Stories of another world

Recently I've been talking to a lot of my residents, and their families, about their lives. The company I work for has recently introduced some new paperwork that you have to fill in which is a life story, to try to get the care workers to know their residents better and learn about their lives. And, whilst most of the time I hate paperwork, of which there seems to be more and more every day, the life story is fantastic!

Talking to some of my residents has made me realise how much has changed in the past century. Stories of true poverty, of not having matching shoes and having to dye a brown shoe black so they had two the same colour, stories of going into service and having to sleep under a sink... It's amazing, that they have come so far in their lives, that they have come from that poverty and accomplished so much... I feel sad in a way that I will never have those experiences; not that I want to live in poverty, but that I think everyone could learn something from that, and that I will never have those stories to tell... And in the world as it is now, in the UK anyway, very few people live in that poverty. All children have to go to school and can learn to read and write, whereas less than a century ago, one of my residents had to drop out of school at a young age, as it was a privilege not a right, and taught herself to read and write whilst working as a cleaner and living under a sink just in order to survive.

Anyway, I'm not allowed to share any of the stories, but I can say that they have lead amazing lives, and it also great to know them for who they were, in their day, rather than what they have become because of their dementia. It's really inspirational. I may not be able to come from poverty and make a transformation, but I can make sure I accomplish a lot in my life... And who knows where this country will be in the next century?!

Werthers originals

I always thought it was a myth that elderly people always had werthers originals, just for the adverts?

But there's one old lady at work who always has werthers originals, bags and bags of them in her room.

She always gives me one, but because she has short term memory loss, she forgets that she's given them to me, and gives me another. And another. In about 20 minutes she'd given me about a whole bag! In the end I had to sneak them back into the bag and she'd give them to me again! Anyway, I guess it's not just a myth... And it never fails to cheer me up!