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Carers, Care Homes and
the British Media
Time to Care

Hannah Grist
Ros Jennings
Carers, Care Homes and the British Media
 Hannah Grist • Ros Jennings

Carers, Care Homes

and the British Media
Time to Care
Hannah Grist Ros Jennings
University of Bristol Centre for Women, Ageing and Media
Bristol, UK University of Gloucestershire
Cheltenham, UK

ISBN 978-3-030-35767-2    ISBN 978-3-030-35768-9 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35768-9

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG 2020
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
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Cover pattern © Melisa Hasan

Cover design: eStudioCalamar

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book is dedicated to all current and former care home workers, to those
we worked alongside in care homes over the years, and to the residents and
their families that we were privileged to know.
 Preface

The thinking behind this book began in 2012 when Hannah became a
PhD student under Ros’ supervision. Whilst Hannah’s doctoral research
was on questions of memory, identity and heritage, she became increas-
ingly interested in explorations of ageing, gender and representation.
Hannah joined the Centre for Women, Ageing and Media (WAM) as a
researcher in 2013 and became co-Director of the Centre with Ros in
2017. WAM brings together researchers from across the world, working
in multiple disciplines with myriad research methods and foci. Taking a
broadly feminist and cultural studies approach, WAM aims to position
emerging research about older people in relation to popular media/popu-
lar culture alongside the more established areas of ageing studies research.
Through collaboration and interdisciplinary perspectives WAM research
projects seek to make beneficial interfaces that will lead to more nuanced
understandings of the representations, identities and lived experiences of
ageing. This book makes a significant contribution to the WAM research
area, bringing together multiple disciplinary and methodological lenses to
bear on the representations and experiences of being a paid care worker
for older people in Britain.
Ros and Hannah found many similarities in their life courses, their
experiences and their approaches, as if they had lived parallel lives sepa-
rated by nearly 25 years. Ros worked as a care assistant in the early 1990s
whilst she completed her MA thesis at the University of York. Hannah
began work as a care assistant in the early 2000s as she completed her MA
at the University of Bristol and PhD at the University of Gloucestershire.

vii
viii PREFACE

Both Ros and Hannah have experience of caring for family members—
Hannah for her mother, and Ros for her wife. Both were (and continue to
be) fascinated by questions of care and frustrated by the way the media
represents paid care work. As self-confessed ‘methods geeks’ with a pen-
chant for autoethnography and multiple qualitative methods, Ros and
Hannah embarked upon a project to research and document the experi-
ences of real carers who worked in real British care homes, hoping to chal-
lenge and reimagine the way care workers and care homes are thought
about and represented in the media.
The following book therefore represents the culmination of nearly
eight years of thinking, talking, sharing, arguing, documenting and cri-
tiquing the representation of carers and care homes in the British media.
It makes a timely contribution to the developing interdisciplinary canon of
care home research, using ageing studies and media studies perspectives to
situate the voices and experiences of paid care workers at the centre.

Bristol, UK Hannah Grist

Cheltenham,
 UK Ros Jennings
 Acknowledgements

We have many people to thank for their support and encouragement as we

researched and wrote this book. In addition to our family and friends, to
whom we each owe a great deal, we would like to thank colleagues and
research students at the Centre for Women, Ageing and Media (WAM),
University of Gloucestershire: Josephine Dolan, Abigail Gardner, Estella
Tincknell, Sherryl Wilson, Lisa-Nike Bühring, Caroline Coyle, Caroline
Knudsen, Tony Lush and Alison Willmott. It is our joy and privilege to
work alongside you all. You each make WAM the vibrant research com-
munity that it is today, and we are very grateful for your ongoing support.
We would like to thank colleagues and researchers at Ageing,
Communication, Technology (ACT), the European Network in Ageing
Studies (ENAS), the North American Network in Aging Studies (NANAS)
and the Women and Ageing Research Network at the National University
of Ireland (NUI Galway), for sharing ideas, supporting our research and
offering us platforms to receive insightful feedback on this work as it pro-
gressed: Sally Chivers, Line Grenier, Shannon Hebblethwaite, Stephen
Katz, Ulla Kriebernegg, Constance Lafontaine, Cathy McGlynn, Barbara
Ratzenböck, Kim Sawchuk, Michaela Schrag-Früh, Roberta Maierhofer
and Maggie O’Neill. We are deeply fortunate to be connected to such
fabulous colleagues through these important international networks and
look forward to future collaborations.
We are indebted to current and former colleagues at the University of
Gloucestershire who have supported our research endeavour from the
beginning. Colleagues in the School of Media, the School of Education

ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

and Humanities, the Research Administration Office, and the Academic

Development Unit.
We would like to extend our thanks to all the staff at Palgrave Macmillan
and to thank the anonymous peer reviewers for their insightful comments
and whose feedback has strengthened this work immeasurably.
Finally, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to the current
and former care assistants who generously shared their memories and their
time with us. We were privileged to work alongside many of you as care
assistants, and humbled by the articulate and eloquent ways in which you
expressed what caring means to you. The work you do is important and
meaningful, and should be much celebrated. We hope this book makes
you proud.
 Contents

1 Introduction  1

2 Autoethnographies of Care 17

3 Little More Than Fools and Monsters: Care Workers in the

UK Media 39

4 Conversations with Carers 65

5 Concluding Thoughts 99

Index109

xi
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Abstract The introduction explores the rationale for this book: to situate
the voices of care workers at the centre of research on British care homes.
It argues that bringing together media and ageing studies perspectives can
challenge representations of care work and care homes. It explores the
approach to research design and positions the combination of multiple
qualitative methods as an innovative approach to media, ageing and care
home studies. The chapter outlines the structure of the book and con-
cludes by highlighting that the way carers and care homes are thought
about and represented must urgently evolve if we are to ensure a better
quality of care for older people in care homes in Britain and to provide
better support for those who ‘do’ care.

Keywords Care homes • Care assistants • Media representation •

Autoethnography • Textual analysis • Qualitative interviewing • Gender

Introduction
As the ageing1 population of Britain continues to grow significantly and as
an increasing proportion of those people become reliant on formalised
care, the way care and paid caregivers are represented on screen and
1
Debates on what constitutes ‘old’ or ‘older’ are complex and ongoing in ageing studies.
Gullette (2004), for example, argues we are less aged by chronology than we are by culture,
and scholars in health and disability studies suggest we can be ‘aged by disability’ (cf. Lamb

© The Author(s) 2020 1

H. Grist, R. Jennings, Carers, Care Homes and the British Media,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35768-9_1
2 H. GRIST AND R. JENNINGS

thought about in everyday life will continue to be both contentious and

important. Whilst the care home sector is worth around £15.9 billion a
year to the British economy (CMA 2017, online) current cultural narra-
tives continue to position the ageing population as an apocalyptic demo-
graphic (Robertson 1990) and a grey tsunami (Barusch 2013; Chivers
2013) resulting in a net drain on resources.
Critiques of neoliberal ageist ideologies like these (Gullette 2004,
2017; Cruikshank 2009; Sandberg and Marshall 2017) highlight the ways
that representations of the ‘old-old’ (Byetheway 1995) or fourth age
(Gilleard and Higgs 2013) drive narratives of a fear of ageing. Those who
have been classified as the fourth age (frail and dependent older people)
are constructed as an anathema to the progress narratives of neoliberal
individualism characteristic of the third age (Katz and Calasanti 2014;
Katz and Marshall 2003). Narratives that have produced concepts of suc-
cessful and active ageing (Rowe and Kahn 1998) are dominant in most
western societies. From this perspective, those who do not maintain indi-
vidual autonomy to the end of their lives have failed and as a result (in
Britain especially) are hidden away from public view in care homes. Their
very invisibility act as hauntings that teach us to fear growing old and to
hide practices of care from society in general. As Sally Chivers and Ulla
Kriebernegg argue in their important work Care Home Stories (2017)
‘institutional care for seniors offers a cultural repository for fears and hopes
about an ageing population’ (18).
Whilst debates have long continued around what has become termed
the ‘media effects theory’ (cf. Potter 2012) in this book we argue that the
way in which groups are represented in popular media formats impacts
upon the way audiences understand and make sense of them. Dominant
hegemonic media messages are decoded by audiences (cf. Hall 1980), and
as we argue in Chap. 3, we believe messages about care work and care
homes perform a vital source of cultural memory work (Zelizer, 2008;
Zelizer and Tenenboim-Weinblatt 2014)—they provide a reservoir of cul-
tural constructions about what sorts of people carers are. When care
homes are visible on screen and in print their depictions as, at best, a badly
run hotel staffed by ineffectual fools or, at worst, a ruthlessly run prison

2015). In this book these non-chronological understandings of ageing are important to the
accounts of current and former carers and the way they see themselves represented in
the media.
 1 INTRODUCTION 3

camp staffed by sadistic caretakers fuels the popular cultural imagination.

