xmas hospital visiting

[Spud]

I went to see my Dad in hospital this evening where he is recovering from having surgery for bowel cancer, looking around the hospital ward I saw many people who didnt have any family or friends visiting them, my Mrs has decided we are going to the hospital xmas eve to hand out xmas cards and sweets to every one on the ward my dad is on to cheer them up

 

[doug boardley]

good on you Gary

 

[Scott]

Great idea Gary. My dad is in at the moment too. Biopsy tomorrow on a stomach mass and stent in a vein to release the pressure from the lump.

Ill take a good look around at the other people and see if the situation is the same

 

[hillhead]

Lovely gesture Gary and your wife, well done.
I'm sure some of them people will love it for sure.
Happy Christmas to you and her.

 

[hillhead]

Hope your dad recovers well Gary, my own died of a heart attack in 1990.

 

[White Room]

hope your Dad has a good recovery Gary

 

[kilty55]

yes gary speedy recoveryfor yer dad

 

[Dan]

Hope your dad does well, as said. But I tell you what, that's one of the nicest things I've heard about for ages. Not that nice things don't happen, you just never hear of them. We have a Dougy Mac Hospice near us and it's a bit of a thing now where locals go and visit during the whole festive period. The nurses swear they have nearly no deaths (as horrible as it sounds - I just read that back) during that period. I think people really do hold on a bit longer when they have something to hold on for.

I'm sure you're doing more good than you could even imagine by showing them people really do give a damn these days. Society has only gotten worse for the type of people that are old now, in 'their days' they'd be able to leave the front door unlocked while they went out shopping, and if somebody entered the property, it would be a neighbour letting the cat out or something, and nowt would be said about it.

Got my next door neighbour in hospital now and he's been there for a couple of months. He was verging on dementia and wasn't doing well living on his own. I used to make a point of doing the garden when he did and you could really tell he appreciated it as he'd sing, his grandaughter who lives only 5 doors down was never around there (I think when we moved in we gave her a much needed break as he'd knock on ours 3 times a day sometimes to help him do something - which I never mined being working from home alone it wasn't bad company to be honest lol) said he'd never sung before.

I might just go and visit him now, I think we'd both benefit from it. Hopefully he'll remember me, as he never remembered my name lol

 

[brinkley]

i did a wetroom in a nursing home a few weeks back and while a few of the old dears were away with the fairies there were a few 100 plus ladies who had more life in them thena lot of 50 something women i know and all they wanted was a chat a few of them even went on the bus to the bookies but the one thing they didnt have was families that were with them

 

[user123]

Gary, that is lovely. It will mean so much to the patients, all emotions are so much more intense over Christmas, and many feel lonely and miserable. A few years back my oldest ever T'ai Chi student, aged 83, was in hospital and Howard and I felt the same after we saw him, that we should do something, so we arranged with the ward sister to do a T'ai Chi demo with really nice music, for 30 minutes or so, you could have heard a pin drop and then it was silent for ages and then there was applause from all these beds that seemed to go on forever. The thing is, we forgot most of the faces of the patients we didn't know, but they remembered us, and everynow and then it still happens, that someone remembers us and that day, and they all said it was such a lovely thing to happen, they'll never forget it.
Also in Scarborough, no idea if that is the same anywhere else, there is a huge Christmas tree in the Shopping Centre, the Brunswick Pavillion, and it's the giving tree, where people leave presents which are then distributed int he best way to people in need in Scarborough, a great idea, and it shows it doesn't take that much to do something nice.

My own Dad is likely to die within the next few days, it is expected and the waiting game a horrible time for all concerned, so all I can say from the bottom of my heart to anyone else's ill parents - get well soon.