Activities at Queens Manor Care Home

Queens Manor Care Home in Edinburgh prepared a traditional Burns Night supper to the tune of bagpipes and Aves O’ May from charity live music now, who beautifully played the clarsach & fiddle and sang some of the Rabbie Burns tunes well into the wee small hours!

Staff and residents at the home were involved in a number of activities learning about the life of Burns and reading his poetry to mark the Scottish institution, including giving the time-honoured address to the ‘Great chieftain O’ the pudding’ race’ – the Haggis. It was a perfect occasion to celebrate an evening steeped in age-old tradition as well as getting in a spot of Scottish craft making, poetry and singing with a medley of Burns’ songs.

Operations Manager, Lara Masucci said: “Our residents have enjoyed a hearty meal of traditional Cullen skink soup, Haggis with Neeps and Tatties all prepared by our stellar Chef, Duncan Taylor.

One resident, Doris, said: “I grew up hearing the story of Burns I was born in the same place, so it was a great pleasure to share the life of Burns with everyone’

Jim and his wife Beryl, affectionately known as B, have lived with us here at Queens Manor care home since the end of October. Jim arrived a little later than B and during that time it was clear to all of us how much B was missing him. We were delighted when Jim then arrived and even more so when we discovered that their 70th wedding anniversary would be the very next day. The team at Queens Manor organised a room for a surprise private lunch, flowers and fizz where Jim awaited his beautiful date. A 'none the wiser' B entered the room unknowingly to her beloved husband and anniversary surprise and was completely overjoyed. Jim and B’s family, including children and grandchildren, then joined them on the weekend for a family celebration, also here at the home.

Jim and B have quickly become a cherished part of Queens Manor and everyone is really enjoying getting to know them. Our lifestyle enrichment team discovered some classic and interesting finds at Cramond Kirk book sale and were excited to find two old dictionaries which they knew Jim would appreciate for his daily crosswords.

When leafing through these leather bound pieces, Jim came across a photo of the Queen Elizabeth Ship which amazingly he worked on in 1948 on her maiden voyage. This sparked lots of memories of Jim’s time working as a purser on ships sailing The Cunard Line. As well as the Queen Elizabeth, Jim sailed on the Media from Liverpool to New York and the Franconia to Mumbai.

Jim worked on the ships with a friend who was dating a school teacher on shore in Liverpool. She was co lodging with a fellow teacher who Jim was soon shoehorned in to ‘reluctantly’ agreeing to a blind date with. Unbeknown to Jim, his future wife B ‘reluctantly’ agreed to the date also! Fortunately, this shared reluctance was the first of many shared moments and adventures and 70 years on, Jim and B are still happily married.                                                                      

It’s a wonderful thing that, from a forgotten old book found in a local church around the corner from where Jim and B now live, we heard the tale of how their voyage together began.  

We regularly enjoy outings to the theatre and this Christmas we were treated to a special performance as Scottish Ballet’s 50th anniversary year came to a spectacular close with a world premiere of The Snow Queen.

We enjoyed views of a festive themed Edinburgh on the journey to the Festival Theatre and were wowed by the dazzling performance. So many of Queens Manors’ residents have been fans of the ballet for many years and we were so happy to experience such a magical evening.

We have a valued place in the heart of the community and Edinburgh is so full of history, culture, art and theatre which we actively ensure our residents are able to enjoy.

Lots of our lovely residents are spending their first Christmas in their new home here at Queens Manor this year.

All at Queens Manor have gone above and beyond to make sure the run up to Christmas has been magical and exciting and tomorrow will be no different. With festive food, good cheer, warmth, love and support our Christmas Day will be one to remember.

One of our residents has marked the occasion with a beautiful custom made bauble to decorate the tree.

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year from all of us at Queens Manor x

Everybody at Queens Manor's Christmas fete was treated to entertainment including a tombola, a raffle, lots of games and a variety of different stalls selling Christmas treats and local produce, provided by lots of groups throughout the community.

Boasting glisteing décor and sparkling Christmas trees throughout the home, we were a welcome and festive environment for the community and it was wonderful to see different generations laughing together and sharing the day. Visitors enjoyed plenty of refreshments, such as minced pies and mulled wine all prepared by Queens Manor’s kitchen team.

Can't wait for next years!

Theatre outings are such an enjoyable part of our resident’s lives so we were excited to see that the Festival Theatre in Edinburgh were showing a dementia friendly version of TOSCA, an opera by Puccini

Gillian, Queens Manor’s wonderful concierge, accompanied some of our residents on the night. The journey there was made magical with views across a Christmas lit Edinburgh and after such a stirring experience at the opera, the journey back was filled with nostalgic chatter and memories of all things theatrical. An extra sprinkle of sparkle was added with front row seats next to the orchestra, which really did make the whole evening even more special.

These are such special times for our residents and events like this are so important, we’re really thankful for places organising dementia friendly events and we cannot wait for our next trip.