These depictions undermine and undervalue the work done by real carers
in real homes. This short book brings together the voices of current and
former carers who are usually underrepresented in research (Chivers and
Kriebernegg 2017, 28) to critique some of these representations, adding
to the growing body of research that examines the experiences of working
or growing old in a care home.
There exists a large body of literature on the care home, broadly west-
ern in origin. Ethnographic accounts of (particularly American) care
homes offer detailed insights into daily life for residents (cf. Gubrium
1975; Diamond 1986; Henderson and Vesperi 1995; Stafford 2003;
DeForge et al. 2011). Health care and nursing studies approach care home
residents from medical perspectives, paying close attention to those living
with conditions such as dementia (cf. Fossey et al. 2006; Waite et al. 2009;
Downs 2014), and handbooks offer clinical guidance to nursing staff on
topics from continence care to medication administration (cf. Nazarko
2002). Scholarship about the care home also takes the form of training
manuals and best practice guides aimed at care workers and nurses (cf.
Goode and Booth 2012; Morley et al. 2013; Mulley et al. 2014; Rawles
2017) designed to aid the professional development of those who work
within care facilities. Guidebooks targeted at families faced with the task of
choosing a long-term care facility for relatives also form a substantial con-
tribution to the literature on care work (cf. Goudge 2004; Hurtley and
Burton-Jones 2008; Dalley 2014). Significantly there also exists a growing
body of literature written by family members with loved ones who have
lived and died in substandard care homes (cf. Lawrence 2017), accounts
which seek to expose poor practice, challenge policy and share ‘lessons
learned’ with families in similar positions. Research into care also includes
political and feminist perspectives (cf. Tronto 1994; Twigg 2004; Dahl
2017), and a body of literature exists which examines the care home apply-
ing economic and organisational lenses (cf. Reynolds et al. 2003; Hafford-
Letchfield 2011; Palmer 2016), adding business studies perspectives to
the care home research canon.
Taken together this body of work offers much to our understanding of
what care homes are, how they operate and how the people who live
within their walls and their families feel about them. It is right and impor-
tant that the voices of those who experience the care home as recipients of
4 H. GRIST AND R. JENNINGS

care are central to work ‘on’ or ‘about’ the institution, and it is critical to
view the care home refracted through various disciplinary lenses. Whilst
the experiences of care assistants form sources of data for many of these
studies, few situate carers’ voices at the centre of the research. Fewer still
seek to augment the narrative voices of current and former care assistants
with autoethnographic reflection and detailed textual analysis of media
representations. This book acts as a small contribution to address the gap
that exists in scholarship.
This book draws upon the findings of interviews with a small sample of
current and former care assistants drawn from care homes in South Wales
and the north and south-west of England, coupled with an analysis of the
experiences of the authors through autoethnography, and explores popu-
lar media representations of care homes and care assistants which aired
during the period within the scope of this study (1989–2019). In keeping
with the experiential, lived approach that is privileged in this book, the
texts chosen for analysis in this book are those which the authors and par-
ticipants remembered as being particularly conscious of during the times
and spaces in which they performed care work. Bringing together these
research methods, this book explores the many ways in which age and
caregiving are problematized, represented and performed within Britain.
It integrates ageing and media studies approaches in order to critically
interrogate experiences and representations of paid caregiving and the role
that media plays in shaping those British cultural understandings, privileg-
ing the perspectives of care workers throughout.

Why Care Homes?

In the substantial literature on caregiving outlined above (whilst by no
means an exhaustive review) the terms nursing home, retirement home
and, less frequently, ‘old peoples’ home are frequently mentioned.
Following Froggatt et al. (2009) in their significant work Understanding
Care Homes: A Research and Development Perspective we use the term ‘care
home’ to refer to ‘institutional care settings that provide long-term care
for people with ongoing health or social care needs’ (10). The types of
care home that participants in this study worked in or continue to work in
varied in terms of geographic location but can all be described broadly as
 1 INTRODUCTION 5

small- to medium-­sized long-term residential care settings which special-

ised in dementia care. We do not wish to obscure the diversity of care set-
tings which make up the care home sector in Britain nor claim that the
sample used in this study is representative of this distinctive landscape,
recognising that with significant differences in size, funding and policy
directives come different challenges and approaches for the care staff that
work within them.
This book brings together the experiences of people who have worked
in care homes in Britain between 1989 and 2019 and examines selected
media representations of carers and care homes that emerged during this
period. We take 1989 as our starting point, as that was the beginning of
one of the authors’ time as a care assistant and forms one of the two auto-
ethnographies that are presented in Chap. 2. Our end point of 2019
reflects the fact that many of those we interviewed for this book in 2017
continue to work as care assistants today, and that our understanding of
the media texts and our interpretation of the interview and autoethno-
graphic data have been affected by our ongoing exposure to cultural mes-
sages about care work and care homes in the intervening years.
The book recognises the significant changes that have taken place in
terms of policy and representation and the shifting nature of care work
and care homes during this period (cf. Means and Smith 1998; Peace
2003). It acknowledges that the experiences of carers working in care
homes in the late 1980s and early 1990s and those that took place in the
2000s are vastly different. Yet, as the following chapters will make clear,
the narratives of care work that emerge throughout this book are also
strikingly similar. Shared motivations for getting into care work, and simi-
lar experiences and common concerns about the way carers are repre-
sented in news media and on screen are illuminated in the chapters that
follow. The book thus offers a picture of care work in Britain which has
changed enormously over the years and yet one which remains belea-
guered by structural limitations and problematic representations which
undermine and undervalue the work done by dedicated and hardwork-
ing carers.
6 H. GRIST AND R. JENNINGS

Who Cares?
There are approximately 416,0002 people living with complex health care
needs in care homes in Britain today (NIHR 2019, online). The British
population is projected to continue growing, reaching over 74 million by
2039, and as such the demand for adult social care increases rapidly in line
with demographic growth. A recent study on the impact of population
ageing on the future provision of end-of-life care by Bone et al. (2018)
notes that if current trends continue, the care home will be the most com-
mon place of death by 2040. Thus, simply to sustain current levels, care
home provision and care provided in the community must double by
2040. The importance and continuing and growing need for care homes
and care workers in Britain is therefore hard to dispute.
The precise number of paid carers currently working in the UK is dif-
ficult to estimate. The Cavendish Review3 (2013) projected there are 1.3
million unregistered healthcare assistants and support workers in Britain
(14) and estimated the number of people employed outside the National
Health Services (NHS) as paid care assistants was around 612,500 (15).
Of all adult social care workers in the UK the private sector employs over
two-thirds (Bloodworth 2018), and it is estimated that around 80% of all
paid care work in Britain is performed by women (Skills for Care 2018,
online).
Thus, care work is gendered work (Twigg 2004; Cancian and Oliker
2000). Twigg (2004) states that ‘care work is quintessentially gendered
work both in the sense that it is performed predominantly by women, and
in that it is constructed around gendered identities’ (68). Histories of
caregiving critique biological and essentialist discourses which suggest an
aptitude to provide emotional and physical care is one predisposed in
women. Linked to reproductive capabilities and the association between
women and motherhood, from this perspective care work is not viewed as

2
According to the National Institute for Health Research in the research project ENRICH,
the 416,000 older people living in care homes in Britain account for 4% of the population
aged 65 years and over, rising to 16% of those aged 85 or older.
3
Led by Camilla Cavendish, the Independent Review into Healthcare Assistants and
Support Workers in the NHS and social care settings was commissioned by the Department
of Health and Social Care in 2013. In the wake of the Francis Inquiry into Mid-Staffordshire
NHS Trust which took place between 2005 and 2009, the Cavendish Review makes a num-
ber of recommendations around the training and support of health care workers who per-
form care in hospitals, care homes, and care recipients’ own homes.
 1 INTRODUCTION 7

