Belong at Home Newcastle-under-Lyme customers take a trip down memory lane

Coming face-to-face with mountain lions, accidentally encroaching on a secret US spy base and regular trips to the fabulous Las Vegas – Belong at Home Newcastle-under-Lyme customers Sheila, 80, and Don Hurst, 85, have plenty of memories to share. But, getting together in the first place wasn’t all that easy.
The couple first met as teenagers whilst growing up in their small village near Stoke-on-Trent. They became friends and although Don was romantically attracted to Sheila – and she to him – he felt that she was too young at the time for a relationship.
In adulthood, the pair built their own lives, separate from one another: Don trained as an engineer, before moving to London to join the army. Later, he married and had a daughter, and built a career as a policeman. Meanwhile, Sheila remained and worked in sales and retail management – possibly due to her self-professed gift of the gab. She also fell in love, married, and had four daughters.
Meant to be
Though they had gone their separate ways, both often thought about one another and wondered how their lives had worked out. Eventually, Don’s curiosity got the better of him, and he set about trying to find his lost love. Armed with a few personal details and determination, he did some digging at St Catherine’s House and managed to yield an address; his next steps came as a surprise for Sheila.
One day after returning home from taking the children to school, Sheila found Don standing waiting for her at the garden gate. Having reunited as friends, the pair would meet for a drink when Don regularly came up north to visit his mother.
Eventually, after their respective marriages broke down, Sheila and Don finally came together and went on to enjoy 20 years of happy marriage, as they lived their new life together to the fullest. Holidays have been a high priority – especially their annual adventures in Las Vegas. They’d often hire a car and head out into the Nevada desert to see where they’d end up, before using maps to find their way back again. On one of their more memorable days out they managed to meet – and made a quick escape – from a pride of mountain lions. Another time, they bumped into guards with rifles who told them in no uncertain terms to ‘go back’ after possibly discovering the then-secret, highly classified, Area 51.
Life at Belong
Today, the couple live independently in an apartment at Belong Newcastle-under-Lyme and have been receiving support from the Belong at Home service for the past four years. Each week, area manager, Tomas Zahorka, provides detail of who they can expect for each of their three daily visits to help with cleaning, food preparation and other domestic tasks.
"Whenever they arrive, the kettle goes straight on," says Sheila. "It's like a friend visiting. They’re very helpful and very relaxed – a lovely team."
The couple are fans of traditional Big Band jazz, which is perhaps of no surprise, since Don once played clarinet and saxophone and they have plenty of friends at the village to share their musical passion with. Right now, though, they’re looking forward to a visit from a new addition to their family, great-granddaughter.