Lambeth

Mission

Pack to the future

2 GoodGymers made their way to help an isolated older person in Lambeth.

  • Elizabeth
  • Amy Pezet
 
Wednesday, 18th of September 2019

Today I attempted to turn hump day into fist bump day as I visited Lambeth for a lunchtime mission with Amy.

Today's task was to help Mr K. Mr K navigates around his home using his walker. However, he's recently been colliding with some of his possessions while moving around. GoodGym were asked to help make it a bit safer for him by packing away some of his belongings to free up floor space.

After introducing ourselves to Mr K and his occupational therapist, we got to work. Organising is one of my specialities (both of things and of people, although it seems to be called bossiness when applied to people 🤔), so I was looking forward to Amy labelling me an organising thaumaturge after this mission 😎

First port of call was what should be everyone's first port of call in a new location: the bathroom. While Amy moved some cleaning bottles towards the edges of the room, I had a pretty ineffective attempt at sweeping up some soil from a tipped pot plant. Deciding to apply my specialist skills sooner rather than later, I organised Amy directly into my sweeping job and assumed the role of packing cleaning supplies into a handily placed bucket. Bathroom done!

Second port of the call was the kitchen. We cleared counters (mostly into drawers), hid shoes in cupboards, discussed the relative merits of storing potatoes in a fridge over a cupboard, and made (in my humble opinion) the inspired decision to move Mr K's gardening tools to a corner of his bedroom (this last thing may have been my suggestion 😅). The kitchen counters looked so much more streamlined afterwards that my head spontaneously started to sing "streamed lines" to the tune of "blurred lines" (I hid it well because it almost kills me that my mind didn't automatically have a closer rhyme).

Last part of call was Mr K's bedroom. This went by incredibly quickly, as we mostly just sorted through a few items with the occupational therapist and pushed them into various corners. Amy was much braver at this than I was, willingly picking up a couple of bottles of unknown liquid from the floor (admittedly we were wearing gloves and aprons kindly provided by the occupational therapist, but I would still have been overly dramatic about it if I had attempted it, so kudos to Amy). Amy also discovered some duct tape in Mr K's bedroom that came in handy for sticking down some loose carpet in the hallway. I watched her do this and provided an entertaining monologue. Good team work! 😎👍

This brought us to the end of our task and our lunch hour, so we made our goodbyes to both Mr K and his occupational therapist and left for a northern line tube (honestly, seeing Amy's face after introducing her to the "Kennington pong" was a valued experience). Hopefully Mr K will be able to navigate more smoothly in the future as a result of our work :)

Hope you enjoyed your second mission and see you again soon, Amy! 😄

Report written by Elizabeth


Discuss this report

sign in to add a comment

Share the love

Get your mission on

What are you waiting for?

Find a mission

Become a member

with an optional monthly donation

  • Run, walk, or cycle to help older people
  • Access sessions across the country
  • Claim your GoodGym t-shirt

Cookies help us deliver our services. By using our services, you agree to our use of cookies. Learn more