Naas nursing home resident honoured at national care awards
Caroline Day, Michaela Krenz, Susan Cox, Mary Darker, Gabrielle Keatley, Rose Markey, and Jimmy Cox at the awards ceremony
A RESIDENT from Craddock House Nursing Home in Naas has been given the overall award for the Resident Achievement Award at this year’s Nursing Home Ireland (NHI) Care Awards.
Nursing home resident, Jimmy Cox, originally from Carrick-on-Shannon and resident of Naas for some 30 years, won the award for his massive contributions to the nursing home.
A group from the nursing home travelled to the Mansion House in Dublin for the awards ceremony, which sat over 350 guests for an extravagant meal and a fantastic black-tie event.
Mary Darker, activities coordination manager at the home, was extremely proud and still buzzing from the awards ceremony: “It was brilliant, there was a beautiful meal and celebration for all of us." Mary said they are “all on a high” since the event and Jimmy’s well-deserved win.
Jimmy, who is a retired bank manager, first came to the home in 2022, and introduced a fantastic monthly activity for residents in conjunction with the Moat Writer’s Group – a writing collective in Naas. Once a month, residents gathered to do writing workshops.
Later came the idea to publish all the stories into a book called ‘Branching Out’ – a perfect keepsake for loved ones and record of personal histories, which contains the jottings of Craddock House residents in the form of personal short stories, poetry, recipes and the like.
The book was published in 2023 and was sold at Craddock House, with the proceeds going to St Vincent de Paul charity.
Ms Darker explained Jimmy’s role in hugely contributing to life at Craddock House: “They [the awards] recognised his contribution to the nursing home, for encouraging other residents to participate in writing each week, and for the culmination of the book.” She continued: “There are so many stories that get lost and forgotten. The book was a good way to get them down and remember them.”
