Photographer captures pearls of wisdom of elderly people in Milton Keynes during lockdown months

Ruth is a social documentary photographer who has spent the last 100 days capturing the wisdom and spirit of elderly people shut away from their families during lockdown.

She is a part-time carer to her father, who lives in an independent living facility for the elderly in Newport Pagnell.

"I wanted to give the elderly folk a voice," she said. "I’ve been photographically documenting and interviewing my father and the other residents on a regular basis, whilst social distancing in their shared garden," she said.

"The interviews state their feelings about the current situation and on-going isolation, and also make comparisons to their time during the war, including their memories of VE Day and their lives."

You can see more of Ruth's photos on Instagram here .

The first of today's photos shows Enid, an 84-year--old retired head teacher.

Enid said: “I grew up in a small village outside Stockton. The war years were fairly traumatic, we were within a couple of miles of ICI, which was targeted every night. Air raids were the norm, sometimes in a neighbour’s shelter, often in the cupboard under the stairs. I was the smallest and had to go right in, it was black, breathless, awful. I still do not like being in a room totally blacked out. I have curtains but rarely draw them!

"With Covid 19 my life changed, no church, my daughter and husband are trapped in Spain (I had been out to see them a few times). They’ve no idea when they can come here again because they usually drive here.

"Isolation brings loneliness and the difficulty of coping, with more elderly, who do not understand. Others gather to talk but I prefer silence far more.

"The garden is very nice but not as the only exercise we are expected to take. In some ways we are more friendly. Outside, I think I speak to more than before if only to thank them for stepping aside, or good morning, nice day etc; people I maybe wouldn’t have acknowledged before.

"We’ve been told by the government that we must just forget about certain people disobeying the rules and to just get on with it but that makes me cross.

"Technology is not my friend, I struggle, I SKYPE.....The world and travel and economy will be very different.”

The second photo shows Jonathan, who is 83 and a retired Anglican priest and Provincial of The Society of the Sacred Mission.

Jonathan said: “I am delighted to live in a flat with its door into the garden. I have a daily routine which involves several prayer times, and friends keep in touch by phone, email, text etc. I am not the least bit lonely, but then I never have been, though I have friends who have been very much affected by that affliction.

"The lockdown has made a difference: I miss the morning tea on Wednesdays and the quiz on Wednesday evenings. We have tried to make up for the loss by a fair bit of waving and shouting across the garden, and some of us have got into the habit of phoning every week or so.

"Outside, people have been very much more friendly than they were, stepping aside with great courtesy, saying ‘thank you’, and ‘hello’ etc. Oddly enough I have noticed that younger teenagers tend to greet you, while older teenagers don’t, and people over thirty greet you more than people in their 20’s. I must ask others if they have that same impression.

"It would be good if we could maintain this new-found awareness of others and, if possible, increase it.”

The third photo shows Ruth's 90-year-old father John, who is an ordained minister and missionary.

John said: “The air is so much cleaner and the birds seem to be singing more loudly or is it just that we are noticing it more? The main feeling that most of us have is that the world around us has changed. In the war we were encouraged to get together and we had to go down into an air raid shelter, but everybody would be sitting close to each other. Now I feel as if we are almost committing a crime if we try to get close to our neighbours or friends. I think this situation will cause us to appreciate people more.

"We are told to isolate which is quite difficult because as old people it’s quite lonely at the best of times. I watch the news and get a daily paper that I read each day. These things help me to keep in touch but it’s a very different world. My feeling is that the government has been slow and should have introduced lockdown several weeks earlier.

"We have got to know each other in the garden. I never really noticed the garden before. It is lovely so long as you don’t think that you are confined to it!”

Finally there is Eve,who is 97 and describes herself proudly as a mother and a wife. she was interviewed on VE Day.

Eve said: “It takes an anniversary sometimes for you to go back and think about it doesn’t it. My husband was decorated with The British Empire Medal on VE day, they made quite a thing of it. I have quite interesting recollections of it all. He received his medal from the king at Buckingham palace, and if you remember he had difficulty getting his words out. He was on the mine sweepers. He put a fire out on board ship.

"The news is awful now in this lockdown. You cannot believe can you that we have all this antipathy toward people of colour now can you. When that chap was leader of the labour party, they said all that about Jewish people didn’t they. We had all that during the war. We don’t want that.

"I watched a program about Churchill last night and he went out onto the tubes in London to talk to people. I wasn’t aware of that.

"I was prepared to give our prime minister a chance, but I’m quite fed up now. And I didn’t understand about the man drifting off to some building or other or something. I’m not happy about that really, he should know better. You just don’t know, do you?”