An emotional reunion
There was an emotional reunion for residents and family of a local care home recently.
The non-profit Lady Forester Centre in Broseley held a celebratory lunch in the gardens of the care home on Sunday, September 5, to mark the fact that they managed to navigate the extremely difficult past 18 months without a single case of Covid-19.
The small, local care home has 14 residents currently, who were able to see some friends and family through the introduction of a crowd-funded 'pod', which enabled them to see some loved ones in a bio-secure environment through the past few months. The lunch was the first time in a long time that families were able to meet up in a more normal setting.
"The residents and families were making up for lost birthdays, lost Easters, lost Christmas," said trustee Gillian Kelly.
"It was a really good day, it was very joyful and very moving," Gillian added.
The care home navigated the past year without a single case of Covid-19 in the home, but other homes have not been so lucky.
Gillian said: "It has been a really tough time. Care homes have had a shocking time, it has been dreadful."
The success in keeping the residents safe from the virus was down to being proactive, Gillian explained.
"The manager took the decision in advance of the beginning of lockdown last year to not accept any new residents, and to close the day centre and to close to visitors.
"There were lots of small things too - things like getting staff to change out of their uniforms before they went home - which helped," Gillian explained.
"When we can, we will be starting up the day centre again. We hope to do that in early November," she said.
