Life is never quiet at Flowers Manor – for all the right reasons! It’s no surprise that our latest update is exciting and will make a great story to see us through lots of future coffee mornings!
One of our wonderful residents, Max, 79, was chatting to our Deputy Manager, Gemma, about tattoos. They were both remarking on how popular tattoos had become and Max lamented that he had always wanted to get a tattoo but that his wife had never been keen on the idea and so he’d never got around to getting one.
Although Max has been married to his wife Christine for – well, he can’t remember- he has never been a romantic. Since Max has joined us at Flowers Manor, Christine has received her very first anniversary and birthday card from Max (with input from our staff, with special thanks to Rachael who arranged a meal for two, in the tea room!)
While Max’s desire to get a tattoo was a news to Gemma and the other residents, Max’s love of animals is more widely known – he has had a parrot that visits him at Flowers Manor on a skateboard!
However, Max’s favourite animal is the beagle!
Max and his wife, Christine, have kept beagles for years, having beagles around the house for 32 years! As well as simply loving beagles, Max and Christine turned their pets into a hobby and began breeding their beagles and showing them in dog shows.
Max often says that, once you get one beagle, you won’t be able to stop. This means that Max has been surrounded by beagles for over three decades but he wasn’t able to bring his beagles with him when he moved into Flowers Manor.
Life Without Beagles
Suffering from Parkinson’s and Lewys bodies dementia, Max had to leave his beagles behind when he joined us in Flowers Manor and, while he is very happy with us, he still misses his dogs greatly.
Bringing the two things together, Max decided that he would dearly love a tattoo of a beagle to make him feel closer to his dogs. Max decided that his beagle tattoo would represent the one and only male beagle he ever had, called Brodie.
Making sure that Max’s idea was agreed with his wife, Max and Gemma went into the local town of Chippenham. Visiting ‘Jinkx’ tattoo shop, the tattoo artist agreed to tattoo Max and had full understanding of Max’s Parkinson’s.
Max’s tattoo artist was Jinkx himself and Jinkx instantly put Max at ease and make sure that Max felt in control of the situation. Max declared that he felt like ‘MAX’ again for the first time in a very long time.
Max felt like his tattoo was meant to be and Gemma even decided to join Max in getting a tattoo – but Max was much, much braver than Gemma.
After his tattoo, Max felt elated. It was an emotional experience for everyone involved. All over social media, Facebook blew up when Max’s story was shared by Christine and Flowers.
Gemma said that Max has taught her that, no matter what you’re going through in life, you can achieve anything you want! Max and Gemma shared a very special moment that they will both treasure forever.
After their exciting tattoo trip to Chippenham, Max and Gemma have decided to continue on their quest to complete as many fun things as Max would like to during his stay at Flowers Manor.
Do you have any ideas as to what this intrepid duo could do next?