‘skilled work that is learned through practice and shaped by cultural values
and economic incentives’ (Cancian and Oliker 2000, 3). This book takes
the perspective that the connection between women and care is a socially
constructed phenomenon (Harrington Meyer 2000), and that cultural
representations of care work and care workers are pivotal in public under-
standings of what it means to ‘do’ and perform care.
The authors are both white European women from working-class back-
grounds, aged between 27 and 59 at the time of writing, who worked as
care assistants to fund their studies in higher education in their twenties
and thirties (see Chap. 2). No longer employed as paid care assistants, now
educated to doctoral level and specialists in the disciplines of media and
ageing studies, the cultural capital and habitus (Bourdieu 1984) of the
authors at the time of writing were different to those we interviewed for
this project. Those we spoke to for this project, however, mirrored national
demographic trends in terms of those who typically perform paid care
work in Britain. We interviewed eight current or former carers, seven of
whom were female, all of whom were white English or Welsh, with an
average age of 55 years, and a typical length of service in the care sector of
approximately seven years. Our use of a small sample of participants and
selected media representations pertinent to the scope of the study (see
below) allowed us to find depth and elicit thick description within our data
sets (Geertz 1973). This resulted in vivid depictions of real lives and mean-
ingful personal experiences of care work which were nested in real-world
contexts (Miles and Huberman 1994, 10). The following section outlines
the methodological approach undertaken for this book in more detail.

Methodological Approach
This short book uniquely synthesises several qualitative research methods
to explore the experiences of former and current care assistants in British
care homes and their representation in the media. The first is a collabora-
tive autoethnography (cf. Chang et al. 2013) written by the authors, who
have experiences of working as care assistants in British care homes, though
these were encounters with care which are separated by nearly 20 years.
Autoethnography seeks ‘to describe and systematically analyse personal
experience in order to understand cultural experience’ (Ellis et al. 2011,
online). Autoethnography has been used to explore diverse topics, from
illness and disease (cf. Ellis 1995), to questions about race and ethnicity
(Boylorn 2008; Toyosaki et al. 2009), to football fandom (Parry 2012),
8 H. GRIST AND R. JENNINGS

and is even gaining ground as a research methodology in business studies

(cf. Fürst 2017).
Building on our earlier work using intergenerational collaborative auto-
ethnography (Ferris-Taylor et al. 2019) this book makes a case for the
importance of personal experience and storytelling as a methodological
approach for consciousness raising. As we explored above, care work is
gendered work, performed largely by women. With care assistants margin-
alized and often demonised in the British media a feminist autoethno-
graphic (Ettore 2017) approach was appropriate as ‘a method of being,
knowing and doing that combines two concerns: telling the stories of
those who are marginalized and making good use of our own experience’
(Allen and Piercy 2005, 156). We needed to be selective about the con-
tent of our reflections, both due to the structural limitations imposed by
word count and to ensure that our reflections worked in dialogue with the
texts analysed in Chap. 3 and the conversations with carers explored in
Chap. 4.
To explore in detail representations of carers and care homes in the
British media, the second research method employed in this book is tex-
tual analysis (Fairclough 2003). Due to the limitations imposed by length,
this book does not seek to present an in-depth analysis of the media treat-
ment of carers, but through textual analysis (Fairclough 2003) of selected
media texts that participants and authors remembered being particularly
conscious of during the times and spaces in which they performed care
work (see Chap. 3), we explore how media technologies and media repre-
sentations (from covert surveillance strategies to detect elder abuse to
popular fiction television series and films) are a powerful interface between
care workers, care recipients and society. We are hyperaware that represen-
tations of old age in popular media forms are ‘highly instrumental in the
formation of superficial and limited views of ageing and old age (lacking
awareness of diversity and in-depth engagements with everyday cultural
encounters/experiences)’ (Jennings and Gardner 2012, 3). In Chap. 3 we
map the shapes and contents of these important texts and argue that col-
lectively these depictions powerfully affect public views of care home envi-
ronments and the carer/older person relationship as well as the identities
and experiences of carers themselves.
In order to augment and add depth to the autoethnographic and tex-
tual analyses presented in the book, eight semi-structured qualitative
interviews were undertaken with former and current care assistants. Each
lasting an average of 2–3 hours, the interviews were rich and detailed and
 1 INTRODUCTION 9

contained many more themes, concepts and ideas than we have been able
to capture in this book. Most of the participants were known to the
authors prior to the commencement of the project, as former colleagues
or friends. We were alert to the fact that having established relationships
with many of our participants before the interview posed challenges for
data collection and data analysis (Seidman 2006). We worked hard to
ensure assumptions about the participant’s answers were fully interrogated
when interpreting the data, and that our insights and lessons learned from
each interview were acknowledged, addressed and carried with us into
each subsequent interview.
Through our shared history and our relationship, an implicit under-
standing of our shared habitus (Bourdieu 1984) enriched our interviews
with current and former carers and transformed the research process. It
was important to us to adopt an approach to qualitative interviewing in
which we shared our experiences of care work freely with our participants.
Ours was an approach ‘situated within the context of emerging and well-­
established relationships among participants and interviewers’ (Ellis et al.
2011, online). We did not fear our approach would jeopardise the quality
of the data or lead our participant towards certain responses. In fact, as we
were well known to our interviewees, many of the stories they told about
their experiences in care homes were narratives in which one of the authors
also featured. It would therefore have been problematic to try to adopt a
distanced or neutral approach to these interviews. The spirit of sharing
and exchange that emerged throughout out interviews can be traced in
Chap. 4, which we have titled ‘Conversations with Carers’. The interviews
quickly took the form of conversations, meandering journeys through
long or short careers in care work, narratives which moved backwards and
forwards in time, jumping from theme to theme.
Whilst the participants were known to the authors beforehand, to pro-
tect those we interviewed and the homes they work(ed) in, we have ano-
nymised names, dates and places in the pages that follow. So too in our
autoethnographic reflections the names of care homes, colleagues and
residents have been either anonymised or removed entirely. As Hannah’s
care work experiences are still relatively recent, her reflections have been
through a careful process of re-ordering and re-storying (Bochner and
Ellis 2016, 253) to further guard the anonymity of colleagues, residents
and care homes she worked in.
The autoethnographic, textual and interview data were subjected to
detailed thematic analysis (Guest et al. 2012), adopting the constant
10 H. GRIST AND R. JENNINGS

comparison method (Glaser and Strauss 1967) to ensure analytic rigour.

The autoethnographic and co-participatory nature of the approach in this
book brings methodological richness to the study by allowing the emo-
tional aspects of caring to form part of the analysis. The methods pro-
duced complex narratives of experience and provided a rich interface of
meanings, feelings and understandings. Underpinned by the notions of
‘thinking with age’ (Jennings and Gardner 2012) and ‘reading with care’
(Ferris-Taylor et al. 2019) the sensitivity to ‘feeling age’ is also part of the
research approach. There also existed an intergenerational dimension run-
ning through the research both as co-authors and in the interactions of
staff with each other and those they care(d) for.
To paraphrase Frank (2000), the methods employed in this short book
mean we place ourselves on the methodological ‘line of fault’ (357)
between experiential and academic analyses. On our fault line, we carry
with us what might be thought of as ‘vocations of caring’—deep commit-
ments to provide appropriate acts of caring that are based in understand-
ings of the equalities and diversities of ageing as intersectional elements of
individual identities. As a result, real experiences and reflections are placed
in juxtaposition with media representations and also with current cultural
and theoretical debates on age, caregiving and representation. The weav-
ing of personal and emotional experiences into the study provides a new
lens on the subject matter and an accessible way to engage with the com-
plex ideas and issues that surround caring and being cared for in the British
care home environment.

