Celebrating life at Barchester

The Dunelm store in Telford have kindly donated wash bags to staff and residents. It’s lovely that businesses are offering their support, especially as they too have been hit hard by the lockdown. It truly is a challenging time for all. We are humbled by their kindness.

A sports day and BBQ was enjoyed by staff and residents at Challoner, with all social distancing measures in place.

Scarborough Hall care home has welcomed home a resident, 84 year old Muriel Tipper, 84 years young. Muriel has recently spent a period of time in Scarborough Hospital, whilst in hospital Muriel tested positive to Covid-19.

After excellent care and treatment by all the doctors and nurses at Scarborough Hospital Muriel returned home after recovering. Staff, residents and guests commemorated the day with afternoon tea and made a great fuss over Muriel as everyone has been delighted that she has overcome and returned to the home.

General Manager, Charlotte Nurse of Scarborough Hall said: “Today has been all about celebrating Muriel’s return and it has been great fun for everyone. Our staff and the people who live here have really got involved with the celebrations and have really enjoyed themselves. In these unprecedented times with so much negativity in the media, we wanted to share the good news and give people some hope. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff at Scarborough Hall for their dedication and commitment to the home not only at this time but over the years’”

Jean Kelman is adjusting to the virtual world so she can video call her family and friends on her big day on Easter Monday (April 13). Jean, who lives at the Manor Care Home, in Bishop's Hull, said: "I feel like the Queen.

"I’ll be having birthday celebrations with all the staff here and I’ll be having a party with my family when everything is back to normal." 

Jean was born in Wells in 1920 and became a trained nurse. She and her late husband Steve had three daughters - Fiona, Heather, who has since died, and Suzanne. Jean said: "I still think about Heather, I'm very proud of all my children and my grandchildren."

Fiona said: "Jean is and has been a fantastic mother and friend to so many over the past 100 years, and it’s wonderful to be with her on this very special day to say just how proud she makes us feel. She is truly an inspiration to all of us."

Carla Bowman, general manager of the home, said: "We’re delighted to be celebrating a truly remarkable woman as she reaches this amazing milestone. Jean is such a popular resident who always has an interesting tale to tell, and we look forward to hearing many more as she breaks into her next century."

Here at Hunters, the residents are keeping up their spirits with arts and crafts sessions. The art work will be displayed on our smile board, which is designed to keep everyone cheerful and show all of the positive messages and thoughts that are being sent to Hunters. Everyone here would like to send their love to family and friends and at this difficult time, and send the message to stay home, stay safe and to protect the NHS.

We have been overwhelmed with gifts and items being donated to our home; we cannot believe how many people are thinking about us all at this time.

We have had 2 deliveries of flower, orchids and Easter gifts from Stewarts, our local garden centre. B&Q has donated flowers for our garden. The Co-op donated Easter eggs for our residents, and a very kind gentleman bought 52 eggs for us.  We have had a free delivery from Pizza Hut, muffins made by a talented lady from Queenies Travelling Teapot, and a beautiful array of flowers from a local florist. 

We would like to thank you all from the bottom of hearts.

With the absence of our regular entertainers, Winchester House continues to provide musical therapy to all of our residents as best we can. You can imagine our joy when Barchester’s very own Clinical Development Nurse, Patrick McCrossan, came to work one day, guitar in hand, and conducted the most wonderful singalong with some of our residents. Here’s hoping he’s as eager to entertain us all again as we are to hear him.

Mount House received a very heartfelt message from Tracey Stevens, Store Manager, and her team at Dunelm in Shrewsbury, who wanted to donate something special to our home.

Tracey arrived to donate items to make our staff room more comfortable and a place for our staff to have a well-deserved break. We received mugs, bean bags, a toastie maker and other items. Dunelm also kindly donated 12 beautiful printed fleeces for our residents. In the hamper there was a note to say ‘Just to say a big! Thank you J for all your work, we will always need people like you to take care of our loved ones. We are forever grateful’.

Residents of Prestbury Beaumont have reached out to the community as part of their extended social network to seek pen-pals of all ages to remain connected during the current coronavirus crisis. The home has been delighted with the responses, and have been busy replying!

Residents were overjoyed to receive colourful pictures and letters. Thank you for adding a little colour and sunshine to our residents' days, and for your heartfelt messages.  

The residents of Fairview have been very lucky to receive lots of lovely mail from children from around the community. The children have taken great care in drawing pictures and writing letters in order to bring some cheer to the residents, who have thoroughly enjoyed reading through the mail, and have spent time creating personalised thank you cards. Claudia, aged 5, brought a smile to all with her creative dinosaur drawings, which have been added to the home's display to showcase all the letters and pictures.

Residents of Fairview have embraced technologly to keep in touch with their family and friends. We host regular group activities, including arts and crafts, to create cards and art for their loved ones as a surprise. These fun-filled activities often see residents posing for pictures for the message board or simply to send to their loved one.

Residents also make use of Skype and Facetime so that they can video call their relatives – although some weren’t too sure about the new technology!

It is vitally important that we ensure that our residents can remain in contact with their family and friends all the time, as some live far away. New technology is great for this purpose, but of course, a good old fashioned letter is just as welcome!

Ashby House are brilliant and I know they are doing everything possible during this awful time.