The trees are up!

So, the trees are creeping up and the glitter is sticking to every surface including your face – you’ve wiped the sweat from your brow as the heating is set on high and your slowly becoming jack frost in spring time.  Yup winter also brings the ‘let’s heat the street and half the city’ while the house keeper rushes around your home like a whirling dervish getting all your requirements done. Honestly vacuuming a three-story town house on a normal day gets you hot under the collar but when the heating is raging, we end up like puddles!

Not all of our jobs are the same and that’s what we love about our job, being the face an elderly client see’s after sitting for hours on their own in virtual silence, we see their face light up as they know they have company for more than half an hour which is about the length of time their carer has to spend with them before having to rush across the city to their next client.

The gratitude that is shown for just listening to their stories or having a chat at the end of your shift with a cup of tea and a biscuit gives them something to look forward to every week and it makes my heart melt, not everyone has family that are able to be there 24/7 and I’m honoured to spend my days doing what I can to make even a small difference in anyone’s life.  Sometimes the elderly just need company, but we are sometimes in the right place at the right time.  Be it to fix a washer or even in recent days one of the team was on hand to help when one of her older clients took a funny turn, she called an ambulance and got her checked over but imagine if she had not of been on hand to make that call thankfully she was fine and is back to her normal self.

Some of the story’s we hear have us chuckling away while working our way through their ironing pile, said pile literally contains absolutely everything including towels, bedding, tea towels and even their smalls or not so small, the older we get the bigger our ‘smalls’ get and the higher the waist band or, so it seems. But doing that pile of ironing saves an unsteady elderly person standing for too long. We take so much for granted these days – like standing for half an hour ironing or even nipping out to the shops can become a struggle which can lead to bills not getting paid on time or hospital appointments being forgotten but we have been known to pay said bills on line and add appointments to calendars so not to be forgotten.

Honestly, we love our older clients and worry about each one we are even known to give up some of our free time to visit them even when not on shift just to make sure they are well and just to give them an hour of company or a trip out for coffee and cake. The little things make a difference so in the season of good will remember the old and the vulnerable – if you can spare even five minutes of your day or week call in on that little old dear on the corner. This time of year, can be lonely so spread love, make a brew, have a biscuit – do whatever you can and let’s not let the old go lonely this Christmas.