There’s no one quite
like Grandma
Neil Starkie, General Manager - Strategic Partnerships and Growth
In November 1980, a small primary school choir, St Winifred’s in Stockport, England released a song titled There’s no one quite like Grandma. It went to number one in the UK Charts, becoming the much-coveted Christmas number one, demoting John Lennon’s (Just like) Starting over to number two. The song sold over a million copies.
Why would a simple song, sung by a primary school choir reach such dizzy heights? Every musician that ever sold a record dreams of a Christmas number one. Maybe the secret lies in the sentiment of what ‘Grandma’ represents. In the song, Grandma is always a friend to you and me, she’s there in times of need, she always has a smile, she never hurries us along, just stays a little while.
At St Bart’s, we have our very own ‘Grandma’. ‘Grandma’ is her preferred name, she says it’s easier to say than her real name, and ‘Grandma’ is how everyone knows her and refers to her. Grandma came to St Bart’s seven months ago.
One Saturday afternoon she took her grandson out for dinner. Both were excited to be in each other’s company as most grandmas and grandsons would be. ‘Everything was beautiful, perfect, in order’. An hour later, ‘we came back, and you’ve got no life’. They returned to Grandma’s house to find it engulfed in flames. ‘It was only an hour ago I had a life.’ Just play that line back through your mind and consider what you were doing 60 minutes ago. ‘It was only an hour ago I had a life.’ Life turned catastrophically for this beautiful, kind, loving 70-year-old grandma in the space of an hour. An hour she’d spent having fun with her grandson.
The next chapter of Grandma’s life is about survival, her worldly possessions pushed around the streets of Perth in a trolley, a city that she describes as overwhelming and frightening. ‘One more week out there and I wouldn’t have made it.’
Grandma found her way to St Bart’s via the Safe Night Shelter, she was weak and afraid, but she found solace in simple things, such as cooking and having a bed. Grandma talks about the impact of the compassion and care of the staff at St Bart’s, but we have seen the same positive traits in abundance as Grandma has supported and mentored other women living in the service. St Winifred’s choir could have been singing about our Grandma, there really is no one quite like her. As she says, ‘I’m nervously excited to re-begin. I’ve given myself this year to re-find me, a new me, another me, because that me doesn’t exist anymore and then prepare me for the next decade. Into 80s. Yeah!’
