Care home staff’s dismay as a Christmas postbox topper created by elderly residents is stolen

Staff and residents at St Mark’s Nursing Home on Hylton Road have been left in dismay after a postbox topper, which was made by everyone at the home, was stolen.

The festive postbox topper was organised by activities coordinators Caitlin Carter and Denise Horsburgh after they had shown residents a number of similar ones on social media.

Residents and staff had worked on the piece for seven weeks before it finally went on display on Tuesday, December 5.

However on Saturday, December 11, staff discovered that it was no longer on top of the postbox outside of the care home.

Denise said: “We had worked on it for about seven weeks on and off, it was a really long process but the residents wanted to make one after we had shown them some examples on Facebook.

"When it finally went on display, we had a lovely reaction and all the residents were watching for people coming to look at it so they could wave at them.

"Seven weeks of hard work went down the drain within five days and it has had an impact on our residents, they are just guttered really.

"What makes it worse is that there was a poster next to it wishing people a Merry Christmas from the care home.”

Despite the disappointment, the festive spirit still remains at the home, with residents enjoying themselves in other ways – and they even want to mark another upcoming holiday.

Caitlin commented: “Obviously it has been a really difficult time because of Covid, when we put the topper on the postbox, it was the first time that some of our residents had been out since the start of the pandemic.

"But everyone is still in a festive mood, we’ve had a Christmas party where all the residents got a Christmas dinner so that was nice.

"They even want to make another postbox topper for Easter so we will have to see about that.”

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