A Very Special Moment Today

 

 

I had lunch with Dad and Feisty Fred at the nursing home today. Once again it delivered some more memorable moments for me.

Dad had one mouthful of his pea and ham soup in a mug before accidentally dumping the entire contents in his lap (straight after his late shower). I cleaned him up and the carers kindly offered to change him again for me afterwards. He was happy regardless, and we both ate together on our own table for the first time in 12 months.

Feisty Fred turned 96 today and I was honoured to spend time with him as he opened his present and we sang ‘Happy Birthday’. Fred took full advantage of his birthday status and felt it was appropriate to lay a ‘birthday kiss’ on his favourite female resident. It caught all of us off guard and he delivered a very energetic and entertaining kiss on the lucky lady. No-one knew where to look.🙂

He then blew me away with the following comment that certainly made my week.

Fred : “I have been thinking about you as I remember that we had spent some wonderful time together during a group activity.

Brett: that’s good, was it golf? Or perhaps balloon tennis?

Fred: “I can’t remember what it bloody was but I believe it involved companionship and friendship, and I really enjoyed it.”

<mind blown >

Brett : “……I have no words”.

This is dementia …..

(and is why these people need to be nurtured and respected)

PS – I also took the best selfie ever of the two of us ( which I am not allowed to fully post due to privacy reasons)…but will be treasured.

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“Que Sera Sera” – Music to Their Ears

I have just found the musical ‘sweet spot’ for the ladies in the nursing home.

They were listening to ‘Tom Jones’ at the breakfast table and it was simply not right at that hour, and they were a bit grumpy.

I asked the ladies if they minded me changing to some more happier music?. First song was Que Sera by Doris Day. The place then ‘went off’ – all the ladies instantly started singing with some doing high parts and some doing low parts. It was one of those ‘magic moments’.

I ran into another male resident who wanted to know how to charge batteries. This lead me to checking his music system which was off again. I played some Beethoven and the look on his face was priceless. He patted me on the back and said “thank you, thankyou”. I sat him down in his musical sanctuary and he was loving it.

I then visited Dad and turned his cd player on to knock out ‘Beat Goes On ‘ by Sonny & Cher. He grinned and started laughing straight away.

A great musical morning. I wonder what would happen if we brought a DJ into the nursing home??…lol.