“It never stops,” says Séverine Vauthier with a big smile. This geriatric care assistant at the Thaon-les-Vosges nursing home threw “a message in a bottle” on July 31 to receive postcards for her residents and since then… “We have received, to date, 9,228 cards and 16 packages,” she exclaims, delighted.
The origin of this craze was a workshop that the geriatric care assistant held before the summer holidays. The participants told her about the time when “it was almost obligatory to send a card when they went on holiday”. From there, Séverine Vauthier, with the agreement of the 70 residents of the retirement home, decided to publish a “message in a bottle” on the Facebook page Les Jardins des Cuvières. Today, the publication has been shared more than 40,000 times.
“It happened very quickly,” she says. “On August 6, we had 1.5 million views on the post, whereas normally, we have between 400 and 500 visits to our page.” Before adding: “We absolutely did not expect such a success. With colleagues and residents, we said to ourselves that if we received between 50 and 100 cards, we would already be very happy. Right now, we receive 1,000 to 2,000 per day.”
Breaking isolation and creating connections
These cards come from all over France but also from the United States, Florida, California, says the project manager. Some people are on vacation, and others are not, but they still wanted to write to these elderly people.
In addition to the postcards, the residents received “bottles of wine, local products, terrines, cakes, chocolates”. But also, candles, books, paintings, key rings… “They are spoiled, it’s incredible”, sums up, with emotion in her voice, the instigator of the project. “The residents are delighted, she assures. They spend afternoons reading the postcards, even people who do not necessarily participate in the activities usually come to them. We have broken the isolation, it’s incredible.”
“A wonderful success”
For her, this project is a “wonderful success”. “The residents exchange with each other, reminisce, talk about the holidays they have already taken and tell us what they have kept from them… That was exactly the aim of the initiative: to make them travel again, to create a social bond. We can’t do better.”
Especially since in addition to all these cards, Les Jardins des Cuvières also had offers from other specialized reception centers. “Whether they are retirement homes, daycare centers, or others, from all four corners of the world, we were offered to organize partnerships to exchange throughout the year, says Séverine Vauthier. And why not, one day, organize a trip to meet!”
Keeping the excitement going all year long
Originally, it was planned to respond to each letter, but given the number, the retirement home teams are thinking of another way to thank the participants. “The residents, and we, the retirement home team, are so grateful to all the people who sent them all these thoughtful messages,” says Séverine Vauthier.
And so that this craze “continues over time” but also to allow residents to “see these cards every day” and “continue to travel”, the supervisors are also looking for a way to display them. “We don’t know how yet, but what is certain is that they will not end up in a box”, explains Séverine Vauthier. And to conclude: “It is also a way of not forgetting this exceptional moment that we are experiencing this summer.”