Carols at St Mary's

St Mary's School for girls in Waverley, invited us to attend their annual Christmas Concert on the 15th of November.  We had a fun-filled morning with these special girls...

The fun  started when we had to drive on a golf cart to the hall.  Sarah Lombard, Penny Diamond and Dinah holding on tight.  

Margaret Ramsay is an "old girl" of St Mary's and always enjoys the carols.  Madge Ronald and Sister Thirza from Elphin Lodge peeking out from behind the Christmas Tree.  

The tables were beautifully decorated and each guest received a little present and lots and lots of treats. Here is Sara Lombard, Eva Reubenson, her sister Shirley Abrams and volunteer Edna van Rensburg.  

Tarentaal residents enjoying the tea provided while the children sang their heart out.

The choir sang beautifully.

The school orchestra provided a virtuoso performance.

Penny Diamond was the hit of the party with children gathering to chat to her and not wanting to leave her side.  The teachers had to coax them away eventually.  She obviously has that special something children look for in their grannies.  

Christmas is around the corner :)  

Lunch outside

Last week, the sun was shining so brightly that the residents of Lakeside had their lunch outside.This was a pleasant change from their normal lunch time in the dining room and they all enjoyed it a lot.

Outdoor dining might become a regular event, according to Sister Tando...

 Sarah Lombaardt, Penny Diamond and Joy Movat enjoying the special lunch.

Minnie Rosenberg, Frieda Le Seuer and Mary Phillip.

Joy's garden is getting more beautiful every day.

What a wonderful idea :) 

This and That

Just a few photos of the happenings here at Ron Smith Care Centre:

Penny Diamond tackling a 500-piece puzzle in Lakeside.

Sarah Lombaardt loves her puzzle time and is determined to finish each puzzle she starts.

Freda le Sueur with volunteer Hannie Roux building their puzzle together. 

Joy Movat has been working hard to make her own garden in front of her room.  

I think she did a beautiful job.

Sister Tando, showing she still loves her job.

Lorna Smith making a beautiful tissue box in OT.

The Knitting Ladies at work.

John Lee focusing on his woodwork.

Volunteer Grace Lissoni spending time with Selwyn Katz. 

June Lane rediscovering her passion for typing after an old typing machine was donated to us.

Please let me know if you would like to see a photo or a story of your family member on the blog by emailing me at cvanzyl@randaid.co.za

Outing to Elphino's

On Friday, the 19th of October, we visited our new in-house coffee shop for an outing. We normally ferry residents in a minibus to nearby places when outings are arranged but as nice as that is, it limits the amount of people we can take and you can only go to places that are accessible with regard to all the walkers and wheelchairs.

Elphino's made it possible for us to have over 20 people join in on the fun and it's very accessible and accommodates all our needs. The residents had a ball of a time - ordering coffee and cake or toasted sandwiches and you could hear chatting and laughing as you walked by.

We really are so happy about our new coffee shop and will have regular outings there in the future...

The food was yummy :)

The conversation was flowing :) 

Maggie Vickers deciding what to eat. The waiters were very friendly and helpful.

June Lane and Cecily Ryder showing how much they enjoyed the outing

Thank you to all the Elphino's staff for making our outing special and enjoyable.  

Magical Moments at RSCC

The latest 'residents' at our care centre have been given a warm welcome. Four Pekin Ducks now call Ron Smith Care Centre home and keep us entertained with their antics. Staff and residents agree that they bring a whole new atmosphere to the care centre. The bigger male and female were named Peter Pan and Wendy and the smaller male and female Ben and Martha.

The residents love the ducks and spend hours watching what they are up to. One resident, Mr Frank Brown, has become particularly fond of the ducks and has made it his duty to feed them every day.

Frank Brown feeding Peter Pan, Wendy, Ben and Martha.

Colleen Daly joined in to see what was happening.

Another new visitor is Delana, who lives across the river. This beautiful Golden Retriever belongs to Peter and Shirley Moore from Inyoni Creek and is guided by Sue Benjamin, also from Inyoni. Delana used to be part of the guide dog association and she has a beautiful and calm nature when interacting with the residents.

Betty Haughton did not want to let go of Delana and Delana was all too happy to be cuddled. Sue Benjamin is standing with them.

Colleen Daly said Delana reminded her of the dogs she used to have.

John Lee had a smile on his face long after Delana left us. He said he hopes she comes to visit again soon...

“You know, sometimes the world seems like a pretty mean place.' 

'That's why animals are so soft and huggy.” 

Billy Watterson 

Scarecrow Tea

A few weeks back, we had some unusual visitors from Inyoni Creek retirement village. Inyoni recently held a food festival for which residents made life-sized scarecrows, to help set the ambience of the day. Eight of these wonderful creations were sent to us by the Inyoni residents to be displayed in our courtyard and to be enjoyed by our care centre residents. They were so eye-catching that we decided to host a Scarecrow Tea Party, which went off very well and although a few people got a fright (even some of our staff members) every time they saw 'Sister Hannie' sitting on the wall in  front of the dining room, people were delighted to have the scarecrows add some colour to the centre.

Luckily the weather was perfect on the day of our gathering and we had a lovely morning outside.

Phyllis and Rae Hurwitz from Elphin village joined us for our Scarecrow Tea Party.  

Betty Haughton is pictured on the right.

Antonetti King, Anna Maks, Cecily Ryder and John Lee spend some time with "Maid in Sef Afrika".

The two caregivers Mary and Mabel pose next to one of the smaller scarecrows.

* Thank you to the all the Inyoni residents who made this possible.

World Alzheimer's Day

World Alzheimer's Day, September 21st of each year, is a day on which Alzheimer's organisations around the world concentrate their efforts on raising awareness about Alzheimer's and dementia.

We decided to contribute to this day, by having an awareness session on the eve of World Alzheimer's Day for any family members of our residents living with Alzheimer's or dementia.  The event was open to members of the public too, and we had a very big response with close to 130 people attending.

Loraine Schirlinger of the Gauteng branch of Alzheimer's SA presented the informative talk about Alzheimer's and dementia and we had some tea afterwards and established who of the people that attended would be interested in attending a support group here at Elphin Lodge.

We honoured World Alzheimer's Day - or as we called it "Memory Day" - with a tea party at the pond for all the care centre residents. Paws for People visited us for some quality time with their beautiful and well-trained therapy dogs. Many of our volunteers assisted us on the morning and they spent time with each residents to get a special memory written down on a piece of paper. We then sent the memories up into the air, attached by ribbon to brightly coloured helium balloons.

Here are some of the pictures:

Paws for People at work.

Care centre resident Marie Diesel enjoying the company of one of the beautiful dogs.

The helping ladies getting ready to send the memories up into the sky.

Up and away they go.

The treats were the main attraction as usual. 

We had a wonderful morning together and made some new memories for Ron Smith Care Centre...