On the afternoon of Thursday 15th September, a small memorial service for The Queen was held at
Market Lavington Care Home, Nr Devizes.
The service was hosted by the Reverend Gerry Lynch, whom Residents and Colleagues at the 80-bed residential, nursing and dementia care home, have known for over a year. His visits to the home are always much appreciated and warmly welcomed.
At the end of the service, all involved sang ‘God Save The King’. Riaz Ali, Wellbeing Coordinator, commented, “It still takes some getting used to the change of words and it was the first time the Residents and myself had formally sung the new version of the national anthem in a group setting such as this, and it was emotional and extremely poignant.”
Reverend Lynch read some selected biblical verses and also held a communion service too, which the Residents very much appreciated, and I would like to thank him for his time, consideration and thoughtfulness which is always evident in all his interactions.
Angela Wakely, Resident at Market Lavington, commented on Reverend Lynch’s service, “He is a lovely man, and the service was important for me to attend. I wanted to pay my respects to the Queen.”
Violet Lloyd, who is a Resident at the home, remarked, “I met her (The Queen) once, many years ago, I think she was opening the locks in Devizes? Maybe in the 1970s. She was lovely, but I was with my nephew at the time and he was only five or six and he said ‘Why isn’t she wearing a crown like in my book?’ and she turned to him and laughed and spoke to him for a bit.”
Riaz said, “I had only contacted the Reverend Lynch the previous day to suggest this kind of memorial service and not only did he immediately say yes, he proposed coming the very next day, which was so gracious of him, and the Residents were so appreciative of that.”