The usual pattern for aged care runs on three levels - independent accommodation, hostel care or nursing home care. The meals arrive, and Miss Edwards has a rather swish little en suite bathroom where a nurse helps her wash - necessary because Miss Edwards says she has trouble lifting her arms or bending to dry her legs, even with two new knees and hips. Her spirit is undampened, though. She's a happy stoic. Miss Edwards thinks it's important to have people around with whom she can share her memories.
Old people remember things together and laugh about old times.
Contrary to the modern trend, Mr Slater tries to hire people in their 40s and 50s, whom he sees as filling a role akin to the sons and daughters of the old folk. If they remember at all, Rushall Park's residents, whose average age is 83, remember most of the 20th century. Mrs Middleton married into a family of bicycle racers and lived above a bicycle shop in Sydney Road. The village can quite a jolly place. Inevitably, about 10per cent of the village population will need the nursing home, which holds 30beds with high-level nursing support.