Family's heartwarming plan to brighten their self-isolation with 'trip to Coles'
An Australian family is sharing how they are having fun while in self isolation by making their very own personal Coles store.
Jason van Genderen shared a video on Facebook to show how he, his wife and two children has set up a mini Coles supermarket in their home to help his 87-year-old mother who has Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia.
Mr van Genderen explained that during four weeks of isolation his mother’s routine had be “thrown around” and she was struggling “to make sense of what the week is”.
“So we can’t take her to the shops anymore but what we thought we’d do is we’d open up a supermarket at home,” he explained.
Staffing their personal Coles was his wife Megan and daughter Evie on customer service, and his son Art manning the cash register.
The bench was full of grandma’s favourite items including cereal and bananas, and a whiteboard showed the weekly specials.
“Welcome to Coles,” Mr van Genderen said as he brought his mother in, who was all smiles.
She was shocked that her family had gone to the trouble of setting up her own grocery store and giggled as she checked items off her shopping list as Mr van Genderen put them in her walker for her.
The supermarket shelf was fully stocked with toilet paper and even some Easter eggs for her grandchildren.
When her list was complete, Mr van Genderen took his smiling mother to the register where she ‘paid’ for the groceries and was given a receipt.
Mr van Genderen said he made the video to share his family making the most out of “these impossibly tough days”.
“We just need to remember to let the sunshine in when we can. This little beam filled our hearts today, hopefully it fills your’s too,” he wrote on Facebook.
The video has since been viewed on Facebook over 300,000 time and attracted more than 2000 comments praising the family for their positive attitude and sweet gesture for Mr van Genderen’s elderly mother.
“This is just so beautiful, in every way,” one person wrote.
“Absolutely beautiful family. Amazing that you are trying to give your mum some normality in her life. Would mean every thing to her,” another person responded.
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“Such an amazingly simple idea but the thoughts of making that beautiful lady happy,” another Facebook user commented.
Some people said the video had inspired them to do something similar for their family.
“We should do this for nana and her daily newspaper,” a person said.
Mr van Genderen took to Facebook to show his gratitude for the supportive comments left on the video.
“I’ve lost capacity to thank you all individually, thank you everyone for caring so deeply,” he wrote.
When the Genderen’s local Coles store heard about the video, they responded by sending the family some groceries to help keep their at-home Coles store well stocked.
“It was truly heart-warming to see the van Genderen family’s creativity and the effort to create their at-home Coles supermarket for their mum who can’t make it to our store at the moment,” Coles Bateau Bay store manager Ben Earle told 7News.
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