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A
Lievesley Story
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Lily Thomson 1915-2000 Lily was Minette's older sister, born
on 13th July 1915 in Glasgow, she was brain
damaged by a
Lily was looked after, largely at home, for her early years. Her father, John Thomson, invested a significant amount of money into looking for 'cures' for her. In a more enlightened time there might been better suitable 'therapy plans' . On the death of her father in 1939 her mother had to seek employment to live & her sister was now in the Army. So Lily was placed in Everest Ward in a psychiatric hospital in Epsom where she had a bed and little privacy amongst approximately 20 other women patients, Lily remained here for the next 50 years or so until the mid 1990's. Lily with her Mother Minnie Thompson (nee Benzies) - late 1920's ?
At this point the very much criticises 'Care in the Community' act came into play and in Lily's case added great value to her life. She was transferred from the NHS to the local authority care and placed in a home at Edenside House, Edenside Road, Great Bookham, Surrey. For the first time since 1939 she had her own room & could get up & go to bed whenever she wanted. In this home, in the years after her sisters death she developed an enthusiasm for embroidery. The work might have lacked sophistication but the output was limited by her movements. Edenside was a big step forward, sadly Lily only enjoyed 5 years of this new freedom & died after a short illness followed by a heart attack 10th May 2000. Perhaps if she had lived her life a generation later the advances in obstetrics would have given her a 'normal' life. As it was it can only be seen as a great sadness that this 'life' was not lived to the full. |
poor
forceps delivery at birth. She was described as being occasionally
difficult as a child, probably born out of her inability to communicateand move
easily, who knows the extent
of the rest of her impairments. 
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