Every day devoted Don Hurst, 87, carries his ancient Sony CD player into his wife’s care home to “have a little sing and a dance” with his beloved Winnie.
They met in a dance hall 64 years ago and had not spent a night apart until former nurse Winnie, 80, had to move into a care home 22 months ago.
Her Alzheimer’s had become too severe to safely stay with Don in their home in Liverpool. But last month Don was told Winnie’s care home, a 10-minute drive from him, was to close down.
Since then he’s been unable to sleep and is terrified the wife he “lives for” is about to be moved too far away for him to carry on their precious daily visits.
Don, who has six grandchildren and four great grandchildren, told the Mirror: “I go and see her every day and we play her favourite music and have a little dance in her room.
"She laughs and smiles when she sees me. I’m the only person she really recognises, so if I can’t be with her she will be very frightened.
“I can’t sleep worrying about what will happen to Winnie. It took months for her to get used to the home she is in now. She can’t express herself any more so the staff need to get to know her.
“It takes time for them to know when she is distressed or when she needs something because she can no longer put a coherent sentence together. I’m terrified she will be moved far away from me.”
The home she is currently in was the only one near Don that could take Winnie.
He said: “So I really don’t know what will happen to us now. I tried to look after her in our own home but I couldn’t cope with the physical demands as her condition deteriorated.
"It broke my heart when we had to find a nursing home for Winnie but now we are in a routine. She is well looked after. I spend every afternoon with her.
“I can’t bear to think of her being moved and upset in a strange place with staff she doesn’t know.”
His son, also called Don, aged 61, was away with his wife Nicky Hurst, 59, when he got a phone call “out of the blue” from a director of the Knowsley Manor care home, owned by HC-One.
Don Jr said: “All they said is, ‘The home is closing. We need to relocate all the residents and we have to liaise with Knowsley social services and take it from there.’
“My dad is quite distressed. He keeps asking me, ‘What’s happening to Winnie? I can’t cope with this stress’. The last thing he wants is mum to be placed in a care home outside of the borough or one that is difficult for him to get to.
"The staff have been great and they love my mum. But if she doesn’t get placed near him, they could soon have another case on their hands.”
The stress has taken its toll on his father’s health which has deteriorated rapidly. Don Jr said: “All he’s living for is going in each day to see mum.”
A spokesman for HC-One said: “The health, safety and wellbeing of the individuals we support are our top priorities. Despite our best efforts, and a considerable investment of time and financial resources into Knowsley Manor, we have not been able to overcome the challenges we have faced.
“This decision has not been taken lightly.”
'Horror movie'
Jo Matthews has described the sudden closure of her mum Coral’s home as “like something from a horror movie” as stunned residents were turfed out.
Elliott House in Herne Bay, Kent, shut for good last November, four days after Care Quality Commission inspectors paid the service its first visit in two years.
Jo, 44, ended up desperately phoning 27 other care bosses trying to find her somewhere else to live after she was given just 72 hours notice of the closure.
She was turned down by every one after she told them Coral, 79, was local authority funded before she eventually found a home. Jo, from nearby Faversham, told of disturbing scenes when her mum had to be moved, along with 45 other residents.
She said both carers and the elderly were left sobbing as the confused residents were bundled up in blankets and shipped out.
Jo added: “Her world was turned upside down. It was like something from a horror movie.
“I felt sick to the stomach. In the foyer there was just a massive pile of blankets. Each resident was given one each to put over them so they didn’t get cold as they left, it was a nightmare.
“There was one lady who was rocking in her wheelchair, forward and back. You get to know with dementia sufferers negative and positive noises.
"I could tell this one lady was so stressed. The staff were crying too because they had built such a bond with these residents, they loved them and they were also losing their jobs.
“One said to me, ‘I’m sorry Jo, but I promise you I really did look after your mum really well.’ I told her, ‘I know you did.’
“I’ve kept in touch with some of the care staff since because they gave my mum love and cuddles when I couldn’t because of the pandemic.
“One told me she had left care totally because she was traumatised and damaged by what she went through.
“She said five people had since died from the home and she’d been going to the funerals.
“People don’t understand how distressing this is. I had to have my mum medicated to cope with the journey because she hates change.
“It was absolutely vile and so cruel what has happened to everyone at that home.” As the home is now closed, no one was available for comment.
The Care Quality Commission said, “We can confirm CQC is taking action in relation to Elliott House in Herne Bay, Kent.”
'Dark and cold'
A heartbroken daughter says she is still haunted by the terror in her mother’s eyes after her care home closed down.
Jean Morrison, 88, who had advanced dementia, was left in the middle of a cold, dark room surrounded by bin bags full of her belongings.
Daughter Jenny, 56, who started the campaigning Rights for Residents group with her partner Diane Mayhew, said she still cries about what happened in the months before her mum died last year.
She was forced to move after her residential home closed because of financial reasons.
Sadly, Jean, a former school cleaner who worked hard all her life, sometimes taking on three jobs, passed away nine months later in August 2021.
Jenny said: “I walked into the room that day when she moved into her new room and it was awful. Mum was just sitting in the middle of this room in the chair.
“Her bed was not made, there were no curtains on her window. She had her head in her hands.
“It was really dark and cold. All her lovely things we used to buy her were just thrown into bin bags, like it was worthless.
“She looked terrified. I was trying to put curtains up and her things out but I couldn’t even rouse her, she was staring at me and had shut down. She never came back to the way she was before. People don’t realise the devastating impact.”
Her mum, from Liverpool, had been known as ‘Smiler’ before the move but was left looking “sad, bewildered and devastated”. She turned to her daughter and asked: ‘Has someone moved me?‘ Jenny says her mother suffered from so-called transfer trauma during the move in 2020.
Frequently seen in those who have dementia or a bad memory it often leads to death. Jenny said: “This has a massive impact on the families’ mental health too.
“This floored me because when you put someone into a home you put a lot of resources and time and energy into getting them settled and you have to do it all over again. If people were turfed out of their rental accommodation like this, people would be up in arms.”
Diane, 56, points out that when care residents are moved they can end up miles from their families and friends.
She said: “After the move for a full two weeks she would not open her eyes and speak to us.
“She wouldn’t eat, she wouldn’t drink. She was frightened and wouldn’t lift her head off her chest. She never came back to the way she was before she was moved. It’s heartbreaking.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Care staff are working incredibly hard and we are doing everything we can to support them – including through a £462.5 million recruitment fund and expanding the Health and Care Visa scheme to bolster the workforce.
“Over the course of the pandemic, we have made available more than £2.9 billion in specific funding for adult social care.
“More than 55 million PCR and 166 million LFD kits have been delivered to care homes and we have invested a further £478 million to support safe and timely hospital discharges to get patients into the best place for their care and support to continue.”
