Read the Eulogy and about the Memorial service here.

2005 - Thelma moves to The Fountains

As reported last year, Thelma's health had deteriorated such that she was deemed as needing full-time nursing care. In the early part of 2005 a place became available, and at the end of February she was moved from Lynwood Lodge in Sale to The Fountains, which is much closer to us in Swinton. (You can see where on our Google Earth Tour) The new contact details are:-

The Fountains Victoria Park Swinton Hall Road Swinton SALFORD M27 4DZ Tel 0161 794 5814

The Fountains is situated within the beautiful grounds of Victoria Park and within a 5 minute walk from Swinton Town Centre. The home is divided into four individually named units which offer an extensive range of services. The Fountains is a home of outstanding accommodation. The hotel-like appearance of the home is part of the overall impression that makes The Fountains unlike any other home in the area. The reception area is most impressive, with custom-tiled floor, mahogany fronted reception desk and a central fountain feature based on the statue of Aquarius.

Just before the move she had a chest infection from which she was only just recovering, and although she was unable to express it verbally, I think the change of location caused quite a shock to her. Shortly after arriving she was admitted to hospital, mainly because she wasn't eating properly, but they could find nothing particularly wrong with her and after returning to The Fountains she slowly picked up, particularly when they started moving her to the lounge during the day.

At Lynwood Lodge her confinement to bed had been largely because of the home didn't have the facilities to be continually moving her, whereas the nursing home is a modern facility, with her unit all on one level, and with lots of space and mechanical aids. The lounge and dining area are in a triangular room across an internal corner of the building. It's big, bright and airy, and there's plenty happening with people coming and going, all of which gives Thelma a sense of being involved with activity even though she's not doing much herself.

Thelma in the lounge of The Fountains on Christmas Day 2005 (they look a bit grainy because they're taken under available light, but the ones taken with flash look terribly harsh)

Whilst it is sad not to be able to have a conversation of any meaning with her any more, or to discuss anything from the "real world", she usually appears happy and content with where she is when we visit, and that's about the best we can hope for.

Previous Years

Thelma moved from Greenoak Drive in September 2002

Her new home is quite near the centre of Sale, where she used to do her regular shopping, and they've got a web site at www.lynwoodlodge.co.uk with all the contact details plus a few pictures so you can see what it looks like. It's open to visitors pretty much any time. Lynwood Lodge, 20/22 Broad Road, Sale, Cheshire, M33 2AL Tel: (0161) 973 7210, Fax: (0161) 962 6424

Martin describes how the move came about

She'd had a fairly stable year during 2002, with no major disasters, but, on reflection, steadily continuing to decline. As ever, she'd enjoyed being out in her garden as much as possible over the summer, but her angina and worsening sense of balance had significantly limited her activities.

For the last few years she had refused to even discuss the possibility of moving to a retirement flat or care home, but as the summer progressed she started to give hints that she might have to move sometime, as the garden was getting too much for her. Then, in Audust, she saw a For Sale sign outside a block of flats at the end of her road and told a visiting friend that she was moving there "next week". Surprised, the friend phoned me to ask if it was true. I knew nothing about it, of course, but I went over and found that she'd got no further than enquiring about it. So we talked about it, and she said she definitely felt she had to move, and I suggested a retirement flat of the sort where there is an on-site warden, a shared residents' lounge, laundry, activities, etc, but still having independent cooking facilities and a high degree of independence. Given that she was still doing her own shopping, cooking, cleaning, etc, I wasn't sure if she was ready for a full care home where she would only have a bedroom, and everything else would be provided. So I did a tour of local estate agents, brought back some details and made an appointment for the following weekend for us to go and look at a couple of them.

However, when Kathie and I arrived on the Sunday morning, she announced that she'd changed her mind - which we took to mean that she'd decided (once again) that she didn't want to move. To our surprise, she said that she'd decided she wanted somewhere where they'd do everything, so we cancelled the viewings and started looking through the yellow pages for Residential Care Homes, and started phoning round to see if there were any vacancies. By the following weekend we'd looked at most of them from the outside, and several on the inside, and took her to see the one which looked the best. I can't say we were 100% happy with any of them, but you can only select from what's available, particularly at short notice. Anyway, Thelma seemed to think it was fine, so we gave her a couple of days to see if she'd change her mind, and she didn't, so we booked her in a for a four week trial starting the following Saturday. That's now well passed, and she seems to have settled in quite well, certainly as well as we could have hoped. Her room's big enough for us to have taken a little of her furniture and recreated a corner of her lounge with her favourite chair and table, together with lots of pictures and paintings on the walls.

Happier December times - Thelma poses in her garden for the Manchester Evening News