Legacy
Legacy
Please note: this post is 99 months old and The Cares Family is no longer operational. This post is shared for information only
North London Cares' range of social clubs have been bringing older and younger Londoners together for parties, dances and shared group time for five years now, and so many wonderful friendships have formed at these events.
Sometimes, these friendships take on a life of their own outside of our group activities, and lead to individual one-to-one friendships as part of our Love Your Neighbour programme.
Through this strand of North London Cares’ work, older and younger neighbours share time, laughter and new experiences one-to-one, and can often form deep and lasting bonds.
After another of our wonderful dances earlier this year, volunteer Mary-Ann mentioned to us that she’d enjoyed a long and interesting conversation with older neighbour Maria, and wondered if it would be possible for us to arrange another meeting.
Maria was delighted to hear that Mary-Ann was keen to see her again, and since then they’ve become firm friends, spending time on a weekly basis and having a chat. Here’s their story in their own words.
Maria told us:
“I’m so grateful that you helped us to meet and stay in touch. Mary-Ann has been so wonderful. She’s so lovely and so caring. Not long after we were introduced I had to go into hospital, and she visited me and has been so helpful to me since I came out. She even introduced me to her husband, they come and visit me together. She’s interested in all my photos – I showed her my wedding photos, and the next time she visited she brought me her grandmother’s wedding photos so I could see them. She’s so interested in my history. I’m not able to do so much of my gardening so her husband waters the plants and helps keep it tidy. I can’t thank you enough for introducing us.”
Meanwhile, Mary-Ann has also benefited hugely from her friendship with Maria:
“It's been great. I feel like we're just friends and not part of a programme, but I know that it's important that the programme exists because I don't know how else we’d have met and I wouldn't feel as connected to a community as I do through Maria and North London Cares. There’s so much knowledge exchange and more importantly great memories being made.”
That’s what our Love Your Neighbour programme is all about – bringing together older and younger neighbours who might not ordinarily interact on their own terms, to form firm friendships so that everyone can feel connected to their ever-changing community, and that they belong.
Thank you, Maria and Mary-Ann. We can't hear to hear the next instalment!