Rediscovering lost links with a neighbourhood butcher shop, which Dunedin resident Carolyn Goodwin first visited as a youngster, has recently helped to brighten her life.
Mrs Goodwin (58) first visited Leckies Butchery, in Forbury Rd, St Clair, more than 40 years ago. Those days visiting was easy because she lived only two houses away.
And since last July she has been going back to Leckies to buy her meat and to enjoy a few jokes with the staff, particularly assistant manager Grant Wells.
Life has not always been easy for Mrs Goodwin in recent years, who has faced several difficulties, including mental health challenges, but she has continued to undertake some voluntary community work.
Neighbourhood butcher shops are much less common in Dunedin than they were 40 years ago, following the growth of supermarkets.
But Mrs Goodwin noticed that visiting the local shop again had ''brought the laughter back into my life'' and she had started feeling better about life.
''They've served me with a smile, they treat me with respect, and the quality of the meat is good,'' she says.
Ms Goodwin did her best to return some of that good humour yesterday by providing surprise presents for Mr Wells and other shop staff.
Mr Wells greeted her warmly, and said ''we pull everyone's leg'', and ''you've got to have fun in this job''.
Leckies owner Grant Millar, who has had the shop for eight years, said he also enjoyed sharing a few jokes with customers, and wanted to continue a tradition of service begun when the shop opened in the 1920s.
He realised some customers were not well off, and some had experienced hardship, including loss of loved ones.
Neighbourhood retailers had a responsibility for the wellbeing of their customers and his service was ''more than selling a piece of meat over the counter''.
Age Concern Otago social worker Marie Bennett said that Dunedin's neighbourhood pubs and shops were part of an important community social support network, and there were ''huge'' benefits if people, perhaps living alone, could get out and visit some of them.
The recent closure of some of the city's bars, including the Southern Bar and Grill, and the Shiel Hill Cafe and Bar, reduced some of that support, Mrs Bennett said.
