Robert (Craft Café Edinburgh)

Robert started attending Craft Café when he first moved into the care home and he was looking for company. He told the team about his poor eyesight and said he didn’t think he’d be very interested in the arts and craft side of Craft Café. But he was keen to have the social aspect.

Since joining, Robert has been sharing stories of his achievements in life as a Chartered Surveyor and his praise and love for his family. He describes himself as a very lucky man.

Robert is becoming more comfortable in the group and has been bringing along his harmonicas, which he had not played in 40 years.

At first, he wasn’t sure what his neighbours would think of his harmonica playing, saying “I thought if there is anywhere I could play my harmonica, it would be the Culture Club.” (Robert often refers to Craft Café as Culture Club.)

Robert has been enjoying giving the group a tune on the harmonica and has created many a sing-song with the other members with some of his favourite Irish songs like ‘If You’re Irish Come into the Parlour’ and ‘Molly Malone’.

During the sessions, Robert also enjoys sharing stories of his life and recently took part in a storytelling project ‘The Cabinet of Stories’ in collaboration with another of Impact Arts’ programmes, Impactful Starts.

As part of this project, Craft Café members were asked if they wanted to create an object that tells a story to be displayed and shared with Impactful Starts. Robert thought about what story would interest the young people and shared about the time when his whole village, including the police, were looking for two missing boys on the Belfast and County Down Railway.

The missing boys turned out to be Robert and his friend who were not lost but had stopped off at his friend’s aunt’s house on their way home for a visit instead of going straight home! The Craft Café team helped him create a visual representation of the story, printed off a map of the railway line and marked down the route and stop off that Robert had taken. Much to everyone’s delight, this piece was displayed in ‘The Cabinet of Stories’.

The team at Craft Café Edinburgh look forward to hearing more stories and harmonica-playing from Robert. There may even be a duet with another Craft Café member who requested Robert’s harmonica-playing to accompany her on piano.

We hope that Robert continues to enjoy his “culture club” at Craft Café where he feels welcome, supported to express himself, able to connect with others and happy to share his stories.

Robert’s daughter was kind enough to share a letter with the Craft Café Edinburgh team, explaining the difference she’s seen in Robert throughout his journey with the programme. Here is a snippet of what she wrote:

“When he first moved in, we were sceptical that he would be able to get much benefit from the Craft Café, as he is severely sight impaired, significantly deaf, and also unable to feel much in his hands because of an advanced neuropathy.

I could not have been more wrong!

The Craft Café has been a real highlight for my dad, week in, week out, since he came to St Raphael’s at the end of 2023.

Please pass on our thanks to everyone involved in this service. It has provided a huge amount of joy and given purpose to him where otherwise there might be none.”

We hope you enjoyed reading Robert’s story. If you’d like to learn more about our Craft Café programme or if you’d like to make a donation to support our work, check out the links below.