Structure of the Book

This book contains five chapters. Chapter 2 presents two autoethnogra-
phies of care which examine care work by drawing on complementary and
contrasting experiences separated by nearly 20 years. The first autoeth-
nography is written by Hannah Grist, an academic who worked as a care
assistant for five years from 2010 to 2015. Hannah’s autoethnography
explores her memories of care work in the culture of person-centred care
and focuses the discussion of real care experiences in the modern moment.
The second is written by Ros Jennings, now an academic and Professor of
Ageing, Media and Culture, but who worked as a care assistant from 1989
to 1991. It explores her experiences of personally giving care and exam-
ines what it meant at that time to care and be cared for.
 1 INTRODUCTION 11

We are mindful that the autoethnographies are not presented in chron-

ological order, reflecting the non-linear progression of our journeys in and
out of care work and the non-sequential life course perspectives employed
in ageing studies. Hannah’s autoethnography comes first, situated in the
culture of person-centred care, her experiences of care work were contem-
porary to several film and television representations of care work and to
the Panorama documentary that we explore in Chap. 3. Ros’ autoethnog-
raphy offers a contrasting perspective of care work done in the 1980s and
1990s, contemporary to the series Waiting for God (BBC 1990–1994)
and to the experiences of several of the participants we interviewed for this
project.
Chapter 3 examines the principal ways that care workers caring for old
people in UK care homes are represented in a range of media. Although
not offering an exhaustive media scan, this chapter explores significant
interventions and trends in the representation of UK care workers over the
period pertinent to this book (1989–2019). The selected television and
film representations are contrasted with a discussion of UK national news-
paper headlines relating to care workers and the analysis of the BBC
Panorama documentary Behind Closed Doors: Elderly Care Exposed (2014).
We argue that the dominant mode of representation for care workers in
the UK media is as ineffectual fools and/or monsters, and consequently
the status and professional identity of care workers is diminished at a time
when high-quality, compassionate and person-centred care for old people
is needed more than ever.
Chapter 4 brings together the themes identified in the earlier autoeth-
nographies and media analysis chapters with the voices of current and
former carers to further develop the intricate picture of care and care
homes already offered in the book. This chapter draws on a series of semi-­
structured interviews with participants who have or continue to work as
carers for older people in care homes. It explores the ways carers think
about themselves, their roles and those they care for, and examines carers’
perceptions and responses to their representations in the British media. It
offers a complex picture of what it means to be a care worker and high-
lights several important issues for the sector, including issues around train-
ing, notions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ care, notions of resourcing and time to
‘do’ care, and one of the most problematic findings of this study—that
current and former care assistants can rarely picture a future in which they
reside in a care home themselves.
12 H. GRIST AND R. JENNINGS

The final chapter brings together the main arguments of the book and
summarises the findings of the textual, autoethnographic and interview
analyses. The conclusion highlights the contributions made to ageing
studies and media studies. We argue that the experiences of current and
former carers constitute ‘vocations of caring’—a wellspring of experience
and a deep understanding of what it means to perform care work carried
by current and former carers, which can powerfully shape public concep-
tions of both the care home and later life. The conclusion argues that it is
time to ensure a better quality of care for older people in care homes in
Britain, and that it is time to provide better support for those who ‘do’
care. For these crucial changes to take place we argue that the way carers
and care homes are thought about and represented in news media and
popular culture must urgently evolve.

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 CHAPTER 2

Autoethnographies of Care

Abstract This chapter presents two autoethnographies of care which

examine care work by drawing on complementary and contrasting experi-
ences separated by nearly 20 years. The first autoethnography is written by
Hannah Grist, an academic who worked as a care assistant for five years
from 2010 to 2015. The second is written by Ros Jennings, now an aca-
demic and Professor of Ageing, Media and Culture, but who worked as a
care assistant from 1987 to 1991. The autoethnographies explore issues
surrounding training and role modelling, education and class, the lived
impacts of media representations, and questions around time. Together
these autoethnographies reveal the legacies, emotional and embodied,
that we carry with us as a result of this work.

Keywords Autoethnography • Care work • Memory • Time • Affect

Introduction
Deanna B. Shoemaker’s (2015, 521) notion of ‘sifting through memories’
in her work on autoethnographic journeys is one that has followed us
throughout our own autoethnographic expedition for this book. The
close reading of media texts that represent British care homes and care
assistants and the conversations we had with carers stimulated memories
and kindled thoughts of former colleagues, former care homes, their resi-
dents and their families. The research process aroused recollections of

© The Author(s) 2020 17

H. Grist, R. Jennings, Carers, Care Homes and the British Media,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35768-9_2
18 H. GRIST AND R. JENNINGS

situations infused with fondness and pride, and evoked others that were
‘messy, bloody, [and] unruly’, as Tami Spry (2016, 15) has described.
It has been an emotional and affective process, then, to sift through,
like a prospector with a pan, thinking carefully about which memories to
include in our autoethnographies and which to tuck away, to think on
some more and return to at another time. After all, as Anne-Marie
Deitering (2017) reminds us, autoethnographies are never really finished
(16–18). And so, in what follows, we have focused on those recollections
of our time in care work that have never been far from our minds, and on
others which were forced to the fore through the process of doing this
kind of research. Our purpose in the pages that follow is to share these
personal experiences of care work to add depth, texture and a unique per-
spective to augment the narrative themes which thread through the fol-
lowing chapters.

Hannah’s Autoethnography

The Interview and Getting into Care, or ‘Hold these, love’

I was a care assistant for six years in my early twenties whilst I completed
my undergraduate and postgraduate studies. To fund my education, work-
ing in a local nursing home provided a consistent income and flexible
hours, and built on my experiences of informal caregiving at home. My
parents had both worked as care assistants whilst I was growing up. My
mother did night shifts and my father did days in the same nursing home.
I remember being bundled up in blankets and strapped into the car with
my younger brother, waiting in the care home carpark for the ‘other’ par-
ent, to swap over and bring us home again whilst the other started their
12-hour shift. At the time, I never really asked my parents what their work
was like. By the time I was 14 my mother had been disabled out of work,
and my father had moved out of care work into a role in the NHS, special-
ising in mental health.
When I started my work as a care assistant, I was idealistic and naïve. I
thought I would help make cups of tea and keep older people company
whilst they watched television or completed a jigsaw puzzle. These were
activities I was already keen on myself—a keen watcher of TV and an avid
puzzler, I felt ready to support residents to engage in activities like these.
I knew many of the residents in this home had dementia, but I had never
known anyone with the condition and was drastically underprepared for
 2 AUTOETHNOGRAPHIES OF CARE 19

my first encounters. I was guilty of holding an image in my mind of the

care home, care work and care home residents that simply did not match
real life, and it became quickly apparent that I was not prepared for life,
work and death in a care home. I don’t think I ever completed a jigsaw
puzzle or spent any time watching television with any of the residents I
cared for.
I started as a Health Care Assistant (HCA) at a nursing home close to
home after an introduction to the manager by a friend. This was not a
purpose-built nursing home, rather a converted Victorian mansion replete
with extensions and modifications to make it suitable for providing care
for older people with a variety of conditions, principally those with severe
dementia. When I walked into the home for the very first time for an
interview, the smell of urine and cheap air freshener burnt my nose and
throat as the door closed and locked automatically behind me (and here,
the Foucauldian parallels to prison spaces were not lost to me.) I was told
to take a seat in the reception area, by the voice at the other end of the
intercom.
No staff to be seen, I was instead greeted by an elderly gentleman who
was sitting in the reception area, quietly counting unseen objects out of
his pocket and onto the table. He looked up briefly when I arrived and
quickly resumed his counting. I took the plastic-covered seat next to him,
patiently waiting to be called into the interview room. The gentleman
looked over at me and, ever so quietly, asked me to, ‘Hold these, love.’ I
held out my hand as he gently placed three unseen objects onto my open
palm, carefully enunciating, ‘One, two, three’, as he went. ‘Look after
them, mind’, he commanded, in a thick accent. ‘Of course’, I replied,
safely tucking the ‘things’ into my own pocket and giving him a smile.
What were those objects he was so carefully counting out, and entrusting
to me? It would not be long before I found out more about this gentle-
man, and his 39 fellow residents, as I was offered the job on the spot. I
started work the following week.

