Making Old Bones

By: Amanda Given

Narrated by: Matthew Fuller

Gramwell Glade is making old bones.

A care home, purposely built around a Georgian folly castle façade in Essex, Gramwell Glade is making a fortune for business developer Akin Akindele who, armed with an MBA, foresaw that high-end care homes were going to return significant returns on his investment.

It’s making old bones of Pauline Graves’ career, moving from hospitality to head up the staff at Gramwell Glade and putting her misplaced hopes in a liaison with Akindele.

It’s making old bones of the dedicated carers who support its sundowners, while supporting their own families on the small fiscal returns their efforts bring on the ‘living wage’.

It’s laying old bones to rest. For many of the residents their time at Gramwell Glade is their first experience of surrender when it comes to real-life responsibilities. That onus now falls to their ‘children’ who now have their parents’ powers of attorney and who are handing over the funds that would otherwise satisfy a mortgage sufficiently large enough to buy their own castle.

If we know someone who works in the care sector or spends their twilight years in a home, if we visit family or friends who have moved on into residential care, make no bones about it, something like the Gramwell Glade experience could come to us all.

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