Marie works for Meals on Wheels, an organisation that delivers meals to older people who can’t cook for themselves.

Let’s meet Marie, and find out a bit more about Meals on Wheels.


RACHEL FISHER: This routine's pretty familiar to Marie Ducat.

Once a week for the past 49 years, she's set off for lunch.
But it's not to dine out herself. Instead she delivers to others.

MARIE DUCAT: We had one car and we had about five people and we went everywhere - all round.

I used to often take the children with me and they really enjoyed it, and then we just used to go inside, collect the plate, bring it out and dish it up on the street.

We got the meals from the cafeteria down in Fitzgeralds.

RACHEL FISHER: Marie doesn't do the driving anymore, but that's not the only change she's seen during the growth of Meals on Wheels.

MARIE DUCAT: It was a big wooden box about that tall and it had three drawers in it.

One had the soup, one the meat and the vegetables and the sweet and sometimes if you're going up these steep hills, a little bit of the sweet might dip into the meat.

RACHEL FISHER: That's a far cry from the slick operation of today.

Around the State last year about 3,000 volunteers delivered more than a quarter of a million meals.

But with progress comes politics and Marie's having to fall into line.

MARIE DUCAT: I get friendly with all the recipients and they give me a bit of cheek and I suppose I give them, have a bit of a yarn with them.

We're not supposed to talk, you know, and we're not supposed to comment on anything in their homes or their garden.

That's invasion of privacy.

That was not in in the early stages, it's just in the last few years.

RACHEL FISHER: And how do you feel about that?

MARIE DUCAT: I don't, I still do a bit of nattering.

RACHEL FISHER: 86 years young, Marie is the treasurer of the Church Guild, a friend of the Botanical Gardens, a friend of Legacy and, perhaps more importantly, a friend to the people she visits.

MARIE DUCAT: You've got a nice meal today. Have you had you morning walk?

MR HEARD: Yes, went out early half-past six.

MARIE DUCAT: You're better than me, I didn't get up till seven o'clock.

RACHEL FISHER: The Hobart branch of Meals on Wheels will celebrate its 50th birthday next year and with it Marie's golden anniversary.

But in typical determined style, she's aiming well past the 50-year mark.

MARIE DUCAT: As long as my legs will take me I just enjoy doing it.