The Care Home in Paradise Hill invited me to facilitate an activity that would involve the Residents as well as a family member (preferably a Grandchild, since Grandparents Day is just around the corner).

I suggested we do a collage using various mediums as well as at least one family photo.

Not only did the Residents supply more than one photo, many of them had more than one Grandchild in attendance.  And some had a Great-Grandchild to assist in our endeavour.

After a brief demonstration on how they could incorporate meaningful text from books, pressed flowers, fabric, and photos into their collage the participants of the workshop quickly got to work.

As I went around to visit, offer assistance, and admire their creativity, it was clear the activity was bringing to the foreground many stories that may have been dormant. For instance, in one collage I noticed the duo had placed a page from the dictionary in the background and then layered many cut out images of cowboys over top.  When I enquired about it, the Resident’s Great-Granddaughter explained me to that they had chosen the word ‘challenge’ on that page as their theme.  When I asked, “why?” she further explained that her Great-Grandfather had told her he found it a great challenge to get on his horse at 93, but he did it anyways…..  And there was the photo (in the foreground of the collage) to prove it.