The residents and staff at Southborough Nursing Home got swept away by the celebrations of the occasion. We had not one, not two, but four events across the week, and each time beautiful memories were made.
When we heard the Queen’s speech for the Platinum, she expressed it beautifully when she said: “Many memories will be made in the coming week.” When we stood with the residents at our local street party, feeling exhilarated by the atmosphere, those words resonated.
Our celebrations began on Friday with “The Bold Balladeers” enthralling everyone with their soulful yet happy tunes. Resident Joan Bennett was moved by the music and joined in, singing along and resident Arthur Burt, said with a smile: “I remembered the words when I was younger.” All in all, the event was just a start to our Jubilee merriments. A wonderful, memorable afternoon!
The Future Care Group is proud to be part of “The Queen’s Green Canopy”, and we got a lot of support from Janice Hawkins, our Group Sales and Marketing Manager, to help us prepare for the tree planting and plaque unveiling event. This event took centre stage!
Kamal Gill, Southborough Nursing Home’s Manager, invited families to join our residents for the garden party and celebrate this special occasion. All the staff were busy with the preparations and planning, it was such a great teamwork. We were overwhelmed by all the families’ response and enthusiasm to join the party. One of our resident’s family members gracefully agreed to be our DJ which was the cherry on top!
Our kitchen team prepared a great spread. Chef Valerie whipped up two scrumptious trifles and a large selection of goodies, which were enjoyed by all the residents and families. Our staff members really showed what teamwork looks like by setting up the garden and dressing our residents in their best! There was a lot of buzz and the energy was tangible!
The garden party was truly special, it was wonderful seeing families sit together with their loved ones. For residents whose families couldn’t make it on the day, it was a great joy to see them having fun with staff and other residents, sporting crowns and waving at the camera for us to share their memories with their families on video! There was so much joy all around, music and dancing. Our resident Sue Watson couldn’t resist standing up from her wheelchair with her daughter’s and the team’s support to move to the music! It made her feel like she was a winner when we cheered for her! What a special moment and a treasured memory.
We were pleased that our plaque unveiling was done by our war veteran resident Edith Abel with support from Aruna, who is the longest-serving member of staff at Southborough. She will complete 25 years at our Home in a few months! The scrumptious-looking cake was cut by our residents Douglas and Beryl. There was a great camaraderie all around and it just lifted everyone’s spirits. The event was made memorable by each one present! Lifestyle Lead Shobha Lakshminarayan commented: “I felt so humbled and grateful that it all went extremely well!”
The next morning, we had another exciting event to look forward to! It was the local STREET PARTY right outside our care home on Langley Avenue. We had residents and staff joining in with great enthusiasm. The energy on the street was palpable and made our hearts full. There was live music, people waving flags and having ice cream! Our residents could not resist the temptation and called out their favourite flavours and we went to the ice cream van for a round of ice cream. Our resident Barbara later had a candy floss and admitted that she hadn’t had one since she was a child. The singalong at the end of the event was great and our residents and staff joined in with the lovely tunes. We returned with our hearts full of fond Jubilee memories. It gave us all a sense of community. Glad we did not miss it.
Our grand finale event was a musical event on Monday morning – Jubilee Singers ‘Rah Rah Theatre Company’ who performed an interactive show with singing, dancing, jokes and short comedy sketches that entertained the residents and made them laugh, sing as well as brought a lot of joy. It was the grand finale of our Jubilee events! Residents were ever so pleased to have the experience of a live show. Margaret was pleased to share this experience with her husband who was visiting, they held hands and watched the lovely show together!
These special events were for celebrating the Platinum Jubilee, and they all gave us memories to treasure and hold.
