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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/19/hot-lunch-christmas-old-people-community-centre
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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Why is Cecil finally coming to the community centre’s Christmas lunch? | Why is Cecil finally coming to the community centre’s Christmas lunch? |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Cecil has changed his mind about the Christmas lunch, an event at the community centre on Christmas Day, designed to cater for around 70 people, who would otherwise be on their own. | Cecil has changed his mind about the Christmas lunch, an event at the community centre on Christmas Day, designed to cater for around 70 people, who would otherwise be on their own. |
| A year ago, his response to my suggestion that he might like to attend had been that he had no intention of spending such a day with “that lot”. | A year ago, his response to my suggestion that he might like to attend had been that he had no intention of spending such a day with “that lot”. |
| However, this year, when I checked whether he’d like to come, it was quite different and I suspect that what has happened to him in the interval may have played a part. In the spring, he started attending the community centre for lunch and activities. | However, this year, when I checked whether he’d like to come, it was quite different and I suspect that what has happened to him in the interval may have played a part. In the spring, he started attending the community centre for lunch and activities. |
| The centre has over many years built up a reputation in offering support to older people, especially those with early-onset dementia. It is important that the support for the more needy and dependent clients isn’t ghettoised. There needs to be a good mix, so that the better able can support the less able, and set an example and provide aspiration for them. | The centre has over many years built up a reputation in offering support to older people, especially those with early-onset dementia. It is important that the support for the more needy and dependent clients isn’t ghettoised. There needs to be a good mix, so that the better able can support the less able, and set an example and provide aspiration for them. |
| So, whereas last year, Cecil viewed the Christmas lunch as a gathering of losers, with “lonely old bugger tattooed on their foreheads” – his words – this time he saw it as a celebration of companionship. How he came to change his mind is worth exploring, if for no other reason than that at a time of goodwill towards men such an expression of the sentiment is worth applauding – especially when Cecil’s world, and yours and mine, is hardly overflowing with it. | So, whereas last year, Cecil viewed the Christmas lunch as a gathering of losers, with “lonely old bugger tattooed on their foreheads” – his words – this time he saw it as a celebration of companionship. How he came to change his mind is worth exploring, if for no other reason than that at a time of goodwill towards men such an expression of the sentiment is worth applauding – especially when Cecil’s world, and yours and mine, is hardly overflowing with it. |
| The community centre day is very simple. A couple of minibuses go off at just before nine to outlying edges of the town and surrounding villages and pick up those clients who cannot make their own way. On arrival at the centre, they line up to give Lisa their lunch orders, a choice between a hot main course with three veg or omelettes, salads, and two puddings hot or cold. They then split into groups for a morning of games, an afternoon of chairobics, bingo or scrabble according to the day of the week. | The community centre day is very simple. A couple of minibuses go off at just before nine to outlying edges of the town and surrounding villages and pick up those clients who cannot make their own way. On arrival at the centre, they line up to give Lisa their lunch orders, a choice between a hot main course with three veg or omelettes, salads, and two puddings hot or cold. They then split into groups for a morning of games, an afternoon of chairobics, bingo or scrabble according to the day of the week. |
| In their groups they do jigsaws, quizzes, wordwheels, flashcards, artwork, singalongs, but in all cases the activities are used to create conversation. So you might be helping with a jigsaw, say a village fete scene, and that serves as an opener to get the client on a trip down their own memory lane to when they went to the fair; or a quiz about events long ago could lead to a general discussion of what it was like when there was rationing, or a flash card of a bottle of 4711 – Google it, young people – invites reminiscences of what perfume and aftershave people could remember. | In their groups they do jigsaws, quizzes, wordwheels, flashcards, artwork, singalongs, but in all cases the activities are used to create conversation. So you might be helping with a jigsaw, say a village fete scene, and that serves as an opener to get the client on a trip down their own memory lane to when they went to the fair; or a quiz about events long ago could lead to a general discussion of what it was like when there was rationing, or a flash card of a bottle of 4711 – Google it, young people – invites reminiscences of what perfume and aftershave people could remember. |
| Each conversation will divert off into many directions and quite often it can be minutes before you get back to the quiz itself. In that time, their lined old faces come alive, their shrunk frames radiating energy as they relive their ancient times, when the world was green and their lives were purple. | Each conversation will divert off into many directions and quite often it can be minutes before you get back to the quiz itself. In that time, their lined old faces come alive, their shrunk frames radiating energy as they relive their ancient times, when the world was green and their lives were purple. |
| And they were purple indeed. All led full, brave lives; at the front, down mines, in the fields, on the wards, in the classroom, up ladders and behind the lines. | And they were purple indeed. All led full, brave lives; at the front, down mines, in the fields, on the wards, in the classroom, up ladders and behind the lines. |
| And they are respectful, they seldom speak over each other, and when they do it is usually because they can’t actually hear the person already speaking. They smile as they catch glimpses of their blue remembered hills. | And they are respectful, they seldom speak over each other, and when they do it is usually because they can’t actually hear the person already speaking. They smile as they catch glimpses of their blue remembered hills. |
| The current thinking is that recollection helps to keep the elderly brain going, to reduce, or at least delay dementia. For me it is more about the heart. In revisiting shared experiences together, elderly people keep alive that goodwill which is at the core of the human genius. | The current thinking is that recollection helps to keep the elderly brain going, to reduce, or at least delay dementia. For me it is more about the heart. In revisiting shared experiences together, elderly people keep alive that goodwill which is at the core of the human genius. |
| And I am sure that this Christmas, Cecil will bring plenty of it to all who share his table. | And I am sure that this Christmas, Cecil will bring plenty of it to all who share his table. |
| Older people | Older people |
| Grey matters | Grey matters |
| Christmas | Christmas |
| Communities | Communities |
| Dementia | Dementia |
| Mental health | Mental health |
| Social care | Social care |
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