Old fashioned convalescence holidays. Were they a real thing or only in stories?

[StillTheOneIRunToooooo]

I read a lot of Enid Blyton type books in my childhood 😂🙈

My mother had a hip replacement op when she was in her eighties and as there was no one at home to care for here, she was sent to a convalescent home in Sussex for a couple of weeks. This was in the early 2000's.

My aunt was a nurse, trained in early 70s and remembers being sent to settle patients in to convalescence home early on in her training.

I think proper convalescence sounds a great idea.

One thing that happened is diseases like diphtheria were very contagious so the infected got sent to hospital and NO visitors allowed anywhere near ..
Even if they were children ..
relatives could check on progress on charts posted outside or notices in the news paper..
Imagine
!!!
I remember my G mother telling us how her little girl age about 3 caught Scarlett fever and was sent to one of these hospitals and she found out she died when her name wasn’t on the list one day …
And we moaned about Covid !!!

Yes, my mum was in a convalescent home in Woburn for 2 weeks after surgery back in the late 70s.

My mother always talks about being very jealous of her neighbours when she was a child as they would be sent every summer to a special hospital at the seaside to build up their strength after having had tb as much younger children. This was Ireland in the 1950s early 1960s.

Not a home as such, but my my cousin came to stay with us for a week to recover from chickenpox.

Only she wasn’t past the spreading stage, and three days after she went home our whole primary school (52 pupils) came down with it thanks to me, my brother and my sister

Definitely a thing. Margate Sea Bathing Hospital was also for this I understand. My Nan went there for convalescence after an operation.

I got sent to my Grannies in the Lake District to recover from bad pneumonia and be fattened up a bit!

People with e.g. tb or other respiratory illnesses went to the sea or mountains to take the air. There were convalecent homes where people went to recover after illness or injury

I had my tonsils out at 12 and was sent to stay with my grandparents on the Fife coast for 2 weeks afterwards.

When I was a little girl about five and six, I had a string of quite long hospital admissions.

Visiting was extremely limited, usually to about an hour on a Saturday afternoon, though a different hospital had extra visiting on a Wednesday afternoon.

My Mother used to send me postcards, (Mabel Lucie Attwell!) so I would get one most days. They were the highlight of the day, I've still got most of them.

I think it was as hard for my Mother as it was for me. Sometimes she would come on non visiting days to leave me some flowers or a few home made cakes from my Father, even though it was a very long bus journey for her.

Times and attitudes have changed so much, it seems like another world since those far off days.

During the war, my uncle was apparently sent to a convalescent facility by the sea side after he had been treated for TB. He did come home for a while bless him, before it came back and he succumbed to it age 22.

@DaisyTheUnicorn

Ive had a lot of surgeries and would have loved this. Also after childbirth. I dont have a supportive family and it would so have helped!

There used to a be a 'lying in' period. You stayed in bed, feeding your baby for a couple of weeks, while neighbours looked after your other kids and brought food. I remember the nurses telling us in antenatal classes that this was a bad idea and to get straight out of bed and back on duty. But I reckon PND would be lessened if women were just a bit better treated post-natally.

Up until recently there has been a miners convalescent home near Skegness.
A
Chance to have a week by the sea to recuperate

It used to be a benefit for some workplaces. There used to be a "Convalescent Home" in Glasgow for people who worked in retail (originally "drapers and grocers") I worked for a retail chain and employees recovering from illnesses could apply to go. I think my employer contributed to it and we also ran fashion shows etc to raise funds. Colleagues who went in said it was a lovely place. I believe the land was sold off for private housing in the 80s and 90s - possibly to fund pension deficits.

Later in my career I worked for British Telecom and we had a similar facility although I didn't know anyone that used it. And I now remember my grandfather spending months in a Police convalescent home in Perth after being seriously wounded on duty as a police officer.

@Toddlerteaplease

Yes my grandma went to a place in Cromer I think.

I now have "Norman and Norma got married in Croma" in my head on a loop 😂

@Jconnais1chansonquivavsenerver

My mother had a hip replacement op when she was in her eighties and as there was no one at home to care for here, she was sent to a convalescent home in Sussex for a couple of weeks. This was in the early 2000's.

I’ve just had my hip replaced and love the idea of ‘taking the air’ - would love to book somewhere by the sea to convalesce for a while!

My Mil went on one, after a hysterectomy.

I’ve just read an old novel, where (pre antibiotics) someone was sent to Davos to try to recover from TB. Plenty of money, obviously, and he did recover, in the book.
No such luck for poor U.K. city dwellers, where TB was rife.

When I was a teenager I worked in a dog kennels that used to be a convalescent hospital for TB patients. It was odd as you could see the bones of the hospital around the dog pens. It was a beautiful setting in woodland in Essex.

I have a disability in hospital a lot as a child I was sent to a place to convalescence in the late 70s it is a bit hazy but it was in the Scottish countryside sounds idyllic it really wasn't great,

I think it was a long term hospital for children lots of kids with down syndrome and various disabilities.

@AuntFlorence

Originally I believe it was because of TB being sent out of the city to places the air was better often massively improved people's symptoms

Yes, my granddad had TB in the 40s and was sent out of smoggy old London to the East Anglian coast to a convalescence home. He was there for nine months!

I always imagine it as being like the one in ‘Alfie’, next to a river and with sexy nurses and a library trolley 😂

I had the same with covid first time ! (First lockdown weekend caught it, really sick)
Think everyone got fed up of me saying I just want to be in the Alps where the air is really good!
(Ps no idea of your age but the minute I went on HRT my lungs got about 85% better…..)

Yes they were in the UK. If you needed a rest after an illness you went to convalescent a home.
I know abroad they have them but unsure about UK.
The UK had a wonderful practical care system. Sadly we are now so overpopulated with fewer able to pay tax that the good things we were once famous for providing, is history.

Yes, in the 50s my dad and his brother were sent as young boys from Hungary to a retreat in the Austrian alps to recover from TB.

In the morning all the beds were wheeled outside so the patients could inhale fresh air all day. All paid for by the state at the time.