Care homes project: Telling the yarns decades in the making
- Published
Care home residents are creating personal memory books and contributing to their own bespoke films
Memories transport us - back to people we knew and places we've been; back to stories to cherish and stories to share.
It's those stories that has led a theatre company to develop a project with older generations living in care homes.
The aim? To capture those stories for good.
The Our Stories - Scene and Heard project is visiting 10 care homes throughout Northern Ireland, where residents have the opportunity to create a personal memory book and contribute to their own bespoke films.
The project is being delivered over two years by C21 Theatre Company through money from the National Lottery Community Fund.
The theatre group work with care home residents collating pictures and stories to create individual books. Residents are then recorded on camera recounting their stories and these are made into short films.
The company previously worked with care homes during the pandemic in its Through the Glass project - it produced five short films in lockdown based on the residents' stories.
But with lockdown restrictions lifted, C21's creative director believes the latest project allows older people to engage with the arts in a more practical way.
Care home activity coordinator Kathryn Mitchell helped resident Amelia Thornbury with her memory book
"It was an amazing opportunity to get in and work with the older generation," said Stephen Kelly.
"You can see from their reaction when they watch our films, they absolutely love seeing themselves on the screen.
"There are stories being told that they didn't think they would have the opportunity to tell."
'It really brought me back'
Residents from Sunnymead Care Home in County Armagh have already taken part in the project.
Amelia Thornbury is originally from Lurgan, but she spoke about her memories of emigrating to New York as a young woman and working in her first office job.
She said: "I sat beside this girl and first she had red hair and then she had fair hair and all I wanted was to look like her.
"I thought she dyed her hair every night, then somebody told me she wore a different wig every day - and I had no idea, but she was absolutely beautiful, but you didn't see that in Lurgan."
Resident Betty Pickering recalled memories of walking to school as a child.
She said: "I went to a wee country school in Derryhale, we had great fun walking there because there was an orchard and we would take the odd apple to eat.
"It was lovely talking about these memories again, it really brought me back."
The memory books were made up of old pictures, including Betty Pickering as her sister's bridesmaid
Kathryn Mitchell, the activity coordinator at Sunnymead Care Home, said she believes the project has helped residents develop their creative and communication skills.
She said: "When they started, it just flowed out of them, because they had a story to tell.
"It really brought their characters out and it shows that this is just a wonderful generation that deserve to be heard."