STAFF at a Flintshire nursing home are trying to keep up spirits and morale whilst keeping their residents safe from Coronavirus by social distancing.

The team at The Cottage Nursing Home in Mold is helping residents stay in touch with relatives using WhatsApp and Facetime to send videos.

They also print off and read out letters sent in to residents.

House manager Cathy Peach and nurse Linda Williams came up with the idea of having a “Heart Monitor” - a box containing heart-shaped notes and envelopes has been left outside the front door for family members to write on.

They can then post their messages through the door and a “Heart Monitor” will collect the notes and deliver to residents.

Residents also have the option to use the Belvedere Conservatory to see and speak to visiting family members who sit outside in the Chatting Chair.

They can chat by phone to catch up with news, but stay safe.

Cottage resident Eleanor Hardy told activities worker Lyn Hulme: “It was lovely being able to see my daughter through the window the other day.

"All this reminds me of being separated from my own mother due to evacuation during the 2nd World War.”

Eleanor also has contact with her Pen Pal Lucy at Bryn Coch Primary School.

They have been writing to each other for 12 months as part of an intergenerational project.

In Eleanor’s first letter to Lucy, she wrote about being evacuated from London to a safer place when she was a similar age.