New best friends celebrate National Best Friends Day

At Redcot, the residential care home in Haslemere, Surrey managed by charity Friends of the Elderly, to celebrate this year’s National Best Friends Day, two residents Joyce Douglas and Tim Rait have been talking about their strong friendship bond that has developed since they both became full-time residents at the countryside care home.

98-year-old Joyce, who has been a resident at Redcot for the past 15 months, decided to move to the care home as it’s not only located close to where her Son lives, but she’d actually visited a friend who lived there and had seen first hand, the great level of care the team provides to the residents.

Joyce said:

“I have lots of friends here at Redcot, Christine, Juliet, Betty and Bridget and now Tim who’s great to have around. Tim’s a relatively new resident, but he’s really settling in quickly and I feel like I’ve known him for years.”

Tim, who moved to Redcot nine weeks ago, said he decided to move to the care home as it was a happy place, with kind carers and great food. Tim said:

“I’ve made so many friends in the short time I’ve been here but my best friend here has to be Joyce. She’s so easy to talk to and we have so many things in common.”

Joyce, who is a twin, grew up in Liverpool and has many fond memories of playing together with her sibling and trips with the Guides to the Isle of Man. Tim, who is 83 years old, grew up in Berkshire and also has great memories of a lovely childhood. Coincidently, both Joyce and Tim’s favourite subject at school was History as they found the subject so interesting.

Tim continued:

“Joyce is very intelligent and talkative, we literally chat for hours.”

Joyce added:

“We both join in with all the fun activities the care team put on for us. The card afternoons are a favourite of mine as–I’m quite handy at Rummy.”

Jan Daly, the Registered Manager at Redcot said:

“Joyce and Tim have forged a lovely friendship since Tim arrived. We usually find them deep in conversation talking about a whole different raft of things. It could be a historical subject one day, chatting about where they have visited or been on holiday another, or even about that day’s meal, they are never short of something to chat about.”

Both Joyce and Tim agree that the most important thing about their friendship is companionship, with Joyce saying:

“The thing I value most about a friendship is that it lasts and I’m sure my friendship with Tim will stand the test of time.”