Friends Of The Elderly Residents Travel Back In Time
As the clocks go back in time, so do Malvern care home residents
It may feel like a long time since the blue skies and sunny days of summer, but as the clocks prepare to fall back an hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday 25th October, marking the end of British Summer Time 2020, residents at three Friends of the Elderly care homes in Malvern – Davenham, Bradbury Court and Perrins House – transported themselves back in time to give their younger selves some pieces of sound advice.
Whilst the residents at Malvern maybe be looking forward the clocks going back giving everyone an extra hour in bed, they have also spent a fun afternoon chatting and deciding what they would say to their younger selves if they went back in time and knew then, what they know now.
One of the Activity Co-ordinators at Malvern, Charlotte Dyer who is based at Davenham asked the residents that if, like Marty McFly in the 1985 film Back to the Future, they could travel back in time and meet their younger self, what would they say? And the residents didn’t take long to come up with a variety of funny and endearing answers. Resident, Joyce Waterford said: “Always take every opportunity that life throws at you.”
Charlotte said: “It was a great and entertaining afternoon. Our residents really got into the swing of the time travelling idea and came up with some great answers. Some were quite funny and jovial like ‘Smile every day and laugh a lot – so much that your sides hurt,’ with others like our resident Anne Kinmont giving a more compassionate view who said: “Have more confidence in yourself, things always work out for the best.”
Another resident, Nicholas Ratcliff, said: “Your only young once, try not to worry about things you can’t control. The time travelling afternoon to mark the clocks going back was great fun and it was really interesting to hear what my friends here said they’d say to their younger versions.”
Selena Whittaker, the Activities Co-ordinator at Perrins House spoke to one of her residents, Ilfa Jones who said: ““Stick to your beliefs, see the world while you can and follow your dreams”.
Reflecting on the afternoon’s activity, Selena said: “We all know that hindsight is a golden and our residents thoroughly enjoyed themselves sharing their views on what they’d tell their younger selves. It reminded me of something I’d read in a magazine a while ago. It was from Michelle Obama. She said that if she could go back in time, she’d tell her younger self to stop being so afraid and that all the times you got that one question wrong on a test isn’t important in the big scheme of things’. I liked that a lot.”
Samantha Corfield, Regional Director added: “Everyone at the three Malvern care homes appreciates that our residents are now living in the new normal and that it is key to ensure we deliver a varied and interactive activity schedule to make sure they are kept engaged, stimulated, entertained and mentally and physically active.
“We constantly review our activities calendar and ensure we take onboard all our resident’s comments, likes and dislikes to make sure we always deliver a service they want, enjoy and want to be involved in.”