Washing, Dressing, Shaving, or the Importance

of Being on Time for Breakfast
Before my first shift, I was given an induction which included a fire-safety
demonstration, where I was introduced to my co-workers and shown
around the home. I was shown how to operate the electric beds and how
to access the call bell system, and which combination of buttons I should
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
— Voi, o Rosa.
Rosa scosse la testa: e si rifece silenzio.
— Finalmente, continuò Cornelio, rompendo il silenzio, tutto si
cangia nella natura; ai fiori di primavera succedono altri fiori, e
vedonsi le api che carezzano teneramente le mammolette e le
garofanate, posarsi col medesimo amore sul caprifoglio, le rose, i
gelsomini, i crisantemi e il giranio.
— Che vuol dir ciò? dimandò Rosa.
— Ciò vuol dire, mia signorina, che voi avete dapprima amato
sentire il racconto delle mie gioie e delle mie angoscie; avete
carezzato il fiore della nostra reciproca giovinezza: ma la mia si è
appassita all’ombra. Il giardino delle speranze e dei piaceri di un
prigioniero non ha che una stagione; chè non è come i bei giardini
all’aria aperta ed al sole. Una volta la messe fatta, una volta la preda
presa, le api come voi, o Rosa, le api dal corpo delicato, dai
pennoncelli d’oro, dalle ali trasparenti, attraversano i cancellati,
fuggono il freddo, la solitudine e la tristezza per andare a trovare
altrove i profumi e le tepide esalazioni.... la contentezza, infine!
Rosa guardava Cornelio con un sorriso, che egli non vedeva; perchè
avea gli occhi verso il cielo.
Egli continuò con un sospiro.
— Mi avete abbandonato, o Rosa, per avere le vostre quattro
stagioni di piacere. Avete fatto bene, non me ne lagno; qual diritto
aveva io di esigere la vostra fedeltà?
— La mia fedeltà? esclamò Rosa tutta piangente e senza la pena
più a lungo di nascondere a Cornelio la rugiada di perle che le
scorrevano sulle guance; la mia fedeltà! che non vi sono stata
fedele, io?
— Ahimè! si chiama essermi fedele, esclamò Cornelio, e poi
abbandonarmi e lasciarmi qui morire?
— Ma, signor Cornelio, disse Rosa, non faccio tutto quello che
possa farvi piacere? Non mi occupo io del vostro tulipano?
— La sola gioia ch’io mi abbia provata al mondo senza che sia stata
intorbidita dall’amarezza. Voi me la rimproverate, o Rosa!
— Non vi rimprovero nient’altro, signor Cornelio, se non l’affanno
profondo che io provo dal giorno che mi si venne a dire al Buitenhof,
che voi andavate ad essere giustiziato.
— Vi dispiace, o Rosa, mia cara Rosa, vi dispiace dunque che io ami
i fiori.
— Non mi dispiace che voi li amiate, signor Cornelio, ma mi attrista
bensì che li amiate a preferenza di me.
— Ah! cara, carissima creatura, esclamò Cornelio; guardate come
tremano le mie mani, come la mia fronte è pallida; ascoltate,
ascoltate come batte forte il mio cuore. Ebbene non è mica perchè
mi sorrida e mi appelli il mio tulipano nero: è perchè voi mi sorridete,
è perchè voi piegate verso di me la vostra fronte, è perchè, — e io
so se l’è vero, — perchè, quantunque le fuggano, le vostre mani
aspirano alle mie, è perchè io sento il calore delle vostre guancie
dietro la fredda graticola di ferro. Rosa, mio amore, spezzate il tallo
del tulipano nero, distruggete la speranza di questo fiore, spengete
la dolce luce del casto e delizioso sogno che ogni giorno
abitualmente io faceva; sia pure! i fiori dalle ricche spoglie, dalle
grazie eleganti, dai capricci divini, sì toglietemeli tutti, o fiore geloso
degli altri fiori, sì toglietemeli tutti, ma non mi togliete la vostra voce,
il vostro gesto, lo strepito de’ passi vostri su per la trista scala; deh!
non mi togliete il fuoco degli occhi vostri per lo scuro corridoio, la
certezza del vostro amore che perpetuamente carezzerà questo mio
cuore. Amatemi o Rosa, perchè io non posso amare che voi.
— Dopo il tulipano nero! sospirò la giovanctta, le cui mani calduccie
e carezzevoli passate alla fine a traverso alle sbarrette di ferro erano
sotto le labbra di Cornelio.
— Prima di tutto, o Rosa....
— Che vi debbo credere?
— Come credete in Dio.
— Sia, ma ciò non vi obbliga ad amarmi molto?
— Troppo poco, pel volere, mia cara Rosa, ma obbliga pur voi.
— Me? dimandò Rosa; e mi obbliga a che?
— A non potervi maritare prima di tutto.
Ella sorrise dicendo:
— Ah! ecco come siete tiranni voialtri. Voi adorate una bella: non
pensate che a lei, non sognate che lei; siete condannato a morte:
andando al patibolo le consacrate il vostro estremo sospiro, ed
esigete da me povera meschina il sacrifizio de’ miei sogni, della mia
ambizione.
— Ma di qual bella mi parlate voi, o Rosa? disse Cornelio cercando,
ma inutilmente, nelle sue rimembranze una donna alla quale Rosa
potesse fare allusione.
— Della bella nera, signore, della bella nera dalla forma svelta, dal
piè sottile, dalla testa dignitosa. Parlo del vostro fiore, non mi capite?
Cornelio sorrise.
— Bella immaginaria, mia buona Rosa, mentre voi, senza contare il
vostro amoroso Giacobbe, o per dir meglio, il mio, voi siete attorniata
di partiti, che vi fanno la corte. Rammentatevi, o Rosa, ciò che mi
avete detto degli studenti, degli officiali, dei commessi dell’Aya?
Ebbene! a Loevestein non sonvi commessi, officiali, studenti?
— Oh! ve ne sono, e come! disse Rosa.
— Che scrivono?
— Sicuro.
— E ora che sapete leggere....
E mandò un sospiro, pensando, che Rosa doveva a lui, povero
prigioniero, il privilegio di saper leggere i bigliettini amorosi, che ella
riceverebbe.
— Ma, signor Cornelio, mi pare, disse Rosa, che leggendo i
bigliettini, che mi sono scritti, e adocchiando li zerbini, che mi fanno
la ronda, io non faccia che seguire le vostre istruzioni.
— Come le mie istruzioni?
— Già, le vostre istruzioni! Fate lo scordato, continuò Rosa,
sospirando la sua volta, fate voi lo scordato del testamento scritto da
voi sulla Bibbia del signor Cornelio de Witt? Non me ne scordo mica
io; perchè ora che so leggere, lo rileggo tutti i giorni, e non una, ma
spesso due volte. Ebbene! In quel testamento voi mi ordinate di
amare e di sposare un bel giovine da ventisei ai ventotto anni. Io lo
cerco questo giovine; e siccome tutta la giornata la consacro al
vostro tulipano, bisogna bene che mi lasciate la sera per trovarlo.
— Ah! Rosa, il testamento è fatto nella previsione della mia morte, e
grazie al cielo io sono vivo.
— Ebbene! dunque non cercherò più il ben giovine dai ventisei ai
ventotto anni, e verrò a veder voi.
— Brava, Rosa! sì, sì; venite!
— Ma a una condizione.
— L’ho già accettata!
— Che per tre giorni non si parli del tulipano nero.
— Non se ne parli più, se così vi piace.
— Oh! disse la giovanetta, non bisogna mai chieder l’impossibile.
E come per sbadataggine ella appressò la sua fresca guancia così
presso alla graticola, che Cornelio la potè sfiorare con le labbra.
Rosa diè uno strillo sommesso mandato dal cuore, e ratto disparve.
 V
Il secondo tallo.

La notte fu buona, e la giornata del domani fu ancora migliore.

