Hardworking Liz Thomson is Scotland's oldest care home professional who is still grafting at the age of 81. She was just four-years-old when World War Two ended and, despite having two hip replacements, the sprightly pensioner still works 30 hours a week.
Mrs Thomson is now believed to be Scotland’s oldest care home worker after a change of career at 60 - the retirement age for women at the time. And despite her 82nd birthday fast approaching, she says she has no intention of putting her feet up any time soon.
“I just love it,” she said. “I get up in the morning and look forward to seeing them all [the residents]. “I’m older than quite a few of the residents. Some of them are only in their 70s. But they never mention my age. We have a lot in common and sit and speak about everything under the sun.”
A widow at 49, Mrs Thomson tried giving up work 20 years ago after nearly five decades of working in retail and running a hotel and B&B. But after just six months she decided retirement was not for her.
She enjoyed a spell at another care home, before she joined the staff at Balhousie Care Home in Huntly, Aberdeenshire, when it opened 10 years ago, when she was approached by the manager while she was visiting a resident. “He offered me a job, so I took it,” she said.
“I tried retiring once. I went out for afternoon teas and met up with friends but that was twenty years ago and I’ve worked ever since. I don’t like sitting about doing nothing.”
She started off in the kitchen and is now an activities coordinator, which involves providing a packed schedule of events for the OAPs. This has seen her help organise a knitting club, chair exercises and bowling, as well as arts and crafts, baking, and bus trips, and visits from local community groups.
She said: “We try to do two each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It’s a lot of fun and, if I’m not here, they’re always asking where I am.”
Her fellow co-workers hail her as the “backbone” of the home and say she often visits residents even when she is off duty and “knows how every single one of them takes their tea or coffee”. Mrs Thosmon also insists on paying her respects to late residents, many of whom she has formed a close bond with over the years, by attending their funerals.
And “often at a brisk pace” she will go for walks with residents, pushing them in their wheelchairs. Her dedication this year earned her national recognition at an s1jobs Recruitment Awards ceremony in Glasgow with an award that acknowledges those who “go above and beyond the call of duty”.
She has also been recognised by Aberdeenshire Council and in the Scottish Parliament, and made it to the finals of last year’s Great British Care Awards. Mrs Thomson, who with her late husband, Jim, has a son, Ian, 60, still enjoys doing crosswords and reading her favourite books, and admitted she never thought she would still be working in her 80s.
But she said: “I think I’m awfully lucky. I had two hip replacements 15 years ago but I still drive and work 30 hours a week, and I’m never tired. “I’m a very quick walker and one of the nurses the other day said she couldn’t keep up with me.
“I always said I’d stop when I feel like I can’t be bothered to go out, but I always get up in the morning and I look forward to seeing them all again. I’ve known one of them since I was at school. I want to cut down a bit after the new year but I have no plans to retire,” she added.
Katie Hopewell, who teamed up as activities coordinator with Mrs Thomson in the summer, said: “She is a very active lady who insists on pulling her weight. She is always full of energy and has a real devotion to her job and to the residents.
“During her years at Balhousie she has built great relationships with the residents and staff, all of whom are very proud and protective of her. I have rarely known her to have time off work and she often pops in at weekends and always at Christmas even when she’s not on duty.
“She still drives to work everyday and although she often speaks of cutting down her hours, she usually finds a reason not to.”
