At
Market Lavington care home, in Devizes, which offers residential, nursing and residential dementia care, this month’s ‘Stop the Clock’ event had the very appropriate theme of spring.
In the weeks leading up to the event, Residents took part in many lovely group activities relating to the theme, such as arts and crafts, reminiscence groups, spring news stories from the 1940s and 50s, and music groups singing spring themed songs.
New Head Chef, John Forni, made some wonderful cakes, decorated with flowers and carrots, which delighted many Residents.
Michaela Swiffen, Wellbeing Coordinator, kindly took all the photographs and video footage of this lovely event and assisted with arts and crafts projects; helping Residents to create and colour lovely tulip pictures.
There was also a spring themed quiz which went down very well and then all involved took part in arts and crafts, as well as sharing reminisces about springs of yonder past;
Rona Bushell said “Lovely. Truly lovely. Nice to talk memories. I lived in the highlands of Scotland as a wee girl and spring meant those barren moorlands would come to life again with plants and flowers.”
Fellow Resident Douglas Murray added, “Well I used to work offshore on the oil rigs in the early 1970s, so spring meant the waves were never so high in the North Sea, which was always a good thing!”
Violet Lloyd, who lives at the home, was supported in her wheelchair in the home’s garden and took three flower photographs (see pictured). Riaz Ali, Wellbeing Coordinator, had one tablet and gave Violet another one, which were connected by a livestream. Riaz would crouch low upon the grass, or reached high into bushes, with Violet seeing what the other tablet was seeing and when she was happy with the composition, the photograph would be taken. It was a fantastic activity that went down very well.
Violet remarked, “Well, you know I love coming to any activity anyway! But these always have a good turn out! And I am so glad the flower photographs turned out well. I’ve never done anything like that before!”
The finale involved Resident Gordon Grist (pictured centre bottom), who was sitting at the microphone with Riaz next to him, playing guitar. Gordon took the lead in singing ‘Here Comes the Sun’ by The Beatles, a lovely, joyful spring themed song. Everyone joined in the singing which wrapped up an utterly lovely afternoon!
Gordon added, “I always like sharing facts with others and talking about what I know. That was a good song to sing to, and I hope I did it okay.”
Lorraine Hall, Care Assistant, commented, “It’s so lovely to see all the Residents together mingling and having fun!”
Riaz ended with, “These ‘Stop the Clock’ events are always fun due to the different themes we have each time, and it can be a fun way of exploring different ideas and interests for the Residents and myself!”