A care home in Southmead marked the Victory in Europe Day anniversary with a special event.
Care UK’s Trymview Hall, on Southmead Road, hosted a street party-themed event to encourage residents to reminisce and celebrate this historical milestone.
The home was adorned with flags, balloons and homemade bunting specially for the occasion. Residents were treated to a special VE Day inspired menu prepared by Trymview Hall’s chef, including quiches, meat and potato pie as well as scones and Victoria sponge cake. Team members also dressed in 1940s clothes to create an immersive experience, and residents were given the opportunity to share their memories of the historical day.
Among them was resident Doreen Stallard, aged 92. Born in Bristol, she remembers the big street parties outside her house, though her and her mother didn’t attend as they were still eagerly waiting for her father, an artillery solder, to return. She said: “My mother cried with happiness, because my father had survived and would get to come home. We heard it over the radio at the time – it was marvellous!”.
Doreen still has kept insurance documents her parents received after their family home was destroyed in a bombing, as she considers them to be associated with happy memories – she recalls her mother frantically looking for them while her father was trying to organise his own street party celebration after he returned.
Charlotte Levin, Home Manager at Trymview Hall, said: “VE Day was 76 years ago, yet some residents remember it like it was yesterday.
“Many of them were still children at the time, so VE Day marked the beginning of a more worry-free childhood, while some residents remember being reunited with family members who had gone to war. Needless to say, this was an emotional time – which we all felt during our celebrations, even decades later.
“We had a wonderful time hosting our indoor ‘street party’, and it was great to hear some heart-warming stories from residents – events like these are a wonderful way to encourage reminiscence, which can be really beneficial for older people, especially those living with dementia. We’d like to say a big thank you to residents for sharing their memories with us; they reminded us just how lucky we were not to have experienced a conflict of this scale in our lifetime.”
Trymview Hall provides full-time residential and dementia care, with 66 ensuite bedrooms, and has been designed to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives, while also promoting independence. The care home will incorporate space for hobby and leisure activities and will include its own cinema, hairdressing salon and café.
For more information about Trymview Hall, please email Customer Relations Manager, Michael Kenny, on michael.kenny@careuk.com or call 0333 321 8351.
To find out more about Trymview Hall, visit careuk.com/trymview-hall