Memories come flooding back as care home celebrates residents' culture

German residents Gudrun Cottle, 80, and Heidelore Canning, 84, known as Heidi, were thrilled to be part of the event and loved celebrating their heritage with fellow residents and the home’s dedicated team. Gudrun and Heidi who both live with dementia, moved into Acorn Court Care Home in Redhill, this year, a dementia specialist home with 86 ensuite bedrooms, offering residential, nursing, dementia, acquired brain injury (ABI) and compassionate end-of-life care.

Both Gudrun and Heidi both speak fluent English but still enjoy speaking in German and have a passion for their home country. “I loved the event and sharing my memories with everyone,” said Gudrun. “I was really impressed with the decorations, the food, and all the effort that was made.”

During the event Gudrun, who often talks to the team about Germany, took the opportunity to look through her old photo albums pointing out her family members, past holidays and recalling her childhood there. “We were always outside,” she said, “Dresden, where I was born was badly affected by the war and there were always huge piles of rubble.”

Gudrun’s father died during the Second World War, and she moved to Cardiff with her mother, Lifa, when she was ten years old. She grew up close to her stepfather, Nick, who worked in insurance, and Grandmother Emma Stein. During her working life, Gudrun was a general nurse before specialising as a midwife. Since moving to Acorn Court last month has loved getting involved in the home’s activities and especially loves the outings in the home’s minibus.

Residents and team members experienced German culture first-hand during the event, enjoying German music, which had everyone dancing, and traditional food and drink. This included schnitzels, bratwursts, potato pancakes (Kartoffelpuffer) and cheesy egg noodles (Käsespätzle) and German beer. German flags decorated the room alongside a black, red and yellow balloon arch, banners and large beer stein balloons featuring pictures of pretzels.

Heidi moved into the home earlier this year. She was born in Hannover and was a military wife to her husband, Daniel. She enjoys all the social elements of the home’s varied activities programme, such as the animal visits and music and dance sessions. “I really enjoyed the afternoon,” she said, “Käsespätzle is my favourite.”

The lifestyle team also read out fun facts about Germany that many of the residents hadn’t known. Resident Hilary said, “This was fantastic, I’ve learnt a lot of new things today!”

“We always take time to learn about our residents and their backgrounds,” said the home’s lifestyle lead, Tina Charlwood. “It was lovely to make Heidi and Gudrun feel so special today and to create an event that was all about them.

“Our previous language cafes have focussed on Mexico, the Philippines and Romania and when we have team members from those countries, they often cook the food themselves to share with everyone, which has been really lovely.

“The language cafes were launched as an initiative to celebrate the different cultures of both our residents and team members. They bring so much joy and happiness to our home and are always very sensory and usually quite lively with the music and delicious food! Our residents are always really engaged and often dance with the team members - it’s a lot of fun and it really brings everyone together.”

The home, which is rated Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and has recently been made a Finalist in the South-East region of the Great British Care Awards 2025 for their Dignity in Care Award. The team pride themselves on championing independence and creating meaningful moments for their residents. The language cafes are just one example of how the team achieves this bringing the home together through the power of culture, community, and food.

The event took place in the home’s cinema room and for residents unable to attend the team visited them in their rooms, a reflection of Acorn Court’s truly person-centred approach to care.

“Our language cafes can be a real talking point in the home,” said home manager, Paula Deadman. “They create new memories for some residents, while bringing back wonderful memories for others. They bring a real sense of connection, and they are a brilliant way of honouring and celebrating the variety of diverse cultures we’re lucky to have in our home.

“It’s a joy to have different experiences and initiatives like this help to create a stimulating, fulfilling environment for our residents and that’s what it’s all about - making them happy.”