Care homes are full of stories from residents who have had eventful lives. Sylvie Nickels was inspired by a stay in one to write a book. Jaine Blackman reports

I want the younger generation to have a greater appreciation of how ‘un-boring’ their elders are,” says Sylvie Nickels, 84, who has written a collection of short stories to show them just that.

Following her husband George Spenceley’s sudden death, former travel writer and novelist Sylvie spent time in an Oxfordshire care home.

During that time she “rediscovered how interesting old people can be” and the experience has led to her writing a new book of fiction based on those she met there.

“After my husband died suddenly in February 2013 and I had massively down-sized my home, I was quite ill and went to live in a care home in Deddington for a while,” says Sylvie. “I already knew it a little as we had friends who had stayed there, and my late husband George had a week in respite care there while I had a break.”

Sylvie was there intermittently for some months in 2013 and 2014.

“My experience was excellent,” she recalls. “The carers were remarkable in their compassion and support. Fellow residents varied according to physical and mental state, but I found empathy with some and still regularly do crosswords with one of them.

“I also found that many of them had led very interesting lives, for example during World War Two and/or in the Third World.

“In fact I decided that our generation and the one that followed are probably the last who have not had every twitch of an eyelid or breakfast menu recorded on social media!

“We therefore have stories that are worth recording one way or another. So I decided to use the experiences of my late husband and of my new friends in an anthology of short stories.” It’ll be Better Tomorrow celebrates advancing years.

In the book there is humour, poignancy, even romance. Among the stories: teenager Buzz is blown away when he discovers how his Granny Em had put his lessons on computing to very unusual use (Grannies dot com); Harry Briggs manages to turn the tables with a little help from his grandson and modern technology (Wake Up Call); Elli (The Class of ‘65) and Phillida (The Don’t Care Generation) both leave an impression on the Third World; Alice learns to stand up for herself (The Wrong Track) and Astra finally solves the mystery of her father’s Second World War trauma (Just Nineteen Days).

“The stories are not based on real people but were triggered by some of their experiences,” says Sylvie. “The title is George’s. Whenever I expressed concern for the future he would grin and say, ‘It’ll be Better Tomorrow’. Alas, such optimism cannot hold out forever.”

Sylvie started writing when she was 10 during a wartime childhood in the London suburbs and has “barely stoped since”. She later moved to Cambridge and, in 1976, to north Oxfordshire with George.

“For about 40 years I was a travel writer but my real interest is in fiction, and since 2005 I have brought out seven fictional books,” says Sylvie, who has three stepsons.

“These include a trilogy of novels on the theme of the effect of war on the children and grandchildren of participants. They include some of my husband’s experiences in Bomber Command and as a prisoner of war.”

Oxford Mail:
Sylvie with her late husband George Spenceley

Her late husband lived “an exceptionally full life” and she has put his memoirs on a blog at georgespenceley4.wordpress.com.

“My next project is a book which deals to some extent with dementia: in particular, how the real person is still there beneath it. It will be a mystery story involving the long-term memory of the main character who has the dementia. George’s long-term memory remained amazing even when his short-term memory was rubbish,” says Sylvie.

She thinks that younger people sometimes dismiss older generations without listening to their stories (“though I am entirely sure they get an opportunity to listen to them”) and hopes she can help change that.

“I would like to see a greater initiative of a meeting of the generations, whether within the family, the school or in care homes.”

It’ll be Better Tomorrow is published by Oriole Press, £7.99
sylvienickels.wordpress.com