Last Sunday (24th October) I took an opportunity to help out with a small team of volunteers to help host an afternoon tea party for the elderly in St. Wilfrids Residential Home, close to Sloan Square, London.
It is not too often I get to spend time with a group of elderly people – many of which were over 80. I am fortunate to meet my grandmother who is over 250 miles away in Preston every so often!
The afternoon started around 1.30pm, with the volunteers meeting. We then began setting up the space and making sure there was adequate seating for everyone before they came for the afternoon. Trishna Shah, who organised the event did a great job of allocating positions for the volunteers. We set out a variety of cakes and chocolates for them to eat throughout the afternoon, set up the tables and some volunteers prepared some great flower displays, which the members of St. Wilfrids could later take back to their rooms. We enjoyed tea and coffee with the occasional biscuit!
From my observation the elderly rarely get the opportunity to interact much with the youth. It was nice to hear that family members do come to visit fairly regularly. I myself found it quite nice to be able to interact with this group of people. Their reactions were mixed at first. Some were very talkative from the start and some a little weary. As the afternoon went on they were all able to express and talk about some of the interesting things which they have done in the past.
Seeing the group who we hosted the tea party for leaving with smiles was well worth the effort!