Supporting People case study- Susan's story
Introduction
Susan* lives in sheltered accommodation for people aged 60 and over. Here's her story.
Susan's story
I met my husband, Jo, when I was 17 and he was my first and only boyfriend. We had wonderful times together and did crazy things. We were never conventional!
He used to work away for lengths of time and one day he phoned on his way home and said get some things together because when I get back we’re going on a picnic! I was in the middle of doing the washing but there it stayed in the washer, wet! I got a picnic together, got the children ready and off we went for the day.
My mom thought there was something very strange about leaving the washing wet but that’s how we were. He really was my soul-mate; he made a lot of fuss of me and liked a lot of fuss back.
I started to notice that he had started acting a little peculiar. When you know someone inside out you pick up on it quite quickly. I managed to get him to go along to the doctor for a check up.
I went in first for an appointment and explained to the doctor what was going on then Jo came in, the doctor said maybe he might need some tests and he referred us to a specialist.
Jo was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s but at the time we didn’t really know what that meant. The specialist explained to us what it meant and what might happen and we joined the Alzheimer’s Society.
We had a huge garden, I didn’t know how I was going to look after it on my own and Jo had started to wander. We lived on a main road and I was really worried that if he wandered again something awful might happen.
It was also a big worry for our children and I didn’t want to put the pressure on them to check we were alright - that wouldn’t have been fair on them.
Moving to Inglewood Court was the best thing that we could have done especially when Jo started to be bad. We spoke about moving and I said to Jo that I thought the house was just too big for me to look after now so should we go and look at other places to live. He agreed, we looked around Inglewood, really liked it and moved in.
Jo was also then diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He started to have falls but I just had to pull the cord to get help. I would never have been able to lift him on my own.
You live independently here, you do everything yourself but if you do need any help it’s there you just have to ask the scheme manager.
When I needed to do the laundry our neighbours here would watch over Jo in the lounge whilst I got on with it. He got on really well with everyone and they were a great support to us.
People here help each other out but we don’t intrude on each other. I really can’t imagine what I would have been like after Jo died if I had been on my own.
It really has helped that there are people around me and I can keep busy. I do the coffee mornings on a Monday where some of us get together for a coffee and chat.
Moving into this Court gave me peace of mind – myself and Jo lived here very happily and the support was there when I needed it and still is today.
*Names have been changed
Provider information
- Provider: Anchor Trust
- Client group: Older people
- Scheme manager: Jackie Badger
- Scheme: Sheltered accommodation
- Phone: 01902 330068