Laurie

She says “You are getting on in age, so what to do. You go to this clinic that I’m sending you. You go there and you’ll see many other ladies like yourself, same age. You can meet other people to talk with and they can tell you things from their past and you can them, you know, and gradually you’ll be surprised to see how things come back to you, and your health will come back to you.” That’s what my daughter tell me.

If someone’s having concerns about, about that, what would your advice be to somebody to sort of tackle those problems with their memory?

I would encourage them to seek the doctor’s advice. And the doctor will help whatever way they can, they will help.

Yes, and eat healthy, eat healthy, you know. Avoid starchy food I don’t want to eat, I eat much vegetables, plenty vegetables, fish. Me and my husband are not bothering about meat, you know, we not bothering about stop eating meat. We don’t stop but we don’t eat it regular we mostly eat fish, plenty fish and vegetables, you know. Because I think too much of the meat is not good for our age you know.

I see.

Yes, and plenty fruits. We eat plenty fruits. Plenty orange, satsuma, plums, orange, banana. We buy every fruit [laughs]. Oh dear, yes, yes.

Well, the memories, memories.

Oh reminiscing?

Yes, there’s plenty of things there, memories. There’s sewing, the machine, that little machine that I start sewing on it from when I was about twelve, my mum have it, you know that little machine, yes. Hers were called National, the first one, and then, then the Singer come afterward, then the Jones come afterward. But I always wanting to sew, from a little child, little dollies, make little dolly things and thing like that, all along, all along sewing, yes. And I did some beautiful sewing before I came over to, over in England, wedding dress and bridesmaid dress.

Wow.

Yeah, and since I came here, oh I make some powerful dress, I make some; I, all my children, their clothes, school uniforms and things, the boys their, their blazers and their suits, you know.

Oh really?

Yes, I make up uniforms, oh everything. The teacher always ask him to tell him mum to come and show us to do that and thing like that, but mum never had the time. Yes, I did plenty, plenty, plenty sewing, yes.

So, did you go to the wedding?

Yes, big, big, big wedding; he married up at [parish] Church and then we drove right back to this far place, past [City] over beautiful place, his wedding reception.

Fantastic.

Yeah, yes.

That’s lovely.

And I sang for him too.

Oh, did you?

Yeah, I sung for him [laughs].

Oh fantastic.

Yeah, I sang for him.

What, that will be three day a week I’ll be occupied, swimming one day and two day to [social care support centre]. So I know I’m feeling a hundred percent better already, because this arm, oh this arm used to hurt, used to hurt, and the doctor put two injection in here about seven/eight years now, and it hurts still; if I sleep and it hurt, and since I’m doing the, the exercise, I can’t tell you, I says to my husband, “You know that, that my legs used to hurt me coming up the hill,” you know we have a little hill there?

So, I said, “It hurt me sometime I can’t come,” and I says, “isn’t it funny, because since I started doing the exercise I, I not feeling any pain in my leg again.”

Fantastic. So, the, so is that when you go on a Thurday and you start the, start the day.

Thurday, yeah, exercise.

With the, with some exercises?

Yes, yes.

I did that with you the first time I came; I was exhausted.

Two, two, this week was two, because the lady come, an English lady come and, and she, she had, did, did the exercise with us, and she went, and in the, after a long time another girl, another girl, what they call her [facilitator] she come and do another one, yes, and I did one Thurday, yeah. So, it can keep me going.

Yes, yeah. So, feeling, feeling fit and more energetic?

That’s what I’m telling my husband, you know my legs feel different, because see the bike there, my son bring for me?

Bring for me and I have a foot machine, so you see I, I’m doing things, yes, I’m doing things.

And I like to read, I read at night, mostly the Bible, I mostly study the Bible; from the begin, as a child I grown up in the church, Sunday school and everything, so I’m, I, I love studying the Bible, yeah. So, I do most, most of reading at night and sewing, I don’t sew much these days, I don’t do plenty sewing these days because I find that I don’t want to do it, I don’t have the urge to do it as I, as before, you know.

So, you were saying it was your daughter who suggested you go to the meetings at [social care support centre].

Oh yes, she, she, yeah, she.

And that’s the memory hub, is it?

She let me, she knows everything, being a health visitor, she is a manager at the [specialist] Hospital also. She knows everything going on. So, she let me know and when she come last night she say, “Did you go?” I say, “Yes,” you know. She says, “You must not stop unless they said you’re not coming back, you must go.” Sometime it’s Monday and Thurday and I always try to go both of them, you see, this time I go three because I went with my husband, Tueday.

Oh yes, mm hmm.

Yes.

And so, what do you, what benefit do you get from going there, do you think?

You feel more; I crayon, I crayon nice; if you round here you’ll see what I drew and see my name there [laughs]. I crayon and I talk with my people around me that and we talk all, we talk all about our life story from home. I were talking to a little lady name of [name], she from Grenada, you know, and I, so often I meet different ladies and we all talk where we come from and things like that, you know. So, I keep in touch and I like to go. I don’t want to miss any, you know, because I think it’s doing me miracle, it’s doing me miracle, because I feel, since I start going, I feel a different person. I used to have pain in my legs and my feet, and the exercise I’m getting here; I know I do, I used to go to swimming every week but when the pains are start all over me, I start to drop back in the winter and thing. But since I start going there, I’m starting back again.

I forget, sometime I do forget my appointments and my doctors’ surgery are, phew only just down there, sometime I’ll pop down, you know, to remind me. And sometimes, and sometimes I, I have things to do; I’m not the, I’m not you, the person that used to sit and don’t do anything, I always do something, you know. But now these days I don’t have the, I don’t have the ‘go’ to do plenty things; I do something but my son, he mostly do most of it for me. No, you know I shopping, but I go to shopping, he and his father will do most of the shopping. But it’s not the same, it’s not the same as before when I could remember plenty things. I remember them and then I forget.