and beautiful daughter together. Marlene worked at her children’s school in roles including being the ‘cool canteen lady.’ Today she currently has seven grandchildren, 7 great grandchildren and one great, great granddaughter!
“I’m a proud grandmother of all my children and I wouldn’t part with any of them… I love every hair on their heads,” said Marlene.
Through her life Marlene absolutely loved to knit, play tennis and cook.
Marlene crotched the blanket that is on her bed today and she even knit the clothes for her children which they kept for their children.
Although claiming to not be very good, Marlene enjoyed playing tennis saying, “I loved tennis and to this day when it’s on, I love watching it.”
Marlene joined the Maroba family in 2021 where she enjoys participating in activities that include singing or musical performances and as a woman of faith Marlene “very rarely miss[es] church on a Wednesday.”
Marlene said “I’d lie if I said everything was hunky-dory all the time… but as far as the [carers] go, I could not speak more highly of the [carers],” she followed up saying, “I live by the saying treat others as you would expect to be treated.”
Marlene’s kindness, calming spirit and reassuring smile shows the love she freely gives to the Maroba community.
Featured in the May Maroba Connect 2026.