Young Eyes Optometry Blog

Staff Profile - Nicole Martin

Home and Away - By Merry Kirkwood

Six degrees of separation, they call it, before we find a solid personal connection.

Is it just our imagination or does Young enjoy an exceptional mix of contacts with the wider world? We often find a “link” with strangers a mere three steps away. Occasionally, it’s a lazy two degrees of separation.

Staff Profile - Melissa Oldfield

Home Among The Gum Trees - Written by Merry Kirkwood

When Bob Brown and Harry Day created the well-loved ballad Home Among the Gum Trees in 1974, they neatly summed up the current life of Harden local Melissa Oldfield. 

Where the song promotes “a sheep or two and a kangaroo,” Melissa, husband Luke, and children Angus and Somer have  - at last count - their own sheep or two and (likely) kangaroo, plus three dogs, two rabbits, two cats, and just for interest, two birds. “We’ve just bought some acres out of town. We love it: the space and the sense of serenity,” she says. “The kids can ride their bikes, motorbike, and cool off in the pool.”

Melissa, an Optical Dispenser at YOUNG EYES, in Boorowa Street, says beyond her idyllic home life she enjoys simply “helping people”. And that’s exactly what she does most days.

Staff Profile - Catherine Miller

Local Connections - By Merry Kirkwood

As Catherine Miller (optical dispenser at YOUNG EYES) sees it, some friendships project you towards interesting people, paths and places. 

This has proved true for Catherine, originally Sydney born and bred. Years ago, friend Nicole made the introduction to future husband Matt, from Young… and the rest as they say, is history. “She was my local connection for sure,” she quips.

While Catherine and Matt made their start in life in Sydney with idyllic times a fisherman’s cast from Mooney Mooney’s watery edge, they were destined for life in the country.

Staff Profile - Jeanette Elliott

Country Girl - By Merry Kirkwood

The saying “You can take the boy out of the country, but not the country out of the boy”, could be cheekily skewed to the feminine to fit local lass Jeanette Elliott.

A seven-year team member at YOUNG EYES in Boorowa St, Jeanette grew up on a nearby sheep/wheat property in Wallendbeen and wears her rural upbringing on her sleeve: “I still feel it when there’s a drought on,” she says, “that’s all I know.”

But the truth is Jeanette knows plenty more, having worked in numerous roles in the district, and having a fine eye for both tennis and golf. 

Local Eyes, Global Vision

“I’m pretty excited,” says Janine Hobson, Optometrist from YOUNG EYES, of her upcoming volunteer eye-care trip to assist communities on Sumba Island, 400km east of Bali, Indonesia.