We Visit An Old Friend

We Visit An Old Friend

Last week, we drove to a care home in East Sheen, to visit a dear friend of mine, Barbara, whom I met at St George’s Hospital Medical School over 30 years ago, when I worked for the head of Forensic Psychiatry. I hadn’t been widowed all that long, and reckoned I should probably get myself a “proper" job! It was definitely not for me, but I stuck it out for a year, and I learned a lot. Barbara worked for the specialist who was head of the Psychiatry of Disability, and we became firm friends, as we both had interests in theatre and music. Barbara was also involved with the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's (RNLI) Streatham Branch, which always made me smile, imagining the lifeboats launching to rescue people out of the dangerous expanses of choppy seas in Streatham!

Barbara has never married; she looked after her Mum until the end of her life, and Barbara has no relatives to step up to the plate. She has had dementia for years, and things came to a head when she had a fall in her garden. She lay there for many hours, until she was found and taken to hospital, where it soon became obvious she couldn’t look after herself anymore. She has been in the home for some years now; during the pandemic, no-one could visit residents, and we were also looking after my Mum here. When you look back at it all, it was a really tough time for everyone. I kept writing to Barbara, but I had no idea how much she could read or understand what I was talking about. 

So, we decided it was time to make the effort and visit Barbara - it is an awfully long way, and even though we were still in the middle of the school Easter holidays, it took us 4 1/2 hours for the round trip - but we are very glad we did it, and we shall make the effort to visit more regularly in future. 

 

The home is beautiful, and the staff are on hand all the time - they really bother with the residents, and the owner is a Doctor, who is also present throughout the day.

 

 "Country and West End" back in action!

Some long years ago, we created an hour-long show of Country and West End songs and music, that we would present in many residential care homes around London, bringing some light-hearted entertainment to the residents - we were a bit different from other entertainers, because we included poetry and monologues from films, and encouraged our audiences to join in with sing-a-longs with music hall numbers. 

 

For our visit to Barbara, Bob took his guitar; we played and sang for a while, and found a little Country and Western music still goes down well!