The departure from Belmont of a popular man known for his garden gnomes has left a hole in the community and residents feeling sad.
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Grahame "Jacko" Geatches is at the Calvary Mater mental health unit, his sister Lynne Haynes confirmed.
"He's been feeling a bit down and depressed lately," Mrs Haynes said, adding he'd love a story in the paper about him.
"He did have a fall and went up to the hospital. An ambulance took him to the Mater and that's where he's been.
"We're just waiting at the moment to put him in a home at Wallsend. He's happy to go there. He's been falling over at home and hurting himself. Unfortunately this is what's happened."
Mrs Haynes said the gnomes had been given away.
"He said he wanted them to go back to the people who helped him. We just put them out the front for free," she said.
"Everybody has been wonderful, taking them for the memory of him."
The Newcastle Herald reported in December 2021 that vandals had smashed about 25 of Jacko's beloved garden gnomes and ornaments.
"Some of those gnomes I'd had for close to 50 years," Jacko said at the time.
A Facebook page was started, titled Gnomes and Other Support for Jacko at Belmont. The community rallied to donate dozens of gnomes to him.
Michelle Cushan, who lived near Jacko, would often walk her dog past his place.
"I'd always stop and have a talk, sometimes a cuppa," she said.
"He'd give me veggies when he was doing his garden."
She said Jacko always had a cheery grin, a pat for the dog and would ask "how you going".
She went to see him in hospital on Wednesday night and he was glad for the company.
"He had an accident and a concussion. He spent the night lying on the floor in his garage," she said.
"He got himself to the hospital on his scooter the next day. From there the ambulance was called and he went to the Mater mental health unit."
She urged people to visit him, send a card or give him a call.
Belmont resident Robin Gordon said Jacko was "well loved by everybody who knows him".
"To us, he's been a nice person in our community. He's been a good fella. He'd grow the most beautiful vegetables and give them away," she said.
Jacko did find himself on the wrong side of the law in 2015. A magistrate found him guilty of stealing a 175-kilogram replica terracotta warrior from a Swansea shop.
Mrs Haynes had asked Jacko about this.
"To this day, he says he did not do it," she said.
