Home care is not a new phenomenon. People
have always been cared for in the home, often, as now, by their families. The
human body’s increasing fragility, frailty and tendency to infirmity with age
are part of life. Great art often brings into sharp relief aspects of the human
condition. Few great artists did this better than Charles Dickens, a writer who
had a close connection with the Isle of Thanet, Broadstairs in particular.
If you live in Thanet, you will probably
be well aware that the annual Broadstairs Dickens’ Festival is held usually in
June each year. This year it ran from the 14 – 20 June 2014. For more details about
the festival, go to the website of the Broadstairs Dickens’ Festival.
Dickens spent a great deal of time in Kent
– he bought Gad’s Hill Place in Higham in 1856 and died there in 1870. The
story goes that as a child Dickens would walk with his father past, and look
admiringly at, the property he later bought. His father told him that he might
one day live in the house should he work hard enough.
Dickens first visited Broadstairs in 1837
and was a regular visitor to (as he called the town) “[o]ur English watering
place” for the next twenty years or more.
Our English Watering Place was the title of an affectionate article that Dickens
wrote in 1851 in which we might detect a hint of snobbery in his description of
Broadstairs’ visitors:
“So far from being at a discount as to company, we are in
fact what would be popularly called rather a nobby place. Some tip-top ‘Nobbs’
come down occasionally - even Dukes and Duchesses. We have known such carriages
to blaze among the donkey-chaises, as made beholders wink.”
To say that Dickens’s family life was not always happy is,
perhaps, somewhat of an understatement. His father was imprisoned for debt when
Dickens was just twelve; his marriage was anything but harmonious, and his own
sons had financial difficulties of their own. And yet in Dickens’s writing we
often find descriptions of home and hearth that make us long for roaring log
fires, extended families and domestic happiness. One such description is found
in a later novel, Great Expectations.
Although the novel is one of Dickens’s most popular, the characters I’m about
to describe are not, it is reasonable to say (with the exception of the main
protagonist), from the premier league of the great man’s dramatis personae.
Pip is first introduced to John Wemmick towards the end
of chapter 20 of the novel. Wemmick is Mr Jaggers Clerk. Jaggers is a lawyer
and Pip’s guardian. Wemmick lives with his father, whom he refers to as “aged P”,
“aged parent” or sometimes just “aged”. Pip gets to meet Wemmick’s father in
chapter 25.
‘“Well aged parent,” said
Wemmick, shaking hands with him in a cordial and jocose way, “how am you?”
“All right, John; all right!”
replied the old man.
“Here's Mr Pip, aged parent,”
said Wemmick, “and I wish you could hear his name. Nod away at him, Mr Pip;
that’s what he likes. Nod away at him, if you please, like winking!”’
The aged P is one of Dickens’s comic delights and the
favourite grandfather you might (be lucky
enough to) have or always wanted to have. When Pip is hurt by the evil Miss
Haversham, Wemmick suggests as a remedy “a perfectly quiet day with the Aged”.
John Wemmick lives a life that today we would describe as
hitting a pretty good work life balance. By day Wemmick is Jaggers’s henchman.
He is business-like, slightly feared by those owing money to Jaggers and
somewhat clinical and stern. At home he is very different. He is caring, loves
his home, loves his aged P and has an engagingly tender side. For Wemmick, work
and home are different spheres that never connect.
Wemmick looks after his aging father. Here is a touching scene of
familial warmth and devotion:
“…Wemmick said, ‘Now, Aged Parent, tip us the
paper.’
Wemmick
explained to me while the Aged got his spectacles out, that this was according
to custom, and that it gave the old gentleman infinite satisfaction to read the
news aloud. ‘I won't offer an apology,’ said Wemmick, ‘for he isn't capable of
many pleasures - are you, Aged P.?’
‘All
right, John, all right,’ returned the old man, seeing himself spoken to.
‘Only
tip him a nod every now and then when he looks off his paper,’ said Wemmick,
‘and he'll be as happy as a king. We are all attention, Aged One.’
‘All
right, John, all right!’ returned the cheerful old man, so busy and so pleased,
that it really was quite charming.”
Dickens didn’t just tug at the heart strings he stretched them with a
winch.
There
are many people today who live lives similar to that of John Wemmick. They may
be unable to make such a clear cut demarcation between work and home as
Wemmick, but their lives are similar in that they work and care for someone
they love. For some, however, both working and caring is impossible. Many have
to give up work to care for their loved ones. It is estimated
that there are something like 6.5 million adult cares in the UK; that’s about
12.5% of the adult population.
Home care is not a new phenomenon. we didn't talk about domiciliary care in Dickens's day; we did, though talk about care and the home. There was little help for carers in Dickens's day. We may not yet be perfect, but today there are a few more options.
If you would like free, no obligation advice about the
options for home care that might be open to you, contact Caremark Thanet today
on 01843 235910, or email us at thanet@caremark.co.uk.
Garry Costain is
the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with
offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services
throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email
garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.
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