I giorni precedenti la prigione erasi fatta squallida, scura, bassa
bassa; gravava di tutto il suo peso sul povero prigioniero. I suoi muri
erano neri, la sua aria fredda, le spranghe così raffittite da lasciarvi
appena penetrare il giorno.
Ma quando Cornelio risvegliossi, un raggio di sole mattinale
strisciava sulla ferrata; alcuni piccioni fendevano l’aria con le loro ali
stese, mentre altri coccolavano amorosi sul tetto vicino alla finestra
ancora chiusa.
Cornelio corse alla finestra e l’aperse; parvegli che la vita, la gioia e
quasi la libertà entrassero con i raggi del sole nell’oscura sua stanza.
Fioriavi l’amore e con lui fioriva attorno al prigioniero ogni cosa:
l’amore, fiore celeste ben’altrimenti profumato di tutti i fiori terreni.
Quando Grifo entrò nella stanza di Van Baerle invece di trovarlo
mesto e coricato come gli altri giorni, trovollo alzato, e cantante
un’arietta di un’opera.
— Ohè! fece Grifo.
— Stamani come va? disse Cornelio.
Grifo lo guardò in cagnesco.
— Il cane, il signor Giacobbe, la nostra bella Rosa, stanno tutti
bene?
Grifo digrignò i denti e tagliò corto, rispondendo:
— Eccovi la vostra colezione.
— Grazie, amico Cerbero; viene a tempo, che ho una gran fame.
— Ah! voi avete fame? disse Grifo.
— Toh! perchè no? domandò Van Baerle.
— Pare che la cospirazione cammini, disse Grifo.
— Qual cospirazione? dimandò Cornelio.
— Buono! so quello che mi dico, ma staremo con tanti d’occhi,
signor sapiente; state tranquillo: sì con tanti d’occhi.
— Così va fatto amico Grifo! così va fatto! La mia cospirazione come
pure la mia persona è ai vostri comandi.
— Si vedrà a mezzogiorno, disse Grifo, e escì.
— A mezzogiorno, ripetè Cornelio, che cosa vuol dire? Via,
aspettiamo mezzogiorno e vedremo.
Gli era facile aspettare mezzogiorno: aspettava le nove ore.
Battè mezzogiorno, e s’intese per le scale non solamente il passo di
Grifo, ma il passo di tre o quattro soldati che salivano con lui.
Si aprì la porta, Grifo entrò introducendo gli uomini, e chiuse l’uscio
dietro a loro.
— Via! ora perquisiamo.
Fu cercato nelle tasche di Cornelio, tra l’abito e la sua sottoveste, tra
la sottoveste e la camicia, tra la camicia e la carne: non fu trovato
niente.
Fu cercato dentro le lenzuola, dentro le materasse, dentro il
saccone: non fu trovato niente.
Quanto allora felicitossi Cornelio per non avere accettato il terzo
tallo. Grifo in questa perquisizione avrebbelo certo trovato per ben
nascosto che fosse stato, e lo avrebbe trattato come il primo.
Del resto mai prigioniero assistette di un viso più sereno a una
perquisizione fatta nella sua stanza.
Grifo si ritirò coll’apis e i tre o quattro fogli di carta bianca che Rosa
aveva dato a Cornelio; ciò fu il solo trionfo della spedizione.
Alle sei Grifo tornò ma solo; Cornelio volevalo addolcire; ma Grifo
brontolò, serrandosi con le due dita le labbra, ed escì all’indietro
come un uomo che abbia paura di essere aggredito.
Cornelio diede in uno scroscio di riso; per cui Grifo che ne
conosceva il perchè, gli gridò attraverso la graticola:
— Bene! bene! ben ride, chi ultimo ride.
Chi doveva ridere l’ultimo, in quella sera almeno, era Cornelio,
perchè aspettava Rosa.
Rosa venne alle nove, ma venne senza lanterna: non avea più
bisogno di lume, chè sapea già leggere. E poi il lume poteva tradire
Rosa viepiù spioneggiata da Giacobbe. E poi al fin dei conti
vedevasi troppo il rossore di Rosa, quand’ella arrossiva.
Di che parlarono i due giovani quella sera? Di quelle cose di cui
parlano in Francia sulla soglia di una porta tutti gl’innamorati, da una
parte all’altra del balcone in Ispagna, dall’alto al basso di un
terrazzino in Oriente.
Parlarono di cose che mettono le ali ai piedi alle ore, e aggiungon
penne al tempo.
Di tutto parlarono fuorchè del tulipano nero.
Poi alle dieci come il solito si lasciarono.
Cornelio era felice e così pienamente felice quanto può esserlo un
tulipaniere cui non siasi punto parlato del suo tulipano.
Ei trovava Rosa graziosa come senza paragone: la trovava buona,
leggiadra, avvenente.
Ma perchè Rosa proibiva che si parlasse del tulipano?
L’era un capriccetto di Rosa. E Cornelio diceva dentro di sè
sospirando, che la femmina non è perfetta.
Una parte della notte meditò su questa imperfezione; che è quanto
dire che, finchè fu sveglio, pensò sempre a Rosa.
Una volta addormentato, la sognò. Ma la Rosa dei sogni era ben
altrimenti più perfetta della Rosa reale. Non solamente quella
parlava del tulipano, ma di più portava a Cornelio un magnifico
tulipano nero piantato in un vaso della China.
Cornelio svegliossi con un brivido universale di gioia, e mormorò:
— Rosa, Rosa, io ti amo.
E siccome facevasi giorno, Cornelio non giudicò a proposito di
riaddormentarsi. Restò dunque tutta la giornata fisso nella idea che
gli era rimasta svegliandosi.
Ah! se Rosa avesse parlato del tulipano, Cornelio avrebbela preferita
alla regina Semiramide, alla regina Cleopatra, alla regina Elisabetta,
alla regina Anna d’Austria, che è quanto dire alle più grandi e alle più
belle regine del mondo.
Ma Rosa avea proibito sotto pena di non tornar più, avea proibito
che per tre giorni non si parlasse di tulipani.
Erano settantadue ore concesse all’amante, è vero; ma erano
settantadue ore minimate alla orticultura. È vero però che su queste
settantadue ore già trentasei erano passate; e le altre trentasei
passerebbero ben sollecite, diciotto aspettando, e diciotto
ricordando.
Rosa tornò alla medesima ora: Cornelio sopportò eroicamente la sua
penitenza. Questo Cornelio gli era un degnissimo pitagorico, e
purchè fossegli permesso di avere una sola volta per giorno novelle
del suo tulipano, sarebbe rimasto anche cinque anni senza parlare
d’altro, secondo lo statuto dell’ordine.
Del resto la bella visitatrice capiva bene che quando si comanda da
una parte, bisogna cedere dall’altra. Rosa lasciava prendere le sue
dita dalla graticola; e lasciava che Cornelio baciasse a traverso della
ferratella, le sue ciocche di capelli.
Povera ragazza! tutti questi vezzi amorosi le erano ben più dannosi
che di parlare del tulipano.
Ella ben lo comprese tornando nella sua stanza col cuore palpitante,
le guancie ardenti, le labbra arse, gli occhi rugiadosi.
