Edenmore Nursing Home Shares Fascinating Life Story of Resident

For families whose loved one is on a cognitive journey or living with a dementia, the move into a care home can be difficult to come to terms with, particularly when the need for support has come about quite suddenly. Families have shared a whole lifetime together, so it matters that the person they love is known for far more than their diagnosis – for who they are, the life they have lived and the experiences that have shaped them.

The team at Edenmore Nursing Home spend time getting to know the people who live there, fondly referred to as family members, learning about the routines, values, interests and experiences that have shaped their lives. For families who would like to, this can be taken a little further by putting their loved one’s life story into writing.

For some, looking back through those years can be a comforting and sometimes cathartic experience in itself. Old memories resurface, forgotten stories are talked about again, and there can be reassurance in knowing that the people spending each day with their loved one understand something of the life that came before moving into the home.

One family member who moved to Edenmore quite recently is Colin. Through conversations with his daughter, Lisa, more of Colin’s life and the experiences that have shaped him have come to light. His years working in aviation are a particularly important part of his story, opening up conversations about his career, the places it took him and the interests that have stayed with him throughout his life.

This is Colin’s story.

 

 

 

Early Life

Born in July 1940, Colin was placed for adoption by his mother and spent his early childhood in foster care before moving to More Place War Nursery during the war. It was not a particularly happy period of his childhood, and one he has spoken little about with his loved ones. When Colin was five, however, his life changed when he was adopted.

His adoptive parents lived in Kent and were an older couple who had sadly been unable to have children of their own. Colin’s daughter, Lisa, remembers her grandmother as a lovely, kind woman who, whenever the family visited, would insist the grandchildren were far too thin and needed feeding up – as so many grandmothers seem to do!

Sharing about his younger years Lisa said, ‘I think he was quite mischievous.’ She added, ‘He once accidentally burned down the scout clubhouse!’ It’s not entirely clear how this happened, but it wasn’t deliberate and is a story now told fondly, with plenty of laughter.

Colin went on to become a flight engineer, a career that required considerable mathematical and technical knowledge. As Lisa explained, ‘In those days, I think someone could show an aptitude for something and, with a little luck and determination, progress from there.’ His career reflected both his natural ability and his determination to succeed.

Colin’s Flying Career and Family Life

Colin began his flying career in 1964 with Ace Freighters, based at Gatwick Airport, where he worked as a ground engineer on Lockheed Constellation L749As. While working there, he also obtained his Flight Engineer’s licence.

It was around this time that Colin met his future wife, Irene, through mutual friends. They married around a week before Irene’s 18th birthday, during an exceptionally snowy winter. The weather was so bad that, for a while, they weren’t even sure the wedding would be able to go ahead!

A few years later, the family moved to Zambia with their first son, Colin, after Colin Senior secured a new job with Zambian Air Cargoes, working on Hercules C130s. It was an opportunity that was simply too good to turn down; a house came with the job, allowing the family to save towards buying a home of their own when they eventually returned to the UK. During their time in Zambia, Lisa was born.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the family returned to the UK, Colin joined the newly established Laker Airways as a Flight Engineer on the Boeing DC-10. At a time when air travel was still very expensive, Laker was doing something quite different, pioneering lower-cost flights across the Atlantic and helping to make travel to America more affordable.

Unlike his earlier role as a ground engineer, Colin now flew as part of the crew, bringing his engineering knowledge with him on each journey. If the aircraft needed repair work after landing somewhere such as America or Barbados, Colin had the expertise to carry it out.

He thoroughly enjoyed his time with Laker Airways, flying long-haul routes around the world, which sometimes meant spending a week or more away from home. Barbados was a particular favourite, and Colin made good use of his time there by learning to water ski, becoming quite accomplished at it. During these years, the family also grew with the arrival of two more sons, Stephen and Daniel.

Sadly, Laker Airways went into administration in 1982, and Colin found it difficult to secure another position in the aviation industry, taking on a variety of temporary and ad hoc roles in the meantime. His luck eventually turned in 1988, when he was offered a position as a Flight Engineer with Dan-Air on the Boeing 727, allowing him to return to the career he loved.

However, the aviation industry was experiencing challenging times, and it was not long before he was made redundant once again. He found roles as a ground engineer on the Boeing 747 before subsequently joining Monarch Airlines in 1996 as a Flight Engineer back on the Boeing DC10, where he continued his aviation career and passion for flying.

