Radio Silence - Wendyl's Home Remedy

OUR QUEEN OF GREEN IS TAKING SOME TIME OUT WITH HER PARENTS

- Donna Fleming

Wendyl Nissen has never had any qualms about closing the door on a part of her life and moving on to something else.

The New Zealand Woman’s Weekly columnist likes challenges and has reinvented herself many times throughout her career, going from newspaper reporter to magazine editor to TV producer, media personality, author, businesswoman and, most recently, radio host. It seems like there’s nothing she won’t try.

In her latest move, she has decided to step down from her role hosting The Long Lunch radio show on RadioLIVE, almost 18 months after she started. But it’s not a case of been there, done that.

This time, she is giving up her job to spend more time with her parents, Cedric and Elis, who have moved in with Wendyl and her writer husband Paul Little at their Hokianga home.

“My parents are both in their mid-80s and my mum has early Alzheimer’s, so Dad is basically her full-time carer,” explains our Green Goddess columnist. “They were living in their own home in Auckland and Dad was doing everything – the cooking, cleaning, washing. He was coping, but I just felt there should be someone there for him when he did need it, someone to give him a bit of respite.”

Wendyl and Paul have a guest cottage next to their home, which is set in a picturesque spot looking out over the Hokianga Harbour, and they realised it made sense for Cedric (86) and Elis (85) to move in there.

“When we told people that Mum and Dad were selling their home and coming up here to us everyone said, ‘Oh, you’re mad having your parents living with you.’ Not one person said, ‘What a good idea,’ or ‘Oh, that’s great, you’ll love having them with you’.