Family is everything to one very special woman who lives in Min y Môr residential home in Aberaeron.
To mark Mother’s Day this year, Edith Lilian Mary Evans (Lilian), aged 81, has been working on a comprehensive project, 129 pages long, summarising her life story.
She was helped by staff members in the home, namely Menna Evans, Adult Social Care Support Worker.
Menna Evans said: “This work celebrates some of Lilian’s most important memories. It was a pleasure to work on this and help her revisit some of her most treasured memories.”
The project was a chance for her to recall some of the rural traditions of her childhood on Waenhall farm near Llidiartywaen, Llanidloes, where she was one of 11 children. She remembers the traditions relating to shearing time, the chapel, the young farmers club, the Sunday school trips, and the adventure of picking gooseberries to make jams and tarts of all kinds.
Later, after marrying, Lilian worked as a school yard supervisor at Ysgol Syr John Rhys Ponterwyd in the 1980s, and then as a carer at Tregerddan care home in Bow Street.
Lilian said: “I have enjoyed creating the Memory Book of my life. I have enjoyed proofreading and editing the book with Menna, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work on a computer, research places of interest, and send emails to Maureen and Maud [her daughter and sister]. It has been a challenge to identify and name people in the photographs. We have had a lot of fun remembering our old memories.”
The project asked questions, such as: ‘what are you proud of in your life?’; ‘what advice would you give your younger self?; ‘your earliest memory?’, and so forth, to create conversation and stimulate the memory.
Lilian’s daughter Maureen Pritchard said: “This book is an absolute treasure on Mother’s Day. I am extremely grateful to the staff at Min y Môr for their special care of Mum and for going the extra mile and carrying out worthwhile projects like these. Mum came here in 2019 and has received great care since then. I am very proud of her and of the special stories we have recalled while completing this project.”
Councillor Alun Williams, Cabinet Member for Through Age Wellbeing, said: “This is a lovely story which demonstrates the brilliant work our care home staff do to enhance the lives of the residents they look after.”
Min y Môr is one of Ceredigion County Council’s care homes, and is part of the Through Age Wellbeing Programme (TAW).
13/03/2023