Activities at Fordmill Care Home

The library shelves are bulging at Fordmill  where book worm residents were keen to listen to local crime author Chris Longmuir as she regaled them with her story of how she became a published author.

Staff and residents at Fordmill hosted the author with National Read a Book Day in mind and showed off their mobile library to Chris.  Of course, they couldn’t let Chris go without signing a few copies to add to their collection also.  Residents were also able to pick Chris’s brains with resident John Fraser asking “would you like your novels to be made into a television series?”

To mark the end of the summer months, residents reminisced with an art project to celebrate their local seaside town by making a Message in A Bottle. Residents loved getting their hands in the sand and being creative with shells. They all took the time to find those special words that they wanted in their messages. Beach visits throughout childhood were quite common in Montrose and so, reminiscence about the best beach trips they’ve ever had whether local or not were discussed. This turned to much laughter and discussion about the feeling of sand in your toes which, like marmite, you either love or hate!

Reminiscence is one of the many great things in working with the elderly.  And today was no exception as we combined World Photo Day with everyone’s shared experience – the good old school days.  As our residents mostly all have great grandchildren heading back to a new term at school, it made us all reminiscence of our own days in front of the blackboard.  Everyone enjoyed speaking about all the things that were liked and disliked about school, and what school year would they like to go back and revisit.  So, we decided to combine this discussion with our own Back to School class photos, and we even had our own teacher, Mrs Barchester to lead the class and make sure everyone behaved and smiled.  And we couldn’t let our residents off the hook completely, so we had some ‘lessons’ in the form of crosswords and wordsearches to aid in our conversations.  By the end of the session we were quite happy to say that everyone excelled and class was dismissed.

Our residents have fully embraced travel life at Fordmill, so much so that we have seen our small plane go from 2 rows of passengers, to a 4 row jumbo jet as we all strive for the experience of travelling without the jetlag!  This month we decided to celebrate the National Independence of India by inviting a fellow Barchester colleague to share her Indian culture and customs with ourselves.  Nagma kindly came on board with her son and sang us off with the Indian National Anthem, of which the residents were deeply moved by.  Whilst we watched some informative clips of Indian architecture and religion, we were then treated to traditional Indian tea and spiced rice puffs, traditionally gifted for the National Day.  Residents then put their knowledge to the test with a quiz on the country before our captain landed us safely back home.  An unforgettable experience, greatly added to by our guests of honour and one our residents will all cherish.

Fordmill Care Home in Montrose spent the day with St. Cyrus Nature Reserve Manager Therese Alampo to make use of their all-terrain Hippocampe chairs, giving residents the chance to explore the reserve and beach and even get in the water.

And joining them on their beach visit was none other than local MSP Mairi Gougeon who came to visit them in her capacity as Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands.  Residents Margaret Weir and Ronald Harris were overjoyed to speak to Mairi about visiting St. Cyrus beach, a trip they never believed possible again.  She was amazed at the Hippocampe chairs easiness on the sands and even took Margaret for a hurl.  Margaret said: “I have never visited this beach due to my poor mobility and never thought l would be here.  The girls surprised me with this visit today and we have just had a lovely picnic watching the birds and listening to the waves, it’s been incredible.”

The sun finally shone in our little town and the Fordmill Inn was opened, just in time for the fish and chips being served.  “You can’t beat fish and chips outside, listening to the gulls overhead” said one resident as they tucked into a hearty chippy.  Our gazebo has many uses over the summer months, but it really is something when we take a meal that residents enjoy throughout the month, and put them into a different setting.  There was lots of reminiscing about the fish supper; where was the best one they ever tasted, remembering the smell when their Dad came home with one to what sauce was better on it and who needs lemon on their fish.  It just goes to show that food and habitat go a long way to creating amazing memories.