Peter and Elizabeth Versluis have been integral to the area’s health sector and are set to retire later this year.
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From the moment the Versluis arrived in Laurieton 25 years ago on December 17, they said the town embraced them.
“We met some firefighters and they invited us over to a Christmas party,” Elizabeth said.
“We made friends right then and so did our children.”
The family made the move to town after Peter gained the position as NSW Ambulance Service Laurieton station manager.
It’s a position which Peter believes he was very lucky to have received.
Elizabeth and Peter credit the community and the people who live in it as being ‘very special’.
“Over the last 25 years the community has supported us as a family and through my work in the ambulance service,” Peter said.
It’s the reason why the Versluis have chosen to retire in the area, rather than move away.
When the Versluis first arrived in town they lived at the ambulance station with their children aged three, six and nine-years-old at the time.
Peter said he didn’t enjoy working in Sydney because it was very impersonal.
He said paramedics are connected to the community in the Camden Haven, both in and outside of work.
“It’s been a pleasure to serve this community,”
Peter said an event such as the Rally for Ric to help fundraise for Erica Walker and her family, wouldn’t have happened in Sydney or even Port Macquarie.
“It’s just the right size for a community to rally together and help someone in need,” he said.
Peter said it’s humbling when he bumps into someone at the shopping centre and they say ‘you’ve delivered my baby’ or ‘you saved my life’.
Unfortunately Peter doesn’t recognise everyone who knows him.
“We struggle to remember everyone because for us it’s just another job,” he said.
Elizabeth is a nurse who works at the emergency department in Port Macquarie.
As Peter and Elizabeth both do shift work, some weeks they see more of each other at work than they do at home.
Elizabeth is the longest serving nurse in the emergency department in Port Macquarie.
Over the last 25 years Peter has witnessed the station grow from three staff members to 12. Elizabeth said the hospital has also increased in staff members, due to the ageing and growing population in the region.
Peter remembers his first day working as a paramedic.
“It seems like only yesterday that I pulled on my new uniform and walked to Circular Key for my first shift,” he said.
“My first job involved attending to a man who had collapsed near the picture theatre on George Street and I was so nervous.”
Both Peter and Elizabeth will retire in July and agree that now is the right time.
Peter and Elizabeth have seen the outcome of many freak or catastrophic incidents, which have come as a shock.
“You just don’t know what’s around the corner,” Peter said.
“It can happen in a heartbeat.”
The couple are looking forward to travelling, working in their garden and spending more time with their grandchildren.
Peter and Elizabeth’s son Dan and Dan’s wife Kirran are also paramedics.