Making a Housteads a Home

5 Goodgymmers met Charlotte at Housteads Care Home to help spruce up the garden (James we lost en route to a punctured tyre)... in her words to "give it a titivate" (which I always think sounds rude 😜).

Main jobs for the day included weeding and replacing solar-powered fairy lights around the flower beds. We started with the tricky job of identifying what was and wasn't a weed, and moved on to "decking the halls" with lights. After some drizzle-induced hesitance, the sun appeared and we decided it was dry enough to safely teak oil a memorial bench. We'd initially planned to take the bench under cover, but realised it was bolted securely to the ground. Charlotte told us how sadly they have to make sure everything is secured or else it is in danger of being stolen 😔.

We learnt she's been in her role as "activity worker" only since December and that her work is especially important to her because her nannan is a resident here. We talked about the different wings they have for residents with different care needs, some with advanced dementia. We also talked about the impact of COVID - they have a "visiting pod" in the garden that they spend time with loved ones through a perspex screen or they can have room visits, but only in full PPE. We hope that the garden will help brighten their days a little and that they'll soon be able to enjoy them properly with family 🥰