Making Memories at Christmas

Christmas is a special time of year for lots of people, but at Lindsey Lodge Hospice it’s a treasured time when memories shared become much more important.

Sadly, for some of our patients their goal to spend one last Christmas with their families cannot be achieved, so our team at the hospice go above and beyond to bring Christmas forward for them. This was the case with Lindsey Lodge Patient Linda Shipley.

Linda was diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer in October 2021 and, with the support of her loving family, has been living well with the condition. Like many families, Christmas is a special time of year for The Shipley’s, in particular Boxing Day. On Boxing Day, Linda often hosts 21 members of her close family, which includes children, grandchildren and great grandchildren for a buffet and festive fun. Her family lovingly describe it as ‘Christmas with The Walton’s’ and Linda is a big part of that.

This year however, as Linda’s condition declined, she was admitted to Lindsey Lodge Hospice and her prognosis indicated that she would not make it to Christmas. Knowing how important these festivities were to Linda the team at Lindsey Lodge worked hard to bring the day forward for her.

Earlier this month we shut our Meet and Eat Restaurant early and Linda hosted her Boxing Day celebrations here at the hospice. Our catering team prepared a delicious Boxing Day style buffet and the 21 member of Linda’s family joined her to make treasured memories.

Her Daughter Rachel Finney tells us more

“The restaurant was trimmed up for Christmas, and we brought lots of fun Christmas props so that we could take some fun photos with mum. It meant the world to my mum and to us. She was able to watch the children run around playing and exchange presents. We shed a lot of tears, but overall it was such a happy day.”

The surprises didn’t stop there, as after posing for a group photo, Lindsey Lodge nurse Shannon, nipped to Asda to have the photo professionally printed and framed so that Linda could display the photo in her room and remember the day fondly over the days to come.

Rachel continues,

“We were blown away by the love and support my mum and our family have received here. Those special touches really made a difference to us all. The whole team here have been amazing and we are so grateful.”

Linda sadly passed away at Lindsey Lodge Hospice on 26 November 2024. Our condolences go out to Linda’s family who gave us their permission to share her story during this sad time.