Handing Raph the Keys at White Ash Brook

There’s a shed in the garden at White Ash Brook with Raph’s name above the door. Gabriel, our maintenance man, built it for him.

“It’s the best thing I ever had,” Raph told us. “The very best.”

Raph is 84, and he spent 40 years in Lancashire as the man his neighbours could rely on when something needed fixing. A gate that wouldn’t shut. A door swollen with rain. He was always willing to lend a hand.

Since moving into White Ash Brook in Oswaldtwistle, he has carried on much the same. He still loves to be useful, pottering around the home and garden, fixing, planting. Earlier this year he built a bird table and has fed the birds every day since. He clears the dining room after meals as well, and takes real pride in helping out.

Moving into a care home can quietly turn a person from the one who helps into the one being helped. Raph spent 40 years on the other side of that, and it’s a big part of who he is. The shed was our way of keeping him there.

He’s out there most mornings now with a coffee, planting flowers and working out what to grow next.