Magic Moments: Enriching the lives of our clients living with dementia

The people we work with at Ambiance Care are central to everything we do. We’re not just a dementia care company that looks after each individual’s basic needs; we create experiences – magic moments that enrich lives.

We’re going to tell you about some of our clients in a series we’re calling Magic Moments: those special times and experiences that we create for our clients with dementia.

They show how life after diagnosis can still be fulfilling – something we strongly believe, and work hard to make sure all of our clients experience with us.

Meet John, who lives with dementia

The first client we’re introducing you to in our Magic Moments series is John, who lives with dementia in Cheadle, Stockport.

Ambiance Care Founder Diane lives locally to John and we found that the two of them had much in common. Both John and Diane went to the same primary and secondary schools, he lived on the same road as Diane’s childhood school teacher, and his uncle – the famous Mr Meadow – ran a bicycle shop nearby that Diane’s family bought her bikes from; he even mended her tyres for free when she had a puncture!

Despite a few decades’ age difference, Diane and John were able to talk about their experiences growing up in Cheadle – the people and places they both knew.

One of these places was St Mary’s Parish Church in the centre of the village, on the high street. John told us that when he was a boy, he would clean the brass there and empty the ashes from the clergy’s house – the same house Diane would play in years later with the resident clergy’s children.

John would have been a teenager then, and he had fond memories of the work he did at church every week. However, he hadn’t been back to St Mary’s for many years – decades even. It was clear that he missed the church, so we decided to take him on a trip down memory lane.

John’s Magic Moment

We took John through the parts of Cheadle he knew and remembered – the old roads where he once lived and played on as a child – and then we stopped off somewhere John holds very dear to his heart: St Mary’s.

Inside the church we met up with some of the volunteers, who took John through an old book in which he spotted his grandfather in a picture, standing outside the church. Funnily enough, in a very similarly named book is a picture of Diane in the same spot outside the church!

John told us animatedly all about the work he did at the church, cleaning the brass for the altar. We asked him if he’d like to give his polishing skills a bit of a refresh, and of course he said yes!

Watch the wonderful video we captured of John reliving this very special memory below – a real Magic Moment! Head over to our YouTube channel to watch all of our video content in one place.

The opportunity to take a pride in a job well done and experience a sense of purpose in a familiar place brought John real joy.

This is why we do what we do at Ambiance Care: providing tailored, thoughtful, experience-led dementia care that enriches lives. We look forward to telling you about more of our clients and showcasing their Magic Moments!