Care home residents in the south have marked Remembrance season by contributing to community events, making poppy displays, attending services and hosting visits.
The annual festival of Remembrance is a feature at all 21 Colten Care homes with residents, families and team members coming together to honour the fallen.
At The Aldbury dementia care home in Poole, residents spent a week making 106 tissue paper poppies, one to mark each year since the signing of the Versailles peace treaty in 1919 that officially ended the First World War.
Companionship Team Leader Sue Miles said the artwork project, put on display at the home, prompted conversations among some residents with their own childhood memories of World War Two.
They spoke of carrying gas masks to school in tins, sheltering when air raid sirens went off and hearing the distinctive and terrifying buzz of V-1 ‘doodlebugs’ flying overhead on enemy bombing raids.
At fellow dementia care home Fernhill in Longham near Bournemouth, residents knitted and crocheted poppies to contribute to a huge community display.
Featuring more than 2,500 handmade poppies overall and positioned outside the Barrington Centre in Ferndown, the display became a focal point with townspeople and visitors pausing to admire the tribute and share in the spirit of remembrance.
Fernhill residents Kiki Tormey and Ron Howes were among hundreds of people who attended the town’s Remembrance parade alongside Guides, Scouts, Cadet groups, community leaders and representatives of armed forces organisations.
In a similar vein, residents at Colten Care’s Brockenhurst home Woodpeckers responded to an invite from the Royal British Legion to knit 310 poppies as part of a display at St Thomas’ Church in Lymington.
Some of the ladies who contributed their handiwork, including Phyllis Farmer, dubbed the home’s ‘champion knitter’, went out on a minibus trip to view the display at the church.
At Abbey View in Sherborne, members of the Knit and Natter group added poppies they crafted to a cascade at the entrance featuring a wooden war horse and soldier gifted by the local Countrymen’s Club.
Resident and keen knitter Joyce Withey said: “It was such a pleasure to help to refresh our amazing poppy cascade net. The display looks great and is such a fitting tribute for Remembrance Day.”
Colten Care’s Chief Operating Officer Elaine Farrer said: “Remembrance is an opportunity for our residents and their families to reflect on their experiences and share their memories.
“Spending time with each other, and in the community, to produce displays means that everyone can talk about the meaning behind the poppies.
“This is an equally important commemoration for those of our colleagues who have served, or have families who have served, in the armed forces.”
