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Springdene Newsletter September 18 2021

EVEN WHEN there are grey skies (of which there have been many recently!) the mood is always sunny at Springdene. Lori, our enterprising manager at Spring Lane, hosted a wonderful barbecue the other day, where residents chomped on burgers and other delicious grilled food. Just how much folk enjoyed it can be seen from the picture above!

At all three homes, residents have been soaking up the last bit of sun among the late blooms in the gardens before autumn approaches. But with this in mind, folk have been busy knitting for the colder months. And they have been enjoying the Spotify playlist “Summer Hits of the Sixties” so as to make the season last that bit longer.

At Spring Grove we celebrated Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and made some lovely apple prints to denote the occasion. We also celebrated Linda Dean’s 82nd birthday and she asked if she could watch “Hamlet”, which, of course, we fixed for her. She very much enjoyed it. Lori, at Spring Lane, also organised a fantastic cheese and wine party.

We’ve also been celebrating our lovely residents of the week, for whom we grant special wishes, as well as giving chocolates and flowers.

Frances Wilson at Springview loves listening to music and, like her sister Joan (who also lives in the home), was a big fan of dancing in her youth. Frances enjoys participating in most activities and can always be heard singing along to entertaining musicians or joining in with quizzes and offering her answers.

She very much enjoys spending time with her sister Joan and loves to eat chocolate. She’ll no doubt get her fair share this week as well as her favourite tipple – a nice big glass of white wine!

At Spring Grove, Pat Tavignot is a quiet woman who likes to keep herself to herself. She does occasionally enjoy joining us for quizzes or interesting documentaries. She is an avid reader and spends a lot of her time reading in her room. In fact, her first job was at the Marylebone Road Library, the perfect spot for a bookworm!

Pat spent most of her life working in the information bureau which she very much enjoyed. And she spent many holidays in France, one of her favourite places. She hasn’t requested a lot this week, but she adores fruit, so she’ll be given lots of lovely fruity treats all week.

Mary Kelly at Spring Lane is a wonderfully bright and cheery lady. She hails from County Galway in Ireland and is a big lover of music and especially dancing. She jives like no other when a bit of rock ’n’ roll comes on, and can often be seen swinging a member of staff around the room as she leads them in all sorts of lively dance moves!

She is also a very keen cook and loves to help us with baking. She was a huge part of the Great Springdene Bake Off this spring and we look forward to tasting some more of her baked goods in next year’s competition.

Mary has always worked incredibly hard all her life, but her favourite job was working in a kitchen in Palmer’s Green, so it’s no wonder she’s a pro in the kitchen in our home! She has requested Irish stew for her dinner, so we’ll make sure we get her a lovely big portion!

There was another delightful moment when our thoughtful Spring Lane manager Lori organised a birthday celebration for carer Belinda Juco (below), whose husband Mario also worked for us but sadly died after contracting Covid-19. “What a lovely surprise!” said Belinda.

On the business front, our dynamic modernisation plans are starting to bear fruit. Our new website is close to completion. Staff and residents contributed to some wonderful video interviews, which we will share with you soon. Our social media accounts are thriving – try dipping into https://www.facebook.com/Springdene. And we’re thrilled that the pre-application about to be submitted for planning permission for our state-of the art development at Spring Lane.

Here, as well as a general refurbishment, we are increasing the number of rooms and creating a wellbeing centre, complete with hydrotherapy pool. When finished, it will be one of the finest in north London. We’re also pleased to note we are receiving more inquiries again from potential residents after the dip in occupancy due to Covid-19.

And some other good news. We’re pleased to say that all our care staff – and indeed anyone who works in or enters our homes – will have been fully vaccinated by November 11. This is another vital piece in our armoury in the battle against Covid-19.

Finally, this will be our last newsletter in a fortnightly format. The next issue will be published in a month’s time. When we first started these newsletters, back at the height of the pandemic, there was much information to convey to you, especially relating to the exigencies surrounding Covid-19 – infection control, new visiting rules and so on.

Now things have settled down and the homes are humming along nicely (they have been Covid-free for several months), we’re happy to serve you with all our news and views on a monthly basis, though we will, from time to time publish special one-off editions. Have a good weekend and we’ll see you in four weeks!