One for the History Books

Family history should be treasured and continued with each generation and this is of particular importance to Isobel at the new state-of-the-art rest home and hospital, Radius Millstream in Ashburton.

A modern welcoming building sitting on spacious, tranquil grounds, with spectacular gardens and views, Radius Millstream is a home away from home for more than 80 residents.

Because Radius encourages its residents to bring their own personal touches and treasured items, Isobel’s room is filled with books and photo albums, each dedicated to a different family member or distant relative.

Although on first sight they just look like ordinary books, it doesn’t take long to realise that each person in Isobel’s books has an interesting story to tell and a wealth of precious memories to share about their life.  The books include everything from birth certificates to job history, old photos and letters, magazine cuttings and death certificates.

Genealogy is Isobel’s passion and, before arriving at Radius Millstream, she spent many trips to Scotland researching her family history. The highlights of her collection are the Smith Family History book and a few special poems and letters written by her daughter and granddaughter. Isobel also treasures the photos on her wall of four generations of women, each taken around the same age. Of equal importance to Isobel is a published book about her father including post cards and letters sent back in 1917 while he was away at war.

Even though her trips to Scotland are now behind her, Isobel still finds great joy in looking through her books and albums and recalling stories of the people inside. She still knows the names of every single person in the photos and can recount a little story about each one. Isobel even organised a very special family reunion in 2002 and is still actively documenting her family memories.

The team at Radius Millstream love hearing about Isobel’s new family discoveries and hope her relatives will continue the tradition for years to come.

Click here to find out more about Radius Care, specialist health and aged care providers.