Remembrance Day is important to us all. Every year people wear their poppies with pride and take time out of their busy day to honour those who lost their lives fighting for our freedoms. 

To my generation this day is especially poignant. We have first-hand memories of a country at war, we have lived experiences of losing loved ones and watching the devastation that war brings. For many of us, our childhoods were full of air raids and rationing, some of us spent much of our childhood away from our families, sent off to live with strangers in the hopes of keeping us safe.

To my generation Remembrance Day is a stark reminder of darker days and wartime spirit and an acknowledgement from younger generations that our sacrifices were not in vain.

Here at Layston Grove we went all out to commemorate this special day. We have spent the week making decorations. We have created a wall display of poppies reminiscent of those that grew in Flanders in Belgium following the first world war. It meant so much to all of us to have this time to create something beautiful in tribute to those who are no longer with us.

We were treated to a decadent afternoon tea; the tables were laid beautifully, and the cakes decorated in keeping with poppy red theme. It was a lovely spread, and we had a wonderful time swapping stories and recounting our memories.

We followed tea with a game of bingo, this had been created with a Remembrance Day theme and the thought that had gone into it was well received by all of us.

On Sunday we held a two-minute silence in honour of everyone affected by conflict and watched the Remembrance Day service. This day will always mean so much to us and the team will never fully understand how grateful we are to be able to mark it in such a remarkable way.