They are the most outgoing people really, I feel really honoured when I go there.
About three and a half years ago, I found out about it through another lady that lives down in the village and I thought, well I’ll have a try and I just kept on going and it’s been wonderful. We have different days for different people for different areas. Wouldn’t miss it.
We used to have a longer day, but it changed so now we’re just there until 1 o clock but even from 10 o clock to 1 o clock it’s still wonderful. There’s about 25 each session. We go in the morning and the first thing we have a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit and we sit and chat amongst ourselves, what we’ve been doing over the weekend you know, anything, somebody’s birthday, just general things.
A games session at Pearey House
And then next we go through into the other room, massive room, beautiful place it is and we have a game. When you start and play these games like for instance last week we had like a sausage and we passed it round and when it stopped, when it was your time to do it you pressed start and it would say twist, turn, bonk, and you got yourself so flummoxed everybody was giggling, and for an hour we giggled the whole time.
That’s what it’s all about and like Christmas we did this card with all of these different felts but they had all different feels to them, and I realised afterwards why they were different surfaces because these people are blind. It’s something you forget because you go in and I tell you, they know how to laugh. They are the most outgoing people really, I feel really honoured when I go in there.
I was lucky, I have had 53 injections but that’s kept my sight. It’s really lovely and the helpers – marvellous people. I’ve never been to a club that’s so lovely. They organise fetes, we have one at Christmas and have one in the summer. It is all charity, that’s how it is run, so any money that we can get anywhere it’s fantastic.
A group outing from Pearey House
We go on holiday; we were there last year to Scotland and this year we’re going further south to the Midlands. But last year we had breakfast and evening meal, there was something organised morning, afternoon. There has to be carers and we go on a coach and of course there’s got to be a one to one with some people or we go like two with Helen.
There’s another girl, she used to go the same day as us, but then, when the areas were split up, she goes Wednesday we go Tuesday, but she’s going on holiday. So there’ll be her Margaret and I with a carer. You make big friendships. During covid, we rang each other every week and we’ve kept it up.
We have got a holiday planned at the end of March, we’re going down to Leicester. It will be nice. We go away from the Tuesday until the Friday. It’s so lovely because everybody doesn’t have family do they. But we have a good time especially at dance time on the night. Margaret loves to dance. Helen, she is the boss, she really starts it off and she has everybody up even the people that don’t come with us Helen’s there getting them up. When we were in Scotland, they were marvellous the way they mixed, they were really wonderful.
We have our lunch. It’s £8 but that’s with a main meal and a sweet and a cup of tea. All from scratch it really is lovely. They’ve got a good cook. On Tuesday, we had chicken in a beautiful sauce, roast potatoes, carrots and peas and then we had apple strudel and custard. It’s really lovely. Wouldn’t miss it.
(Interviewer: They looked after you in the covid?)
They used to bring our food. There used to be two or three come with it to dish it out.
(Interviewer: They used to ring you once a week to check on you as well.)
They did, Yes. You couldn’t believe how well you were looked after.
Joyce and Margaret were interviewed as part of the Pearey House 150th Anniversary Project