One of the benefits of a residential care home is the friendships. Sometimes, living alone you are lucky if you see anyone, days can go by without any human interaction and that can result in loneliness and isolation. That is certainly not the case here, if you want to spend time alone, there are lovely quiet areas to retire to and if you crave company, it’s plentiful and right outside your door.

I have watched some wonderful friendships as they have evolved, shared interests have become the foundation for afternoons spent in deep conversation, shared life experiences provide the building blocks for social connections. We have a lot in common, our paths through life have crossed but never met until now. I cherish the friends that I have made here.

It is not just the residents that form strong connections, the team members go very quickly from being strangers to being friends. We spend a lot of time in each other’s company and become close, we all get along well but every so often a friendship forms that is like no other.

Daniel is the managing director of Halcyon Care Homes, and he is currently based within our home, he is a joy to have around, and I have truly never seen him without a smile on his face.

Jean has been resident here for a while, Jean loves to keep busy, she is always ready to help with anything and Daniel is grateful for her assistance. The two of them share an incredibly special bond, two quite different people from different generations, who in the real world would probably never have met, yet to watch them together you would think they’d known each other all their lives. It is a relationship that they both clearly cherish.

In life we have friends, we have family and if we are lucky, we have friends who become family and that is what we are here, one big happy family.