At Orford House, our Coulsdon-based residential care home, the residents and Care Team have had a ‘smile-tacular’ day celebrating this year’s World Smile Day. World Smile Day was created by Harvey Ball, the renowned American commercial artist who designed the iconic yellow smiley face back in 1963. “Harvey Ball established World Smile Day in 1999 to combat the over-commercialisation of his internationally recognised yellow smiley face,” said Michelle Kennett, the Registered Manager at Orford House. “He wanted to dedicate one day each year to acts of kindness and cheer which is a lovely legacy carried on by the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation after his passing.”
“To mark World Smile Day, the residents made personal smile badges, enjoyed looking back at some comedy classics and also had a conversation in a reminiscing session about what makes them smile every day,” continued Mary Bradley, the Activities Coordinator at Orford House. “I put together a fun poll with different things and people that could, potentially, make you smile and the residents selected their top three smile answers – the results were absolutely ‘smile-tastic’.” The residents had a list of 20 poll questions and were asked to select their top three answers in first, second and third place. “One of our residents, Freda Blade, has lived with us at Orford House for 10 years,” continued Mary. “Her top two answers were spending time with her Son, Morris closely followed by seeing or hearing from her Grandchildren – but taking third place was getting cheeky smiles from the care team, which was lovely to hear.”
The poll results of other things that make the residents smile every day ranged from Orford House’s Rabbit, Rosie, reminiscing and looking at old photos and hearing other people laughing – to getting and giving hugs, spending time with each other at the care home and enjoying a lovely summer morning, sitting in the sun. “We also asked the residents what their happiest and most joyous word was,” continued Mary. “Without any whispering or sharing of answers, half of the residents picked the same word – cheery – as they all think that Orford House is a cheery place to live. Blissful, enjoyable, delighted and ecstatic were also in the mix, but cheery took poll position. “The final poll question was ‘What do you think the nicest word in the world is?’ and, again, the residents came up with ‘smile-tacular’ answers. We’re not sure if there was any conferring, but suspiciously we had an equal draw, with 50% of residents deciding Hunky-Dory was their nicest word, and the other 50% plumping for Shenanigans,” added Mary.
“The residents have all got great senses of humour and it wasn’t long before the jokes started,” continued Michelle. “Jerzy Snigorski who has lived at Orford House for a year told a real rib-tickling one which had everyone in fits of giggles. ‘What did the pirate say when he turned 80? – Aye matey,” and Judy Hyde who made the care home ‘her home’ two years ago added another great one, ‘Why do birds fly south in the winter? It’s faster than walking’. The residents didn’t stop smiling whilst taking part in the poll and their laughter filled the room. It was so heart-warming to see them enjoying themselves and having fun on World Smile Day,” concluded Michelle.
Find out more about Orford House care home by calling 020 8660 2875 or emailing enquiries@fote.org.uk.