“Who is Sylvia, who is she?” A star
that’s what. This Sylvia is manager of Charnwood Park in Barwell, other residential homes are available but not having any experience of them I cannot comment on them. However, speaking as I found few, if indeed any, could better it for the care an old family friend of mine, Eileen, received in her final few days.

Eileen was 96 and from their schooldays when they were in the same netball team, being bridesmaids for each other and being in the fire service together she and my mother were lifelong friends. Fate did not deal her the best hand, other than with her late husband Tom, a real gentle man, as they had a handicapped son but they bore their lot with quiet dignity and grace, rarely if ever complaining at what life had given them.

They say that what you give you also receive and this was to be the case for Eileen when 18 months ago, having been independent up to the age of 95 and saying she never wanted to go into a home, she had to accept the time had come to do so and a good friend of hers, Anita, made a right choice.

After sharing caring for their son with all that involved and then looking after Tom as his health declined the effects began to tell and she now
needed the love she had so generously given.

This was received with the same grace and courtesy she showed throughout her life but the returned care was never better exampled than in the final four days of Eileen’s life when after once telling her: “Don’t your wings get in the way?” Sylvia proved to be a true angel.

She went far above and beyond what might have been expected of a manager, personally leading a dedicated team, spending a lot of time
with Eileen to the point where she cancelled a dental appointment and dismissing It all as something she always did.

In their separate ways both Eileen and Sylvia demonstrated class, something which, by pure coincidence at the time, I read columnist AnnLanders wrote about: “Class is just confidence dressed in humility. It keeps its word, its temper and its friends.

“It has a steady eye, a steady nerve, a steady tongue and steady habits. It’s silent when it has nothing to say, thoughtful when it judges and is always the first to make amends when it’s wrong. Class doesn’t run scared. It’s surefooted and handles whatever comes along.

“Class never makes excuses, it takes its lumps, learns from its mistakes and becomes wiser. Class knows that courtesy and good manners are nothing more than a series of small sacrifices. It bespeaks an aristocracy that is not dependent on ancestors or money.

“Class can walk with kings yet still keep its virtue; talk with crowds yet
still maintain the common touch. Everyone is comfortable with a person who has class –because they are comfortable with themselves.”Sylvia, Eileen and two of her closest friends Anita and Jan who spent many hours with her in those final days oozed class and this piece is a small celebration of them and others like them that make life worth living.

former reporter Mitch Irving