{"id":8754,"date":"2022-09-27T11:05:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-27T01:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/?p=8754"},"modified":"2022-09-27T12:20:08","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T02:20:08","slug":"good-luck-kath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/newsletters\/caring-together-update\/2022\/09\/good-luck-kath","title":{"rendered":"Farewell and good luck, Kath!"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Caring<\/p>\n

Together<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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\"Farewell<\/a>

The Kilcoy Hospital team saying farewell to Kath Ellem, who retired recently after 45 years at the hospital.<\/p><\/div>\n

It was a very heartfelt farewell to Cook Supervisor Kath Ellem who retired recently after 45 years working at Kilcoy Hospital.<\/h4>\n

Kath was born at Kilcoy Hospital in the 1950s and finished Year 10 at Kilcoy State High School.<\/p>\n

She worked a few local jobs after leaving school, including the Victory Caf\u00e9 at Woodford before she was offered a job in the kitchen at Kilcoy Hospital, where she stayed for four years before starting a family.<\/p>\n

Kath had returned to work elsewhere, including ginger picking at Caboolture and Wamuran, when the Kilcoy Hospital Matron rang her and invited to come back for six months work in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that time, we were living just across the road\u2026 and I thought walking to work rather than driving would be good with my daughter only three months old at the time,\u201d Kath said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, I came back for six months because there was somebody off on leave, then somebody else went off and I stayed on. That was 41-and a half years ago (1980).\u201d<\/p>\n

Not many people stay in a job for 45 years. Kath said she loved the connection with patients and people she worked with \u2013 recalling many good times, particularly when the hospital had a thriving maternity section.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have looked after the mothers and the kids when they\u2019ve come through and had their babies,\u201d Kath said. \u201cI have had fresh meals here for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also very personal with her family and many members of the tight-knit Kilcoy community having received care at the hospital.<\/p>\n

What are her plans for retirement?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we bought a caravan and we\u2019re going to head up north \u2013 my daughter lives near Mackay,\u201d Kath said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI only get to see them once a year when I\u2019m on holidays so will now be able to see them more regularly.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy son lives at Delaney\u2019s Creek and he\u2019s got two little girls so we\u2019ll see a lot more of them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kilcoy Hospital team held a lunch at the hospital to acknowledge Kath’s contribution and dedication to the hospital, patients, colleagues and the Kilcoy community.<\/p>\n

Farewell and good luck, Kath!<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a very heartfelt farewell to Cook Supervisor Kath Ellem who retired recently after 45 years working at Kilcoy Hospital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":8800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-8754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-caring-together-update","tag-pending"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8754"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8757,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8754\/revisions\/8757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metronorth.health.qld.gov.au\/staff-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}