Say it with flowers

We’ve been looking at the letter written by Jessie Stockdale, and thinking about the hard life she led, as a ‘tweenie’ maid; her story is beautifully illustrated by Lynn and Caitlin in this film https://vimeo.com/562729722

In her letter, Jessie writes about getting up at 5:30am to start her chores, and this prompted the residents to ask the children about their early morning routines, and to share a few of their own.

Ruth (now aged 96) recounted how, as a child, she’d get up at 6:30 to help her mum do the house work, and then help her dad feed the chickens. After that, she had a mile to walk to school, which she repeated at lunch time when she came home for lunch.

Ruth asked the children if they helped their parents with jobs before going to school, and several other residents wanted to know how the children got there, what they liked for breakfast – and whether they cleaned their teeth before, or after, eating their cereals.

By way of replying, the children created a beautiful bunch of tissue paper flowers – they even gave each stem a puff of sweet floral scent – and then they attached labels with the question written on one side, and the answer on the other.

Just before they left for home, Caitlin asked each child to sum up in one word how they felt about the session.

‘Creative,’ said one. ‘Happy,’ said another. ‘Inspired,’ said a third. What a lovely way to end the day.