Activities at Harton Grange Care Home

It was a cold autumn morning with frost, but we enjoyed a warm atmosphere with plenty of mulled wine, cider, apple crumble cakes, carrot cakes, cherries crumble cakes, muffins, lemon tart, flapjack and even some poppy seeds crumble cakes ...

I was asked if we celebrate something special today: Yes, The spirit of autumn days...

We had a special guest, Rev Deborah from Bede Methodist Minister - Monkton Park. We enjoyed having the Holy  communion service. We learnt that the table of Holy Communion is Christ’s table and everybody was welcomed. We had time to sing a couple of hymns and to pray.

We are very proud that we took part in this year's edition of South Shields Memory Walk organised by Alzheimer's Society. And yes, we reached the finish line after we had time to meditate upon the condition of those who developed dementia.

Noel and Mary very much enjoyed the fantastic atmosphere, seeing so many people dressed in blue walking in the memory of their loved ones.

Noel even managed to walk for a while on the way back, along the shore. As Mary said, we were incredibly lucky as we had beautiful weather during the walk.

We had some special guests: a group of young mothers and their children coordinated by Bright Future and our wonderful storyteller, Elizabeth.

It was a fantastic atmosphere as the babies started to play bringing so much joy to our residents.

But everything was wrapped in the velvet threw by the storyteller: word by word we were immersed in a different world. For nearly two hours we let our minds to fly with the stories.

Of course, every story is better with some food around, so we served pizzas.

What a wonderful journey back in time! We went to Kendal, Lake District, the place where David was one of the children evacuees from South Shields in July, 1941.

David was only 7 years old at that time.

David went to Stramongate School in Kendal. We had the chance,  thanks to the headmaster, to visit the school. We had a memory walk in Kendal as well. David's daughter, Beverly, bought a new cap for her father and plenty of fruits and sweets as David enjoyed the walk. We enjoyed a hot drink, blessed by a sunny autumn sky.

David went back in time, remembered all those past times. We crossed the bridge over river Kent and, with sapiency, David said "Thank you God for my beautiful family".

We said goodbye to Kendal after we passed through Shap street, where David lived for a few years before his return. Unfortunately, the lady who looked after David wasn't one to show kindness and compassion to him.

But how to end this journey without seeing Windermere? Therefore, David was so happy to share his memories with us visiting Windermere.

David was over the moon to have in this journey his sister,  Carol, and his son-in-law, Maurice.

After an authentic fish and chips lunch, we went to St. Martin Church where, in silence, we thanked to God for this great journey.

We went back to Locomotion Museum, this time for a special ride behind a Stephenson's rocket for this year. It was an authentic steam-powered train ride and Noel, as an experienced engineer, was thrilled to see the vast collection of trains at Locomotion. David and Winifred enjoyed very much visiting the Museum and they went for a ride. “It was a beautiful experience for everyone”, said Mary, Noel’s wife.