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 is nearing the end of its journey – but not before visiting a further six destinations. Since leaving The Chadwick, the trunk has been delivered to Willowthorpe (Stanstead Abbotts), across to St Andrews (Welwyn), up the A1(M) to Milford Lodge (Hitchin), and back down to St Matthews (Redbourn), Tara’s Retreat (Sandridge) and Clare Lodge (St Albans).

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.

“Being presented with the much-spoken-about trunk was a wonderful experience – we really made an occasion of it,” said Tara’s Retreat Engagement Lead, Alex Frame.

She continued: “And what made the event even better was for our residents to meet those living at St Matthews – after-all, re-connecting with one-another is what this initiative is all about!”

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.