5 years ago · admin

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!

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5 years ago · admin

Springdene Newsletter September 4 2021

Do WE need to be vaccinated to visit our loved ones at Springdene? This is a question some of you have asked this week. To recap, the government has announced that all staff in our homes must be double vaccinated by November, otherwise they will not be permitted to work.

The new rule also applies to everyone who enters the premises, whether they are maintenance staff, hairdressers, beauticians or entertainers. However, there is one exception – visitors and friends who come to visit their loved ones in the homes. This is designed to protect the human rights of families.

Nevertheless, we appeal to you to ensure you are double vaccinated before coming to visit Springdene. Predictions are that the highly transmissible Delta variant will become even more rampant in the autumn, especially as schools and universities reopen. The hard work by our staff in testing and cleaning has made sure that our homes have been free from the virus for some months now. We are determined to keep it that way.

But there is a silver lining. The requirement for vaccination means that the door will be open in the not-too-distant future to bring in more outside entertainers to enhance our activities programmes. As you know, since the first lockdown, most of our enviable range of activities have been generated internally. But now we see an opportunity to open it out to more entertainers, lecturers and musicians, who we will be able to verify as safe. Watch this space!

While on the subject of activities, we are very sorry to announce we are saying goodbye to our much-loved group activities manager Eirlys Roff, who is moving on to a new position. Many of you will be familiar with Eirlys, with her huge energy, her lovely smile and always a cheerful word for every resident. She has been responsible for many innovations, including the activities planners, which are sent to you every week. And the entertaining Great Springdene Bake Off and the Springdene Olympics, which so many enjoyed, were developed by Eirlys, too.

Eirlys will remain on hand as a consultant for a short while, but we wish her all the best for the future as she leaves the homes. In the meantime, activities in the homes are in D Issue 45 the capable hands of the rest of the team – Tegan, Magda, Malwina, Steve and Odile while we interview for a new group activities manager.

While on the subject of activities, the best of them were shown off this week as we filmed and photographed for our exciting new website, which we hope to launch in the next few weeks. Tegan and Eirlys sang some of the old songs, Steve invited everybody to his Day at the Races, as well as his very popular Casino, and our very talented Spring Grove resident Marcelle Jay (above) played the piano. It was wonderful to hear her fingers on the ivories.

In her previous life, Marcelle was a distinguished ophthalmologist and is one of many folk at Springdene with a marvellous life story. She was so eminent that a room at University College London was named after her. Another is 99-year-old Lilli Segel, who has just joined us at Spring Lane. Lilli is one of the few people still alive in the UK with memories of pre-war Berlin in the Nazi era where she grew up as a young girl. She came to England as a refugee from Hitler in 1939.

“I call it my Fairy Story,” says Lilli, her bright eyes animated as she tells her tale. As a Jewish child, she had been forced out of her grammar school even though she was a star pupil. “I recall my teacher crying because I had to go. The atmosphere in the city was terrible. I remember all the broken glass from Kristallnacht – it was horrifying.” [In November 1938, in an incident known as “Kristallnacht”, the Nazis torched synagogues, vandalised Jewish homes, schools and businesses and killed close to 100 Jews.]

But by chance, while in a cafe in the Tiergarten, Lilli had found a handbag belonging to an English girl, with whom she subsequently struck up a correspondence. The girl, Dodi, who lived in Liverpool, encouraged Lilli to escape from Germany and so she fled on a terrifying journey, leaving her parents behind. “Before I got to the border, I saw a Nazi take a child’s teddy bear and slash it open with a knife,” she says.

But Lilli (above) was well looked after and flourished in Britain, marrying and making up for her lost education by doing a degree with the Open University, eventually becoming an academic teaching drama at the University of London, where who worked up to her retirement aged 90. Lilli also occupied a distinguished position at the National Theatre

After retiring she returned to Berlin on a nostalgic visit to her old school and the headmaster was able to dig out her records. “It was amazing after all that time – ‘very good pupil’, it said.” Now, aged 99, with the help of her daughter, Lilli has written up her life story. “I thought that sometime in the future, the world should know about all these events,” she says.

It’s been birthday time for another distinguished resident – Ian Willison CBE, former head of rare books at the British Library. Ian, one of the authors of the “Cambridge History of the Book”, was so thrilled with his birthday celebration that he stood up and made a speech and wrote a card to all who attended, donating two of his books to the Spring Grove library. Thank you, Ian and many happy returns!

And, of course, we mustn’t forget our cherished residents of the week, who we pamper with flowers and chocolates and to whom we grant special wishes.

At Spring Grove our celebrity this week is Lady Elizabeth O’Brien. Elizabeth has lived in many areas of the UK. She was born in Halifax, and has also lived in Birmingham, Wakefield and London. She read medicine at university and is a big lover of the arts, particularly classical music, painting and singing. She was a consultant child psychiatrist and really loved her work. She mostly likes to spend her time relaxing in her room but does like to join in with parties and classical music events. She has requested a gin and tonic and a fish supper, so we will absolutely organise this for her.

Maureen Bennett at Spring Lane adores music and every time she hears it her face lights up. She regularly sings along to her favourites and beams when listening. She is also a huge fan of “Dad’s Army” and “Father Ted”, which she finds hilarious. She was born in Dublin and grew up there. Her favourite job was teaching. She enjoys a sherry, lager or a gin & tonic so we’ll get her at least one of those this week! She has requested scrambled eggs on toast as a treat for breakfast.

Joan Gallaway is one of the quiet people at Springview, but she loves music and used to go dancing all the time. She grew up in Wood Green and has a brother and a sister, who also lives at Springview and the two of them spend all their time together often holding hands.

Joan used to enjoy football and snooker and has very much relished watching the various sporting events in the Paralympics. She has requested a roast dinner and a glass of wine, which we will happily provide her with.

Lastly, we are delighted to receive the following warm tribute from Garry Davison, whose mother is in Springview: “The care and facilities provided at Springview are second to none. I live in South America, and due to Covid restrictions, have not been able to visit Springview to see my mother for over 18 months. I used to visit her every three months.

“It is so comforting for me to know that she is being so well looked after, and at least I get the chance to see her on the weekly Skype video calls that we have. She is doing very well and seems happy with life. The staff at Springview are all amazing, and I would like to send a big thank you to them all for looking after Mum so well.”

Thank you, Garry. It is very much appreciated.

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