This week has been an emotional week. I told you last week about Peter Cormack dying and I watched the tribute that Liverpool FC have on their website. It was great to hear Peter’s voice and see so many highlights of his career at Liverpool. I then watched Strictly on Saturday and Chris danced to “You’ll never walk alone”, it was so moving. Then I went on the donate page for our Sing-a-thon and read the messages that have been left. One of the messages spoke about a person finding the voice that Alzheimer’s was robbing him of at Forget Me Notes and another who was saying just how much her Dad was enjoying their singing together.
The aims of Forget Me Notes are: to challenge isolation, build community and enhance self-expression. Realising that we are creating environments that enable people to express themselves and find fulfilment in the relationships they have with family through the songs we sing together is simply wonderful.
I went on Tuesday to collect copies of our new newsletter. You can find it on our website with a lovely interview of Jacqui and Robert. Their relationship is truly inspiring. Seeing them sing and dance together just fills your heart with joy.
I always love going to St Brides, the cultural and needs mix of the people who use the service is beautiful. Kenny is on holiday this week and that means I will be filling in for him. It will be a joy to work with Roddy, Joan and Alan tomorrow. We will likely have the assistance of Derek on Violin, Mike singing his solos and possibly Grace singing to us in Chinese.
On Thursday this week we were in Saughton Park in the glasshouse, and we had 45 people, which is 5 more than we had chairs for. Fortunately, there are bench seats round the outside and we could get people to use them. We had three younger people with Down’s join us this week. It is so good to be able to reach those people in the learning difficulties environment. Our new Dementia strategy in Scotland puts an emphasis on those with Down’s who develop dementia receiving support from within the Dementia community. Being able to reach out and share a community where people who are different are welcomed and can feel at home is so important. I am personally so glad that people who are different are welcomed at Forget Me Notes, because those of you who know me will vouch that I am different too. If you can and would like to express your difference in the safety of Forget Me Notes you are always welcome.
Have a great week.