Avonmere Welcomes 109 Year Old Resident.
109 year old Ralph Hoare from Gloucester joined Avonmere Care Home for some respite care in late August and has been enjoying the special attention that this brings. His stay has allowed his daughter Kate Hughes, who looks after him to spend some time with her own family and friends and to go out late at night drinking cocktails!
“I have enjoyed myself” said Ralph, “the food has been lovely and the chef has been talking to me every day about what I like. I have been spoilt really but then I am the focus of staff at this new care home. Everyone has shown a real interest in my ancient recollections, it’s difficult to recall my early years but I still remember a little. I intend to enjoy my few weeks here and nothing seems too much bother for the staff. I am enjoying playing the piano here, even though my fingers are a bit rusty now. I’ve even been teaching the staff.’
There’s a family connection too as Kate’s son-in-law, Angus Matthew is the Marketing Manager for Avery Healthcare, who developed the home. When he heard that his mother-in-law was looking to get Ralph some quality respite care he suggested that their newly opened home just off the Bristol ring road in Downend would fit the bill admirably. Angus explained “Ralph still enjoys life in his own home where he has been for the past sixty years, although Kate spends most of her time there too, looking after him. When the home opened I thought the opportunity was too good to miss as I knew she was planning to come on holiday with us and wanted to leave Ralph in good hands. I have known him for a few years now and I never tire of meeting him and hear all his stories of how he met people like Evelyn Waugh and Lawrence of Arabia and played tennis with Haile Selassi’s tennis racquet; he a living conduit to a different age, before so much of what we now take for granted.”
He went on “Avery encourages all our residents to share their personal stories and recollections, so to have Ralph in, sharing some of his memories has been fantastic.”
Theresa Tamblinson, an administrator at Avonmere was delighted to discover that Ralph was stationed in the Observer Corps, near to Theresa’s home town of Middlesbrough during the Second World War. Thereas laughed when she mentioned that during the course of their many chats, she had asked Ralph if he remembered the war, to which Ralph replied, “Which one?!”. Ralph has recently been recorded for TV talking about his memories of the First World War and his memories of soldiers awaiting trains at a London station. Ralph is a well-known personality in and around Gloucester and could be seen playing a round of golf locally at the ripe old age of one hundred.
