Helen Pidd

When you are little, so much of life is new and strange that you quickly accept even the strangest things as being perfectly normal. But I remember thinking it was odd that so many of these very old women were clutching dollies and teddies, and also that they were draped in jewellery. Most of them had no family, received no visitors and were not able to go out to a shop, so a charity would send them beads and brooches, which they would wear over their nighties.

-Helen Pidd article