Although Colin’s career often took him away from home for days at a time, aviation wasn’t something that remained separate from family life. As Lisa grew up, she and her brothers had their own glimpses into the world their dad knew so well.

Growing Up Around Aircraft

 

 

 

 

Lisa remembers that when she was growing up Colin would take her, Colin junior, Stephen and Daniel to the aircraft hangars (partly to get them out from under their mum’s feet!) They could see the aircraft, go onto the planes and watch the ground engineers working, something you definitely couldn’t do today.

As Colin worked his way up to new positions, his career also opened up opportunities for the family to travel, including a couple of trips to America. He even took Lisa and Colin Junior to Barbados for their birthdays, fitting the trips around his work. Lisa recalls sitting in the cockpit on the flight over and, once in Barbados, staying in the hotel room provided for the crew as Colin was still on duty! She was also thoroughly spoilt by the air hostesses during the trip.

When Colin worked for Dan-Air, Lisa sometimes joined him on European flights. These were there-and-back journeys where she would sit in the cockpit jump seat as they flew somewhere such as Norway, before returning home without ever leaving the aircraft. She simply went along for the flight, taking in the completely different view the cockpit offered. These were experiences with her dad that she would never forget.

Another special bonus of Colin’s work was the things he would bring home from America for his children, which were difficult to get in Britain at the time. He once brought Daniel a bike back from America, which he had to ride across the airport apron from the aircraft to the terminal!

Another year, Colin brought back a particularly fancy skateboard. Lisa described it as being ‘the bee’s knees’ and remembers skateboarding everywhere on it.

One day Lisa looked out of the window into the garden and saw her dad moving quickly along the path, pulling faces at her (something he was well-known to do to everyone in the family) and realised he was riding her skateboard up and down, making faces as he went, then suddenly he was on the floor.

He had broken his foot, just before the family were due to go on holiday to America. Colin was the only person who could drive, so when they collected their hire car in the States, he had to make it look as though his foot was not broken!

Family life brought plenty of stories like these over the years, but in 1996, something altogether more unexpected happened.

Reunited with Lost Family

In 1996, Colin was contacted by The Children’s Society and told that someone was trying to get in touch with him. He didn’t know who it was until he agreed to the contact and discovered that he had an older sister, Wendy. Like Colin, Wendy had been put up for adoption when she was very young and had recently begun researching her family tree.

The two were eventually reunited and met for the first time in 1997. Sadly, their birth mother had passed away a year earlier, and no information about his birth father was ever discovered. The family suspects that Colin’s birth mother may have been a Wren or in the RAF as there was a photograph found of her in uniform.

Colin did meet the family his birth mother had gone on to have, but he did not maintain contact with them. Colin and Wendy, however, became very close. Wendy lived in the Bristol area and Lisa remembers the family visiting her there, describing Wendy as very loving towards Colin and somebody who would do anything for him. It was a beautiful relationship that meant a great deal to both of them.

As time went on, they noticed funny little shared interests and similarities between them. One of the most striking was their love of gardening. Despite growing up separately and not knowing the other existed, both Colin and Wendy had independently developed a love of growing vegetables and had created large growing areas in their gardens.

Colin’s Life Outside Work

Whenever Colin was home from work, family life was often quite sociable. They would have barbecues and the wider family would come over. At one point, Colin even made his own barbecue from an old oil drum, cutting it in half and turning it into something they could cook on.

He was always tinkering and also loved Jaguar cars. His first Jaguar was, in Lisa’s words, ‘a heap’. It was in such poor condition that there was a hole in the floor through which you could see the road!

Despite that, Colin loved it. He owned a couple more afterwards, but Lisa remembers that first one as particularly awful – and probably not especially safe. Whenever Colin saw a Jaguar on the road, he would rave about how beautiful it was.

Gardening was another major part of Colin’s life. At one family home, they had a very long back garden with apple trees. Colin turned the furthest section into a large allotment where he grew all kinds of vegetables.

There was also a long-running family joke about Colin’s approach to planting. He would ask Irene where she wanted a plant to go, she would tell him, and he would promptly plant it somewhere completely different. Eventually, Irene worked out the system: she would tell Colin she wanted it somewhere other than where she actually did, knowing he would ignore her suggestion and plant it exactly where she had wanted it in the first place!

