Running simultaneously to the group's Walk For Wellbeing challenge is B&M Care's 'Memory Capsule Relay'.

Officiated at Templemore Care Home in Northampton, the relay has now completed the third week of a month-long programme. Since leaving Bury Lodge, the trunk has been delivered to White Plains (Denham), then onto the group’s two Watford sister homes, Montrose and Tremona, then across to Greenhill (Barnet), and then up the A10 to St Catharines (Broxbourne) and The Chadwick (Hoddesdon).

With a simple aim of communicating the essence of living through a global pandemic to a future generation, this week items have included art, drawings, handwritten memoirs, and even knitting projects to reflect how time was spent during last year’s first lockdown.

“Looking through the trunk – and its contents – and then adding our own additions was such a lovely experience,” said White Plains Care Home resident, Betty.

She continued: “And then being able to hop on the bus and deliver it to the next home was fantastic – getting out and about again was just wonderful.”

The contents of the trunk will then later form part of a pandemic time capsule that will be buried at B&M Care’s forthcoming Memorial Garden at Ashlyns Care Home in Berkhamsted.

Steps To Reconnect

B&M Care’s Memory Capsule Relay, in conjunction with Walk For Wellbeing, forms part of a wider initiative, titled Steps To Reconnect. With an aim of tentatively reconnecting our family network of care homes, Steps To Reconnect looks at offsetting the “year like no other” with two challenges that continue to diminish distance and unite the group as a whole.