Connecting with Barton Court Care Home

Jo Eden, a fantastic artist on the island put me in touch with Elaine Bashford from Barton Court Care Home. Elaine is really supportive of creative activities for the residents at Barton Court and was keen to be involved in the Creative Letter Exchange project. 

I've read lots about the isolation that people in care homes have been subjected to throughout the coronavirus crisis and the opportunity to make contact by writing letters, drawing, sending poems to each other felt like it could be of benefit. 

I've sent a pack through to the residents including a letter introducing myself and where I'm writing from with lots of questions for the residents about their experiences of living on Sheppey, photographs of my area, a drawing, a poem and LOTS of paper - coloured, lined and marbled - along with stamped addressed envelopes to ignite the writing process. 

Fingers crossed some of the residents feel inspired to write back. It's a difficult time to make connections with people right now, we're all dealing with the trauma of this past year and a bit. There's no pressure at all, but I hope at least that the residents enjoy reading the letter and have fun with the materials, correspondence is definitely a bonus! 

On a Sheppey related note, I met a taxi driver last week who lives in Sittingbourne. We had a great chat about his experiences of visiting Sheppey including his idea of building a bridge between Sheppey and Southend - his sat nav once suggested driving over the water as it was only 8 miles away! We also talked about the connection between the island and the rest of Kent - he talked about the bridge closing when its windy and about needing to pick up something he's ordered online from one of his nearest collection points, which happened to (slightly be mistake!) be Queenborough. He told me about the harbour and the big warehouses, where there are many jobs in distribution. He'd had some really nice days out at the beach near Sheerness with his family and enjoyed the remoteness of the more rural parts of the island. It was really nice to be able to connect with him about this place that we both had