Il dimani sera poi dopo scambiate le prime parole, dopo le prime
carezze fatte, Rosa guardò Cornelio attraverso la graticola, al buio,
con quello sguardo che sente anche quando non vede.
— Ebbene! ella disse, ha buttato!
— Ha buttato! che? che? domandò Cornelio, non osando credere
che Rosa da sè abrogasse la durata della sua prova.
— Il tulipano, disse Rosa.
— Come, esclamò Cornelio, voi dunque permettete?....
— Eh! sì, disse Rosa di un tuono di tenera madre che permetta a
suo figlio una contentezza.
— Ah! Rosa! esclamò Cornelio, sporgendo le sue labbra, attraverso
le sbarrette di ferro, nella speranza di toccare una guancia, una
mano, la fronte, qualche cosa insomma; ma meglio di queste, toccò
due labbra semiaperte.
Rosa gettò un piccolo strillo. Cornelio si accorse che bisognava
affrettarsi a proseguire la conversazione, perchè il suo inatteso
contatto aveva spaventato fortemente Rosa.
— Buttato ben diritto? egli dimandò.
— Diritto come un fuso di Frigia, disse Rosa.
— È ben’alto?
— Due pollici almeno.
— Oh! Rosa, abbiatene ben cura, e vedrete come crescerà presto.
— Posso averne più cura? disse Rosa. Non penso che a lui.
— Che a lui, o Rosa? Guardate che ora sono geloso io.
— Eh! voi sapete bene che pensando a lui è lo stesso che pensare a
voi. Non lo perdo mai di vista; lo vedo da letto; mi sveglio, ed è il
primo oggetto che miro; mi addormento, è l’ultimo oggetto che perdo
di vista. Il giorno seggo e lavoro vicino a lui; chè dal momento che è
in camera mia, non lascio più la mia stanza.
— Avete ragione, o Rosa: è la vostra dote, lo sapete.
— Sì, e mercè sua potrò sposare un giovine di ventisette o ventotto
anni, che io amerò.
— Zitta, cattivella.
E Cornelio potè prendere le dita della giovanetta, il che se non fece
cambiar di conversazione, fece almeno succedere il silenzio al
dialogo.
Quella sera Cornelio fu il più felice dei mortali. Rosa lasciogli la sua
mano per quanto egli volle, e lasciollo parlare a suo piacere del
tulipano.
A partire da questo momento ciascun giorno apportava un progresso
nel tulipano e nell’amore dei due giovani. Una volta eransi aperte le
foglie, un’altra erasi sbocciato il fiore.
A questa nuova la gioia di Cornelio fu grande, e le sue dimande
succedevansi con una rapidità che testimoniavano la loro
importanza.
— Sbocciato! esclamò Cornelio, sbocciato?
— È sbocciato, ripete Rosa.
Cornelio si sentì mancare dalla gioia, e fu costretto ad attenersi alla
ferriata.
— Ah! Dio mio! esclamò.
Poi rivolgendosi a Rosa:
— L’ovale è regolare? il cilindro è pieno? le punte sono ben verdi?
— L’ovale è quasi un pollice e si appunta come un ago; il cilindro
gonfia i suoi fianchi, e le punte sono pronte a screpolare.
Questa notte Cornelio potè dormir poco: l’era un momento supremo
quello della screpolatura delle punte.
Due giorni dopo Rosa annunziò che erano screpolate.
— Screpolate, o Rosa! esclamò Cornelio; l’involucro è screpolato!
Ma dunque allora si vede, si può distinguere già?....
E il prigioniero arrestossi affannoso.
— Sì, rispose Rosa, sì, può distinguersi una strisciolina di differente
colore, sottile come un capello.
— E il colore? insistè Cornelio tremando.
— Ah! rispose Rosa, l’è ben cupo.
— Bruno?
— Oh! più cupo.
— Più cupo, mia buona Rosa, più cupo! oh! grazie. Cupo come
l’ebano, cupo come....
— Cupo come l’inchiostro col quale vi ho scritto.
Cornelio gettò un grido di stolta gioia. Poi arrestandosi ad un tratto,
disse a mani giunte:
— Oh! Rosa, non vi può essere angiolo da compararsi a voi.
— Veramente? disse Rosa sorridendo a tale esaltazione.
— O Rosa, voi avete fatto tanto; o Rosa, vi siete tanto adoperata per
me; o Rosa, il mio tulipano va a fiorire, e fiorisce nero! Rosa, Rosa,
Dio non ha creato sulla terra cosa più perfetta di voi.
— Dopo il tulipano però?
— Chetatevi, cattivella; chetatevi! Per pietà non turbate la mia gioia!
Ma ditemi, Rosa, credete che tra due o tre giorni al più tardi il
tulipano vada a fiorire?
— Dimani o posdomani, dicerto.
— Ah! e io non lo vedrò, esclamò Cornelio rovesciandosi indietro,
non lo bacerò come una meraviglia di Dio che deve adorarsi, come
bacio le vostre mani, o Rosa, come bacio i vostri capelli, come bacio
le vostre guancie, quando per caso trovansi a contatto della
graticola.
Rosa avvicinò la sua guancia non per caso, ma volontariamente; le
avide labbra del giovine vi si affissero.
— Madonna! esclamò Rosa, ve lo porterò, se volete.
— Ah! no, no! Appenachè sarà aperto, guardatelo bene all’ombra; e
sull’istante, vedete, sull’istante spedite a Harlem a prevenire il
presidente della società di orticultura, che il gran tulipano nero è
fiorito. Lo so bene, Harlem è lontano, ma coi quattrini troverete un
espresso. Ne avete o Rosa?
Rosa sorrise, rispondendo:
— Oh! sì!
— Un buon pochi? dimandò Cornelio.
— Trecento fiorini.
— Oh! se avete trecento fiorini, non un espresso, ma voi stessa
dovete andare a Harlem.
— Ma in questo tempo il fiore?.....
— Lo porterete con voi. Capite bene che non bisogna che ve ne
separiate neppure per un minuto.
— Ma non separandomi punto da lui, mi separo però da voi, signor
Cornelio, disse Rosa attristata.
— È vero, mia dolce, mia cara Rosa. Mio Dio! gli uomini sono cattivi!
Che ho loro io fatto? e perchè mi hanno tolto la libertà? Avete
ragione, o Rosa, non potrei vivere senza di voi. Ebbene ecco
spedirete qualcuno ad Harlem; e in fede mia, il miracolo è tanto
grande da far muovere lo stesso presidente, che verrà in persona a
Loevestein a cercare del tulipano.
Poi arrestandosi a un tratto e con voce tremante:
— Rosa! mormorò, Rosa! e se non fosse poi nero?
— Madonna? lo saprete dimani o posdimani a sera.
— Aspettare fino alla sera per saperlo, o Rosa!... Morirò
d’impazienza. Non potremmo combinare un segnale?
— Farò di meglio.
— Che farete?
— Se si apre di notte, verrò, oh sì! verrò a dirvelo da me; e se di
giorno, verrò all’uscio, e striscerò un biglietto o di sotto alla porta o
per la graticola tra la prima e la seconda ispezione di mio padre.
— Oh! Rosa, che mi dite mai! Ciò sarà per me una doppia
contentezza.
— Ecco le dieci, bisogna che io vi lasci.
— Sì, sì, disse Cornelio, andate, Rosa, andate!
Rosa si ritirò quasi che trista; Cornelio l’avea quasi mandata via.
Era, è vero, per vegliare sul tulipano nero.
 VI

