Carer creates moving video of Southsea care home residents singing Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World
A CARE assistant has created a heartwarming film of singing Southsea care home residents with hopes to spread some joy to others.
Clips of elderly residents at St Ronans Care Home singing a line or two each were edited together by carer Tom Loveday into a touching video performance of What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.
It took Tom six weeks to pull together the footage in his spare time, having chosen an older song the residents would know and love.
He said: ‘I wanted to do something to give residents a voice from inside the home, I wanted to spread some joy.’
On being a care assistant, Tom added: ‘I absolutely love it, it’s definitely what I’m supposed to be doing.’
Staff at St Ronans have been working hard to keep residents in touch with their loved ones in new ways, including Skype calls, and they have been inundated with sweet treats from caring relatives.
Andrea Pattison, care home owner, said: ‘Our staff have been absolutely amazing during this time – all pulling together and doing wonderful things to bring joy to our gorgeous residents, have fun with them, and help each other too.
‘All our relatives and friends have also done wonders to support each other and our residents and we have a thriving community. It really has been amazing to see.’
As well as spreading a bit of happiness at this time, staff also want the video to show some solidarity with fellow key workers.
Andrea said: ‘It really is testament to our staff, I couldn’t be prouder of every single one of them, they’re just amazing.
‘The video was about St Ronans but it’s also paying tribute to all the key workers working so hard at the moment and doing beautiful things.’
She added: ‘What has been so wonderful to see is it has really captured the public’s imagination. We’re hoping all of the recognition and claps for carers carries on.
‘It’s important as we go forward to keep that going and that we have a proper deal for adult social care - there is so much lovely work going on every day.’