"Up the mountain, then you turn right" June 27th 2018

Wrexham Maelor Residency Notes

27/6/2018

Erddig Ward

“Up the mountain, then you turn right...”

Today was our first session on Erddig ward upstairs.

Erddig is a cardio ward and we set up in a female ward with 8 beds.

Nurses introduced us to a lovely old lady that was especially friendly and open to working with us.

Ticky has this amazing box of sensory objects so she sat down with some items ready to show. Mrs C was really curious and she was happy to just look and listen and share her memories in a very uninhibited way. There was a velvet lined gorgeous wooden box filled with silver spoons which went down a treat. She lifted each one out in turn, examining them closely, laughing with Ticky about her reflection upside down, and repeatedly enjoying one souvenir spoon with the arc de triumph on it. She told us about where her mother kept her spoons (“There was a cabinet with glass doors at the top for all the glasses, then the spoons and things were all kept down at the bottom.”) It was really nice slowing things down and just looking together.

Not long after we brought out my typewriter. Again- Mrs C was curious and happy to have a go. We didn’t realise immediately but after a little time it became apparent she would occasionally experience confusion and some short term memory problems. But when it came to her childhood home there were no such issues.

She began by writing her name then asked me to write down her childhood address. Maps, and childhood memories are a running theme in my work- both in my own personal pieces of work but also during one-on-one sessions with older people in care homes during my cARTrefu (#2) residencies.

We carefully wrote down the address, beginning again when I mis-spelled the name of the village. (Mrs C was insistent that we get the address correctly spelled!) I asked her about what the house looked like and Ticky asked if she could give us directions to get back to her childhood home- which was really lovely because Mrs C spoke with such happiness about how to get there and how it looked. ………………….“Up the mountain, then you turn right, sharp right by the fingerpost… Then about a quarter of a mile down the hill and there’s a gate. The farm is down there. It’s a dead-end then.” (“What does it look like?”) ….. “When you get to it, you can only see the gable end. It’s a farm. ….It was lovely living there; I loved it.”

We talked about family, and brothers and sisters. I asked “What was your fondest memory of being there? What was it like?” and I didn’t expect such a quick and vivid story- but after about or 5  seconds of thinking. She began laughing with such happiness in her eyes and this is what she said:

“I do remember one day! I was milking on the Sunday morning- and a cow kicked me AND the bucket right into the side! …I had to go to chapel afterwards. The milk went into my hair- and I had to half wash it. The bucket went this way, and I went that way!.... It was my confirmation that day, as well!”