FEATURE - Passionate about people

Ann Wells is an anchor in her community, a port in a storm, and the person you know will keep the ship steady - and well stocked!

by Louise Tasker

A wonderful recent addition to the IGA is Shali Carnevale who ran her own café just down the road for 20 years. A couple of years ago she decided to step back but, as with Ann and Chris, that hiatus did not last long. 

Ann smiles happily as she tells me, “It was my best day when Shali called and asked if I was still looking for someone to help in the IGA and I said yes! I still remember exactly where I was when she rang – I was walking the dog.”

I ask Ann if she is still enjoying running the IGA. “Absolutely! After Chris died five years ago, it was my salvation and gave me something to focus on. I have wonderful staff who are so caring and thoughtful. I’m very lucky to have this anchor in my life.”

She continues, “My morning starts with walking the dog. We walk every morning – in the summer about 4.30am, in the winter around 5am.

“I then go into work. If I’m not working, I bake, knit and I’m a quilter. I make shopping bags which we sell in the shop. And I work in the garden. 

“Chris was the gardener and I would help with raking and tidying up because Chris was pretty messy. When Chris died, I said to the garden, ‘It’s you and me and you’ll either survive or you won’t.’ And it has survived.”

Ann is also very glad to have her son, Mark, living nearby in Brisbane with his family. Mark and Ann are very close and he is now a part owner of the IGA. He and his sons help with some of the bigger gardening work as it is required.

We talk about village life because Ann grew up in rural places and is very used to that particular kind of close community living. “I love living in Mapleton but my life is in Montville. Before the Nambour café, I worked in a couple of the Montville businesses which was great fun. 

“I love the people here; there’s always something going on. One of the things I’m really passionate about is people. Having lost Chris, I know it’s not easy, when you’ve been with someone almost all your life, to then have to remake your life. I know how lucky I am and I want others to have that connection too.”

Ann really believes in village halls as a hub for community, a place where events are held and people can go along and meet other people. “I grew up in villages,” she says, “where the local hall played a key part in many aspects of village life. Whist drives, Beetle drives (Reader, I had to look that one up), dances.”

I ask her if anything has changed her perception of herself. Laughingly she says, “Growing up!”

We then spend time questioning what growing up means and both agree we don’t know. We feel that the word ‘grown up’ should be banned!

Ann’s enthusiasm for life belies her age and her interests are varied. “I love films, live theatre, Australian novels, and Australian history. When we lived in Adelaide we travelled a lot within the country. Just a tent and a four-wheel drive. We love Australia. 

“I really enjoy music too, and I’m fairly eclectic in my music taste. We have the radio playing in the shop. The other day I was listening to a song on the radio and I started to do a little dance and I noticed a young man doing the same thing in another aisle. We both said how much we enjoyed that song. Music cuts across age and time.”

Ann says she was made by Chris and his family, in a very good way, because she was so young when she embarked on a life with him, and previously of course she had known them all as if they were family already. 

“I have been so lucky in my life. My mother, Chris’s family, Chris and my own children. The people who work for me. The people I’ve had around me all through my life.”

Now, though, the ship she steers is all hers and she makes the most of it every single day.