Care home resident calls on community to help inspire her poetry with local history

A new resident at Elm Grove Bupa Care Home is looking to the community to share memories and local knowledge to inspire her next poem.

Patricia Ball moved to the Cirencester-based care home Elm Grove. Throughout her life, she has enjoyed studying history and hearing stories from the past. When she moved to the care home, Patricia expressed an interest in learning about Elm Grove’s history, as she wanted to write more poems about her new home.

The 76-year-old has a passion for poetry and began writing when she was just a child. She used poetry as a form of expression and comfort during difficult periods of her life and she says her life experiences is what inspires her to write.

Patricia, who writes under the pseudonym Patricia Rosina, commented: “Poetry helped me navigate my journey of life and has always guided me through the unknown. I call it my wondrous gift from God; it’s very important to me and always provides me with consistency.”

The team at Elm Grove were keen to help Patricia in her search, as they knew how much it would mean to her and they wanted to encourage her to continue her hobby of poetry.

Victoria Hamlett, Activity Co-ordinator at Elm Grove, posted on a community Facebook page to ask locals if they had any information, pictures or stories about the care home.

Victoria commented: “So far, we have found from the Census that John Burgess lived here from 1881. Then Digby Chester master resided here from 1891-1913. Samuel Clappen also resided here from the Census in 1921. I have been in touch with Samuel’s granddaughter through appeals on Facebook and she has shared photos and stories with us and is hoping to visit the home soon. The last person we found to have lived here as a private resident was Frank Jones, who resided here in 1939.”.

Victoria continued: “Everything we find will go up on our noticeboard and we are planning to take Patricia to the council offices to widen our search, which she is very excited about. Moving to a new care home can feel like a big change, which is why we want to encourage Patricia to follow her passions and continue her hobbies well into retirement.”

Victoria concluded: “We hope our friends in the local community will help us in our search to uncover the past and provide some inspiration for her next poem.”

Once Patricia has gathered enough information, her poem will be displayed in Elm Grove Bupa Care Home and posted on the care home Facebook page for all to enjoy.

For anyone looking to share information or stories with Patricia, please e-mail them to [email protected]

Elm Grove Bupa Care Home is situated in Cirencester and welcomes residents in need of nursing or residential care including those living with dementia. For further information, please visit https://www.bupa.co.uk/care-services