Marian and Tracey achieve 70 years of service at Brooke House

Marian Hanner, pictured right, and Tracey Fairman have chalked up an amazing 70 years of service between them at Brooke House Care Home.

However, there has been a poignant parting of the ways for the work friends as support worker Marian, 65, has chosen the start of summer to retire after 30 years.

Kitchen assistant Tracey, meanwhile, has no intention of retiring after celebrating 40 years of service earlier this week.

Marian, who has worked at Brooke House as a kitchen assistant, cook and domestic as well as a support worker, was presented with retirement gifts from Kingsley Healthcare as well as colleagues at the home.

In their early years at Brooke House, formerly the home of the Mackintosh chocolate makers family, the care home was run by Miss Williamson and Miss Knight who also owned Scole Lodge in Scole, now also run by Kingsley and renamed Oaklands Care Home.

Marian and Tracey, 57, recalled that in the early days they cooked on an Arga cooker; in those days there were big bedrooms with no en-suites, housing three or four residents.

As regulations and people’s expectations changed, they retired and sold to new owners who could make the changes Brooke House needed. Kingsley then took over 18 years ago.

Marian, who never had Covid and worked throughout the outbreaks, has a passion for gardening and said retirement means she will be able to garden when she wants to.

She has many fond memories of Brooke House, including the sense of  camaraderie when the Beast from the East descended at the end of February, 2018, when staff were snowed in and carried on regardless.