Activities at Hampton Grove Care Home

Residents enjoyed a lovely lunch out, at the Mulberry Tree Farm restaurant. They spend time choosing their individual meals and drinks from the menu followed with a lovely dessert.

It's great to be out and about again.

February, the month of love, always brings mixed emotions for local care home resident; Joan Audrey Holland (Nee Perry). Born on the 14th February, 1932 in Peterborough, Joan celebrated her 90th Birthday with her family at Hampton Grove Care Home in Hampton Vale, Peterborough.

Joan is a wonderful lady, loved by all at Hampton Grove. As she met with her family they took time to reflect on her life, looking through various photo albums and reminiscing on how she, and the love of her life; John Holland met.

Sibling sisters; Joan and Cynthia Perry grow up in Cromwell Road, Peterborough, daughter to Mable Frances Perry and father Norman Stanley. On leaving school at 14, Joan started her working life as a shoe shop assistant before moving on to work for Warner’s in Bourne, and then as a clerk at the local library.

Joan loved to write and her friend placed her name in a pen pal magazine targeted at overseas service personnel. At the same time and under similar circumstances, a friend of RAF serviceman John Holland did the same. The two young people started to communicate through regular letters, and struck up a true friendship through the written word without actually meeting. On leaving the RAF the letters between Joan and John stopped.

One day, as Joan sat at her library desk a gentleman came in and asked if he could join, he filled in an application card, and handed back to Joan, when she saw his name she raised her head and realised it was John!

Joan and John courted for a while and then split up reasons not clear, but John would not give up on her, and the love he felt, finally winning Joan back. On the 23rd July 1955 Joan Audrey Perry married John Holland at St Marks Church, Lincoln Road in Peterborough.

Due to John’s work the happy couple moved several times, and, whilst living in Birmingham they became proud parents to a son called Christopher and then 6 years later having moved back to Peterborough they added to their family with twins Richard and Claire.

When the twins were 2 years old the family moved to Heacham (again due to John's work) but finally came back to Peterborough when the twins were 5 years old and raised their family, where they all lived a happy life together full of love and laughter for almost 61 years, until sadly Joan became a widow in April 2016 when John passed away.

Joan recalls this moment as the day she ‘lost her soul mate’.

When Valentine’s Day falls on your birthday it’s not only full of birthday wishes, but generally shared with those you love. Joan’s family visited her on this special day, bringing her gifts to celebrate and taking time to remember John and the never ending love that still endures in ‘heaven and on earth’.

Hearing the story, our General Manager; Krzysztof asked the family if we could share Joan and Johns love story. Krzysztof said, “Losing the love of your life is saddening, but knowing that people really do find the ‘one’ gives us all hope. Joan manages to put a smile on every day, and we were so honoured to make her 90th birthday extra special for her and her family”.

Our residents enjoyed a lovely trip out this morning to Dobbies Garden Centre, Peterborough. They spent time looking around the aquarium at the fish, and helped chose a lovely background for the homes' fish tank.

It was so nice to get out and about, we all enjoyed a lovely tea/coffee and slice of cake in the café.

The residents and staff of Hampton Grove got the frying pans out, and their competitive shoes on ready to race! Our chef was supper busy, flipping pancakes throughout the day for the residents to enjoy after all the hard work they put into the pancake race.

Each race had a winner; best pancake flipper and quickest along the course. Certificates were handed out by our general manager Krzysztof, who even managed to present himself with his own ...for participation!

The activities team at Hampton Grove have been working hard over the last couple of months to, in secret, transform one of the quiet rooms into a movie room for all our residents to enjoy. Lauren creatively decorated the walls with hand drawn movie reels and movie star photographs, Lisa and Debs dressed the cinema screen in a deep red velvet curtain and Asiya served our guests with interval time snacks.

We are delighted to announce its opening, and pleased that our resident ambassador; Mrs Monaghan had the honour of cutting the ribbon to officially welcome her fellow residents to the first of many film viewings. As the curtains opened and the projector switched on we started the silver screen experience with a classic Elvis movie: Blue Hawaii.

The home’s General Manager; Krzysztof Krzysztofiak said: “our residents love a good movie, and although they have access to TV’s within each communal area, including their rooms, having a dedicated movie room will give them the opportunity to experience a ‘trip to the cinema’ together, with fresh popcorn and ice cream available to all during viewing… just like the old days. I’d like to thank the activities team for taking the time to enrich the lives of our residents in such a super way.”

Today our residents enjoyed a lovely afternoon at Hampton Grove chatting over cheese, biscuits and wine. Such a wonderful way to relax as the spring sun shone through the lounge and dining rooms.