By The Open Arms Team
The Open Arms Community Hub has many good results to report this month.
One only a few days ago when Lee was attending the fortnightly session at Maltby Library last week, an elderly gentleman who well into his 80’s walked in absolutely sodden due to the torrential downpour.
He was walking around looking all forlorn, and was staring out our drinks trolley, which is provided by the library, so Lee approached the man and asked if he wanted a drink as he looked dishevelled.
After a chat and a cup of hot chocolate it transpired he had neither had a bath or a shave in 9 weeks and all because he could not find anyone to fix his heating.
He had retired from the mining industry many years previously and had always been independent and self-sufficient but due to his advancing years after we talked, he realised there were things he could no longer do for himself and him albeit reluctantly, needed to ask for assistance moving forward.
Without family or friends, he was struggling. Seemingly he had contacted the Police, Adult Social Services and even the Mining Federation, so as you can imagine, he did not have much confidence that our project would be able to help.
As we continued to chat together, he began to open up and relax. I managed to find out more about him and completely understood how he felt.
A little more time went by, and Adult Social Services did get back to him and assured him they had arranged for a plumber to attend, hopefully by the weekend.
He left the library with a ray of hope and smiled as he walked out.