Waking up in the care home
A new day rises above the pine tree forest. A young sun ray filters through the blinds, pushed by light breezes.
The caregiver ballet just started playing, to the rhythm of doors slamming like the beat of their great heart.
The care home wakes up. The nice smells of coffee, warm bread et jam attracts everyone to the restaurant where we meet and greet each other, where we talk about anything. Some cannot walk, so breakfast come to them, alongside a benevolent presence.
Then everything accelerates. Life is here, cheerful, joyful, sometimes melancholic. The board, the psychologist, the technical staff, the animator, all join the shift already started by the caregivers, social agents and nurses.
A whole world going the same way, a human-like microcosm.
« My job as animator starts as soon as I get out of my car »
My job of animator starts as soon as I get out of my car, where I leave my personal worries, only to keep the positive side of me. That is with this attitude that I enter this world where I belong. In there, a welcoming committee is already waiting and wandering what the day has in store for them. The music starts at the first “Hello”. And I feel great.
We all meet between friends to celebrate this new day in the Animation Room, a warm place filled with sunlight and treasures of all kinds. One more coffee and few treats that reminds us that it is certainly not a sin! the music is now going well, and we are swinging with words.
We offer peace in the mind and friendship in the heart.
“Roule meninge”, choral, garden decoration, well-being workshop, traveling library, writing of the “Blagasses du 3ème âge” (the care home’s journal) activities are piling up across the week. An old friend comes to us and with her big heart says: “I was looking for peace and friendship, so I asked to come alongside you all”. Because as animators that is what we offer: peace in the mind and friendship in the heart.
But that is not all…
Being a care home animator is also being the bridge linking this microcosm to the macrocosm outside, a link to families, friends, a feather caressing grudges and bitterness from those who imagine the worst but do not know the best.
Some days show a different atmosphere, an impatient joy that brings back the child in us. Yes of course! There is an event today! Singers, musicians, storytellers, acrobats, the fitness coach… So many moves, joy, laughter, catharsis, and life, always!
And letters…
And one day, without notice, letters, fallen from the sky? Sent in a bottle thrown in the sea? Strangers, of all age, all origins, wandering about their elders, wanting to share, love and scream together, the same song: Love! Carried by and incredible youth project, letters to put the smile back on their faces. What a wholesome experience! It is so good to let yourself get rocked by those soft and reassuring words, and maybe it is the start of a new friendship!
Ariane Costa
Animator in care home
