The best Christmas.

Christmas day brought me a very special and exclusive invitation (to be honest I’d sort of invited myself) to the Christmas day party run by the nurses and care workers on the Jubilee Ward at Upton Hospital, Slough.

That’s why I had these with me;

As well as crackers and party poppers I had a few other goodies besides; presents for my Mum and everybody else on the female ward as well as few patients from the mens ward invited over for the day.

It’s a pity there was a fault with the air conditioning, it seemed to affect my eyes. I must have a word with the maintenance department after Christmas.

It was a real pleasure to watch the nurses and care workers being so kind and careful with the elderly people in their care and to watch them opening their presents, eating chocolates, having a glass of xxxx, doing a quiz, singing songs and just being human. That darned air conditioning – every so often just when everything was going well, something would get in my eye.

Anastasia, who I know well, normally doesn’t speak very much and makes constant attempts to get away. Because she is at risk of falling, often someone has to be with her all the time to make she is alright. Today she was talking and smiling and had no thoughts of making a run for it.

I made a new friend – Thomas who didn’t want to be with the others and was sat on his own with a religious programme on the TV in the day room.

I had a chat but couldn’t get a lot out of him; he’d been in hospital over 4 months and was having problems with internal bleeding. He told me he was ‘lost in time’.

We started to flick through the TV channels and both of us settled on a nostalgia show – pop videos from 1977. I started to dance and sing to Talking Heads ‘Psycho-killer’, which I thought was a very appropriate tune for Christmas Day;

Psycho-killer

Que’s que c’est

Fa fa fa far better, fa fa far far better.

Run run run run run run away.

He liked that and then we watched Ian Dury and the Blockheads; ‘Sex and Drugs and Rock ‘n Roll’ and I showed him the scar I got when I broke my arm dancing to their ‘Sweet Gene Vincent’. He liked that a lot.

It turns out that while I’m an old MOD, Thomas is an old Rocker. We should be sworn enemies but we decided to have a truce.

Thomas and I had a good chat about music and bands and old days. We agreed I’d pop in and see him again when I’m passing.

Then on another programme they played Peter Sarsted singing ‘Where do you go to my lovely’, a wonderful song which was also a favourite of someone I once knew, and while I was remembering her I had another problem with some dust getting into my eye. I really must speak to someone about that.

It was a real privilege to be there. It was the best Christmas.

I cannot understand how people can be cruel and nasty to the elderly or the vulnerable. How can they be so foolish, that they will never know the sheer joy of spending a morning like this.

All my thanks and good wishes to every one at Jubilee ward who made it such a special morning.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)