Social sessions are popular amongst the residents of Hunters Down Care Home. Although they enjoy getting involved in a range of activities and exercise classes, a chat with their friends over a hot drink is just as entertaining.
During their recent session, the residents began talking about their lifelong passions. Kenneth, who lives at Hunters Down started talking about football. He supports Kettering Football Club and in his playing days, he was a centre half.
He remembers Kettering’s Manager, Tommy Lawson well. He said that Tom used to play in the team and always impressed with all-round attacking skills. He could head the ball with power and accuracy, something that many struggle to master. “Back in those days”, said Kenneth, “the ball was made of leather so it was much heavier!”
This started a conversation about a recent topic that has come up on the news, about ex-football players being more likely to develop dementia. Ken said passionately, “of course, the brain is very delicate and getting that knocked about is really not good for it”.
Joan agreed with Kenneth and said she used to enjoy watching football and supporting her club, Norwich. She was a sports teacher in Norwich and said she enjoyed the competitive aspect of sport.
Joan then told everyone about the time she took some girls from the school to watch Norwich play. Whilst talking, she recalled how worried she was when they had a headcount at the end of the match and there was one girl missing. Joan told the rest of the girls not to move an inch while she went to look for the missing girl. They found each other and apparently the girl had gone to the toilet without asking for permission. Joan said that it was every teacher’s nightmare, but thankfully all was well.
These group discussions help to bring back happy memories and develop relationships between residents as they learn new things about each other. They also help to highlight experiences that people have shared, spurring lots of group discussion.
We look forward to more hearing more interesting stories during the next reminiscence session at Hunters Down.