Chateau des Tielles garden summer party
RESIDENTS and staff at Chateau des Tielles have sent out a loud and joyous thank you to the community for helping them through the challenging lockdown period and making them feel important and loved.
The care home had no cases of coronavirus, but the Torteval and wider community rallied round to protect the residents.
Yesterday the home held a garden summer party with entertainment, bouncy castles and Sueco food and drink, to thank all the people who went above and beyond.
Home Manager Peter Adam said they felt proud and humbled by the solidarity of Guernsey society: ‘The neighbours were amazing, and so many essential workers went out of their way to bring us supplies, Colin Fallaize from Southport Nurseries brought flowers, Richard Ferbrache brought shellfish, a couple of times we had breakdowns with boilers, so people like AFM and Mercury helped straight away, Cimandis delivered fruit and veg, we had great help from Iceland and the Co-op, our local milkman Mark Robilliard and the newsagent Leanne were wonderful.
‘We had to sanitise and disinfect everything that was coming into the home, but anytime I rang people up with a problem, they would help immediately, and it was such a relief that the community was pulling together, the acts of kindness were tremendous.’
Despite not have any positive cases, it was a concerning time for the home and Mr Adam said he spent sleepless nights at the beginning, worried that someone would develop a temperature or cough. As a former nurse he knew the importance of PPE, and managed to buy a large supply of the equipment, which arrived in January. The home went into lockdown on 16 March, and reopened 96 days later on the 20 June.
Staff made big sacrifices because they limited their whereabouts to just work and their own homes.
Enjoying the party yesterday with her family was Millie Wherry, 88.
She said the staff worked hard to keep spirits high during the lockdown.
‘The lockdown was difficult because I missed my family, but the staff were very good to us, they did everything they could to make it easier for us. I was more bored than scared, but it was a bit scary because I wondered how long it was going to go on for.’
The key to getting through lockdown for 82-year-old Connie Collis was to keep busy and occupied.
‘I was sad not to see my family, but we had to carry on, so we had singing classes and all sorts of things, we let everybody take part and pick something to do, and of course I chatted with my family on the WhatsApp. It was really nice of the owners to organise this, they are very good people.’
The event marked a second Liberation Day for the home because the first was, by necessity, a very quiet affair.
Mr Adam and his team are very aware that the virus could come back, but with no known cases in the island and the borders virtually closed, they allowed themselves a celebration of freedom.
