Resident Helen tells her story at St George’s Court
At St George’s Court, it’s always a huge priority to find out more about the residents and the lives they’ve lead. Helen lives at the care home and has written a book about her life that is waiting to be published and in the meantime, was more than happy to tell the team some stories about the amazing life she’s lead.
Born in East Dereham, Helen talked very fondly about moving in at a young age with her large family, consisting of her father, step mum, 4 step brothers and 3 step sisters. Her father had owned the Gray’s Circus but sold it just before she was born.
She also recalled an amusing story about one of her step sisters, who used to enjoy pushing their pet kittens in a pram! When Helen was 6 and a half years of age, she had to go and live with her mother and new stepdad. Helen had a lot of conflicts with her Mother at this age and did not particularly enjoy school, often bunking off with some of her friends. In her last term however, she finally started to enjoy herself but was always looking for something different.
Helen worked at Fakenham laundry where she ironed ‘religious habits’ for monks; this suited her quite well as she was a very fast ironer. At the age of 16, Helen met her future husband Wincent on a blind date. They went to the cinema together and hit it off straight away. Helen reminisced about Wincent asking her to marry him and how she immediately said yes.
Wincent was a traveller so when they married they spent time travelling in the caravan to places such as London, Luton & Dunstable. To raise some cash, Helen would sell products door to door and Wincent would repair second hand cars to sell. After sometime they brought some land at Steeple Bumpstead in Essex, but could not get a licence to build on it. Wincent’s cousin managed to get them a license on another piece of land near the A14 on which they opened a scrapyard together for a short while!
Helen and Wincent had 5 children, which then led to 9 grandchildren and a further 3 great-grandchildren with another one on the way.
Many years later Helen’s marriage unfortunately came to an end and after a few location changes, she moved into a bungalow in Bottisham, Cambridgeshire where she had lived for the past 21 years. Unfortunately, Helen had a fall and has since been recuperating at St George’s Court.
The team at St George’s Court Care Home was fascinated to hear Helen tell them about her life’s story and can’t wait to see the results of her book!