Mona’s enjoying her upside down life

By Meg Hill

When Mona’s friends from Canberra visited her new Docklands apartment, they told her she’d “changed everything”.

An apartment in Docklands is a far cry from a suburban-styled Canberra house. Mona describes the move as her life gone “upside down”.

“But we’re loving it, and in our fifties!” she said.

Mona and her husband moved to Docklands in September 2018. Their son had flown the nest to start at Melbourne University, but the nest followed him.

“Before that we thought maybe moving to Sydney or Melbourne would be a good idea, we just wanted more out of life,” Mona said.

“We felt that there was more and I think God just opened the door to us in Melbourne.”

They stayed in an interim apartment while hunting for their own. It was near Docklands and they grew to love it here. Eventually, they found an apartment in the Nolan building at NewQuay.

Before their 10-year stint in Canberra, Mona and her family were in New Zealand for 15 years. She met her husband at medical school in their native India.

Her husband still works as a doctor, but Mona made a career switch into family counselling a few years ago.

She said after moving to New Zealand she and her husband experienced their toughest times. It was a culture shock and they were isolated and away from home. Resentment and a blame game started.

But they pulled it together and Mona’s passion for fixing families is now her career.

“I said I never wanted to be bitter in my life and it’s been an amazing journey. We’re best friends now and our marriage is incredible.”

But change is still a process, even while working through it with your best friend.

“After four weeks in Docklands I said ‘I think it’s time to go home’.”

“It hadn’t set in yet that this is home. It felt like a holiday, but I felt away from home.”

Mona said that she stuck with it and captured a new sense of home in her heart.

Now, while establishing her counselling practice in the area, she said she finally had time to go back to her book and edit it.

She wrote it years ago, about the story of her marriage, but had always been too busy to fix it up.

Now, in Docklands, it seems it’s her own kind of therapy. And when she said she feels at home here now, it doesn’t ring hollow – she’s even familiar with the wait staff along the NewQuay waterfront.