The Quieter Life

Later in life, Colin and Irene moved from Crawley, near Gatwick, to the Westward Ho! area of Devon. Irene had experienced breast cancer, and the couple had spent holidays around Instow and Appledore, finding some respite there during a difficult period in their lives.

Sadly, Irene’s cancer later returned, and she passed away at home in 2007. Afterwards, Colin chose to remain in Devon rather than move closer to his children. The family feels that staying in the home he had shared with Irene was important to him and helped him remain close to the life they had made there together.

Losing Irene made another important source of companionship in Colin’s life even more meaningful. Dogs had always been a big part of family life, right from the early years of his marriage to Irene.

A Man’s Best Friend

Colin particularly loved German Shepherds and they had one they called Shandy, who was half German Shepherd and half Collie. Her name came from the fact that she was ‘half and half’!

After Irene passed away, Colin and Shandy became inseparable. Colin had never been someone who needed a large social circle, preferring the company of his family and a small group of close friends. Shandy, however, would get him out into the village for walks, where he would stop and say hello to people along the way. She was a very loving dog and became well known by people locally.

After Shandy sadly passed away, Colin began going out less often. His house was on the main road leading towards the beach, and he was content to sit in his kitchen watching the world go by.

A Gradual Change

Lisa, her brothers and their families would visit Colin in Devon as often as they could, often chatting with him about aircraft – his favourite subject. As the years went on, however, Lisa began to notice subtle changes. After one visit in particular, they came away with the sense that Colin was increasingly living in the past, often returning to a period of his life before his children had even been born.

He wanted only to reminisce about his earlier life and aviation career. Lisa also remembers Colin becoming unusually angry with Wendy because she struggled to hear properly during their telephone conversations, which was strange because her dad had never previously been an angry person.

Earlier this year, Colin had a fall at home and broke his ribs. During a subsequent stay in hospital, he had another fall and fractured his hip. He was also treated for a UTI and received strong pain relief, including morphine.

Following his hospital stay, the family were told that Colin would not be able to return home and would need to move into a care home. Edenmore had availability at the time and, somewhat unexpectedly for Colin and his family, this became his new home.

Lisa shared of this time, ‘We were just so shocked by how quickly everything changed. The last time we’d seen Dad, we had no idea that within a few months he wouldn’t be able to go home again. We just weren’t expecting it.’

Life at Edenmore

Today, Lisa shares, ‘I feel the care Dad is receiving at Edenmore is very good. He is more like the dad we knew before he went into hospital and appears settled there.’

There are also aspects of Colin’s life at Edenmore that feel familiar to the way he chose to spend his time at home in Westward Ho! His bedroom has a sea view, and he likes to sit in a chair near his household’s kitchenette and dining area, where he can see the doorway and watch everyone coming and going – much as he once sat in his own kitchen watching the world go by.

His family find the best way to connect with Colin is through the parts of his past that remain particularly important to him. Her brothers tend to talk to Colin about the old days, his working and flying days particularly lights him up.

Laker Airways remains particularly important to him. Lisa says that even now, talking to Colin about Laker can get him talking, and he still describes it as his favourite airline he ever worked for.

Colin also sometimes engages in activities and occupations relating to his earlier life. He enjoys holding and touching a pair of binoculars and writing equations down on a piece of paper, appearing to ‘solve’ problems. There are plenty of opportunities for simply enjoying the moment too. He recently joined in with Edenmore’s Hawaiian-themed garden party, complete with a tasty barbecue spread.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another familiar part of Colin’s life will soon be making an appearance at Edenmore, with dogs visiting the home to say hello for National Dog Day.

And while Colin may often find it easier to talk about the earlier chapters of his life, his family story has continued to grow around him. Today, he is the proud father of four children, grandfather to six grandchildren and great-grandfather to eight great-grandchildren. There are more additions on the way too, with twin great-grandchildren expected in October 2026.

Looking Beyond the Diagnosis

In getting to know Colin’s story, the person behind the quieter moments of today becomes easier to see. The man who likes to watch people come and go from his chair is a flight engineer, a husband and dad, a Jaguar enthusiast, a keen gardener and someone whose life took him from aircraft hangars at Gatwick to skies around the world. Those parts of Colin’s life have not disappeared because he is now on a cognitive journey; they remain part of who he is and, importantly, give the people around him more ways to know and connect with him today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To read more about the home’s activities, events, and people living at Edenmore – News & Blogs – Edenmore Nursing Home – North Devon Nursing Home