Anna Chaplains Ali Griffiths and Liz York have been out and about again in North Tyneside, responding to an invitation to offer spiritual and religious care in an extra care housing scheme.
This is Ali’s report of their first visit:
‘Liz and I were very lucky to get contact with a facility called Havelock Place: they do great work specifically with people living with dementia or cognitive impairment. They opened their doors in April 2022, and Sheila the manager was keen to have some spiritual guidance/input for the residents, so she contacted our vicar Tim, who then put Liz and I in touch to arrange our first visit. We had nine residents take part in our “Prayers, painting and song” Messy Vintage morning, helped by our two Anna Chaplain volunteers Janet S, who worked at Havelock Place until her retirement, and Heather G [my wife]. The residents were delightful and really engaged in all the activities: the theme was Ascension. After we introduced ourselves, we had a reading from Liz, then the ladies sat for their painting activity [see photos]. I must say, they were very interested and quite focused. We heard that one lovely lady used to be a professional singer, and does not come out of her room too often, but she attended and was a real delight, and even treated us to a beautiful rendition of “White Cliffs Of Dover”. After an hour of creating some lovely pictures we all sat in the comfy seats and had a coffee break with a few songs from way back, which we all enjoyed immensely. We ended the morning by sharing home Communion with six of the ladies, which rounded our visit off nicely. Sheila of Havelock Place was delighted with how the morning went, and we will be visiting on a regular basis, about once a month.’
Photo credits: Ali Griffiths