‘It Felt Like Guardian Angels Looking After Him.’

Joy met Fred when she was just 15, she used to catch the same bus as him to work. They had been married for 61 years when he passed away at the age of 82.

For the last three months of his life Fred was cared for by three carers from Sylvian Care Woking. ‘They became like part of the family, and they were absolutely brilliant,’ Joy recalls.

Fred had COPD and was also diagnosed with dementia. He was fighting for breath and starting to fall.

It was Joy’s son who said: ‘mum, you’re doing far too much, we need to get carers in.’

At first Joy was against it, she didn’t want strangers in her house. Now she says: ‘It was the best thing we ever did.’

The carers came twice a day, then towards the end it was three times. Fred looked forward to seeing them and so did Joy, she couldn’t wait.

The carers used to come in singing and dancing. Fred called them his ‘Charlie’s Angels.’ They bathed and dressed him and helped him to do his exercises.  Fred wanted to shave himself, and the carers gave him that independence. They always asked if it was all right before they did anything.

Joy knew which carer was coming every day and what time they would be coming. Even now, when they are passing, they knock on the door to see if she is ok.

Lisa was the youngest and the same age as their granddaughter in Canada. Fred used to say it was like having his granddaughter back at home. ‘I think I could adopt her,’ he’d say. ‘It was a standing joke that Lisa was our adopted granddaughter,’ says Joy. ‘She is so adorable.’

On the last day Gina came at 5pm. As she left, she said: ‘see you later.’ ‘Love you Gina,’ Fred replied. That was the last thing he ever said. He was taken to hospital later that day. They were his last words.

Fred’s home was always important to him. The couple moved in when it was first built. Fred did the decorating and the gardening; he could turn his hand to anything. Their son was married from there, the grandchildren spent hours there, there are so many happy memories in the house. And there are photographs everywhere. There’s a picture of their wedding, and Fred when he was captain of the golf club. There were pictures of his grandchildren next to his bed. Fred loved to talk to the carers about his grandchildren.

Fred knew he was getting worse, and he used to say to Joy: ‘please don’t ever put me in a home.’ She promised him: ‘not as long as I have breath in my body.’

‘If we hadn’t had the carers he would have had to go into a home because I couldn’t have managed,’ she says.

Joy says Sylvian Care Woking gave her hope. ‘They gave me my life back in different ways, and they made Fred so happy,’ she says. ‘I knew I could relax when they were there, and that he was in safe hands. I could hear them laughing upstairs. I can never forget the jokes we could have with those carers.

‘Fred loved them, and I did too. I can never thank them enough, not in a million years.

‘It felt like guardian angels looking after him.’