Peter & Elijah’s story | News

Resident Peter at Saxonwood Care Home & Elijah, pupil at Battle and Langton Primary School met by chance and have continued to bond during lockdown by writing letters.

“Peter was very moved by this action and shed a tear of joy…”

This is a story about two strangers, an elderly man and a young boy; they met by chance, and have continued to bond by writing letters to one another. Peter is a resident at Saxonwood Care Home in Battle. Elijah is a young pupil at Battle and Langton Primary School, next door to Saxonwood.

They first met when Battle and Langton pupils joined us for a game of target sports and to chat to one another about themselves. The children really did like listening to all their stories. Target sports is Peter’s favourite game and one day Peter and Elijah were playing very well together, laughing and joking around.

After this we received a message from Elijah’s mum saying how fond he was of Peter and that he would like to write him a letter and would this be okay for us to pass on to Peter? Elijah wrote to Peter about all the things he likes and asked Peter about his favourite things, this was the start of a beautiful friendship.

Supported by a Saxonwood carer, Peter wrote back to Elijah and they continued to talk about their likes and dislikes. During this time when Saxonwood’s doors were closed to visitors, conversations like this with the local community makes a tough time a little easier. Elijah wrote to Peter as he was quite concerned about him and how he was feeling, asking if he needed anything during this time.

Peter was very moved by this action and shed a tear of joy with the thought of a young boy caring about him with everything that is going on in the world, he asked why him?

With the letter, Elijah and his brother Malachi had created lovely pictures of rainbows and ants in their nests. Elijah included a drawing of him and Peter; Peter asked for both pictures to be hung on his bedroom wall.

Peter folded up the letter and placed it in his top pocket and said that he wanted to keep it close to his heart, he really felt moved by such a touching act by someone so young, that he’d only met once.