Scorse la notte ben dolce, ma nel tempo stesso bene agitata per
Cornelio. A ogni minuto sembravagli che la soave voce di Rosa lo
chiamasse; svegliavasi in sussulto, andava alla porta, avvicinava il
viso alla graticola; ma la graticola era solitaria, il corridoio deserto.
Senza dubbio Rosa dal canto suo vegliava pure; ma più felice di lui,
vegliava sul tulipano. Avea là sotto gli occhi il nobile fiore, meraviglia
delle meraviglie, non solo ancora sconosciuta, ma creduta anco
impossibile.
Che dirà il mondo quando saprà che il tulipano nero sia trovato, che
esista, e che sia Van Baerle il prigioniero che lo abbia trovato?
Cornelio avrebbe scacciato da sè chiunque gli avesse proposta la
libertà in cambio del suo tulipano!
Il giorno venne senza avviso nessuno; il tulipano non era ancora
fiorito.
La giornata passò come la notte innanzi, e venne l’altra con Rosa
tutta lieta, con Rosa leggiera come una lodoletta.
— Ebbene! dimandò Cornelio.
— Ebbene! va tutto a meraviglia: stanotte indispensabilmente il
nostro tulipano fiorisce.
— E fiorirà nero?
— Nero come un’ala di corvo.
— Senza la minima vergaturina?
— Senza neppure l’ombra.
— Misericordia del cielo! Rosa ho passato la notte pensando prima a
voi...
Rosa accennò insensibilmente di non crederci.
— E poi a ciò che dobbiamo fare.
— Ebbene!
— Ebbene! ecco ciò che ho deciso. Quando il tulipano fiorito, sarà
ben costatato sia nero, e nero perfetto, bisogna che troviate un
espresso.
— Se non è che questo, l’ho bell’e trovato.
— Un espresso sicuro?
— Ne rispondo io; gli è un mio innamorato.
— Spero non sia Giacobbe.
— No, state tranquillo. È il navicellaio di Loevestein, giovanotto
avvistato, di venticinque ai ventisette anni.
— Diavolo!
— State tranquillo, disse Rosa ridendo, non ha ancora l’età, giacchè
voi stesso l’avete fissata dai ventisei ai ventotto.
— Ma credete di poter contare su questo giovine?
— Come su me; si getterebbe dalla sua barchetta nel Wahal o nella
Mosa, come più mi piacesse, se glielo comandassi.
— Eh! potrebbe, o Rosa, questo giovinotto essere in dieci ore a
Harlem. Datemi apis e carta, meglio ancora penna e inchiostro, che
scriverò... anzi è meglio che scriviate voi; io povero prigioniero potrei
dar sospetto, come a vostro padre, di una cospirazione nascosta.
Scriverete al presidente della società d’orticoltura, e, ne sono certo,
verrà quà il presidente.
— Ma se tardasse?
— Supponete che tardi un giorno o due; ma gli è impossibile, che un
amatore di tulipani come lui tardi anco un’ora, un minuto, un
secondo a mettersi in via per vedere l’ottava maraviglia del mondo.
Ma, come io diceva, tardasse pure un giorno, ne tardasse due, il
tulipano sarebbe in tutto il suo splendore. Visto il tulipano dal
presidente, ci s’intende, voi riterrete, o Rosa, un duplicato del
processo verbale, e gli consegnerete il tulipano. Ah! se lo avessimo
potuto portar da noi, o Rosa, sarebbe stato un dolce peso un po’ alle
mie e un po’ alle vostre braccia; ma è un sogno cui non bisogna
pensare, continuò Cornelio sospirando; altri occhi lo vedranno
sfiorire! Oh! soprattutto, o Rosa, che non lo veda persona, prima del
presidente. Buon Dio! il tulipano nero sarebbe visto e preso!
— Ih!
— Non mi avete detto voi stessa i vostri sospetti sul conto di quel
vostro Giacobbe? Si ruba un fiorino, perchè non ne possono essere
rubati cento mila?
— Starò in guardia, via; state tranquillo.
— Se mentre siete qui, si aprisse?
— N’è ben capace il capriccioso, disse Rosa.
— Se tornando voi lo trovaste fiorito?
— Ebbene?
— Ah! Rosa, appena sia fiorito, ricordatevi che non avvi un minuto a
perdere per prevenirne il presidente.
— E voi, ci s’intende.
Rosa sospirò, ma senza amarezza, e come donna che comincia a
capire, sebbene stenti ad abituarvisi, che l’è una debolezza.
— Torno presso il tulipano, signor Van Baerle, e appena aperto,
sarete prevenuto; e subito partirà l’espresso.
— Rosa, Rosa, io non so più a qual meraviglia del cielo o della terra
compararvi.
— Comparatemi al tulipano nero, signor Cornelio, e ne sarò ben
lusingata, ve lo giuro. Dunque a rivederci, signor Cornelio.
— Oh! dite: A rivederci, amico mio.
— A rivederci, amico mio, disse Rosa un poco consolata.
— Dite: Amico mio diletto.
— Oh! amico mio...
— Diletto, o Rosa, ve ne supplico, diletto, diletto, non è così?
— Diletto, diletto, pronunziò Rosa palpitante, inebriata, pazza per la
gioia.
— Allora, o Rosa, dacchè avete detto diletto, dite pure felice; felice
quanto uomo giammai sia stato felice e benedetto sotto il cielo. Non
mi manca che una cosa, o Rosa.
— Quale?
— La vostra guancia, o Rosa, la vostra guancia fresca, rosea,
vellutata. Oh! ma di vostra volontà non più per sorpresa, non più per
caso. Rosa, ah!
Il prigioniero finì la sua preghiera in un sospiro; chè vennero le sue
labbra a incontrarsi con quelle della giovinetta non più per caso, non
per sorpresa, come cent’anni dopo Saint-Preux doveva incontrare le
labbra della sua Giulietta.
Rosa s’involò; e Cornelio restò con l’anima sospesa alle di lei labbra,
e col viso fisso alla graticola.
Soffocato dalla gioia e dalla felicità, egli aperse la finestra e
contemplò lungamente col cuore pregno di letizia l’azzurro celeste
senza nuvole e la luna al di là delle colline versante un torrente
d’argentea luce sopra lo specchio dei due fiumi. Rinfrescò i suoi
polmoni d’aria pura e balsamica, lo spirito di dolci idee, l’anima di
riconoscenza e di religiosa ammirazione.
— Oh! voi siete eternamente lassù, o mio Dio! esclamò genuflesso
con gli occhi fitti nel firmamento; — deh! perdonatemi, se mai nei
giorni trascorsi io avessi quasi dubitato di voi; ravvolto dentro il
vostro manto di nubi, per un istante cessai di vedervi, o Dio buono,
Dio eterno, Dio misericordioso! Ma oggi, ma stasera, ma stanotte oh!
vi vedo tutto intiero nello specchio dei vostri cieli, e soprattutto nello
specchio del mio cuore.
Era guarito il povero malato; era libero il povero prigioniero!
Per una gran parte della notte Cornelio restò fisso alle sbarre della
sua finestra a orecchie tese, concentrando i suoi cinque sensi in un
solo, o piuttosto solamente in due: guardava e origliava.
Guardava il cielo, e ascoltava la terra.
Poi di tratto in tratto volgeva l’occhio verso il corridoio, dicendo:
— Laggiù è Rosa, che veglia come me, come me aspetta di minuto
in minuto. Laggiù sotto gli occhi di Rosa è il fiore misterioso che vive,
che screpola, che si apre; forse in questo momento Rosa tiene tra le
sue dita tiepide e delicate lo stelo del tulipano. Sia delicato il
contatto, o Rosa! Forse tocca co’ labbri suoi il calice del fiore
semiaperto. Sfioralo con precauzione, o Rosa! le tue labbra
bruciano! Forse in questo momento i miei dolci amori si carezzano
sotto lo sguardo di Dio.
In quel momento una stella strisciò al mezzogiorno, traversò tutto lo
spazio che separava l’orizzonte della fortezza e venne a cadere su
Loevestein.
Cornelio trasalì:
— Ah! disse, ecco che Dio invia un’anima al mio fiore.
E come se avesse colto nel segno, quasi nello stesso momento il
prigioniero intese nel corridoio dei passi leggeri come quelli di una
silfide, lo sventolìo di una veste che pareva un ventilar di ali, e una
voce ben conosciuta, che diceva:
— Cornelio, amico mio, amico diletto e ben felice, venite, venite
presto!
Cornelio non fece che un salto dalla finestra alla graticola. Questa
volta ancora incontraronsi le sue labbra con quelle mormoranti di
Rosa che gli disse con un bacio:
— È sbocciato; è nero, eccolo!
— Come eccolo! esclamò Cornelio staccando le sue labbra da
quelle della giovinetta.
— Sì, sì; merita bene correre un piccolo rischio per dare una gioia:
eccolo, guardate!
E con una mano alzò all’altezza della graticola una lanternina sorda,
da lei allora aperta, mentre alla medesima altezza mostrava con
l’altra il miracoloso tulipano.
Cornelio gettò un grido e credette svenire.
— Oh! mormorò, Dio mio! Dio mio! mi ricompensate della mia
innocenza e della mia prigionia, dappoichè avete fatto che si accosti
questo dolce fiore alla graticola della mia prigione.
— Abbracciatelo, disse Rosa, come io l’ho abbracciato or ora.
Cornelio ritenendo il suo alito toccò a fior di labbra la punta del fiore,
e mai altro bacio impresso sulle labbra di una donna, di quelle
puranco di Rosa, non così profondamente mai gli scesero sul cuore.
Il tulipano era bello, splendido, magnifico; il suo gambo aveva più di
dieci pollici di altezza; slanciavasi dal seno di quattro verdi foglie,
liscie, diritte, come quattro ferri di lancia; e il suo fiore era nero,
brillante come polverino.
— Rosa, disse Cornelio tutto anelante, Rosa, non c’è un istante a
perdere, bisogna scrivere la lettera!
— L’è scritta, mio diletto Cornelio, disse Rosa.
— Davvero!
— Mentre aprivasi il tulipano, io scriveva, perchè non volevo che
andasse perduto neppure un secondo. Leggete la lettera, e ditemi se
va bene.
Cornelio prese la lettera e lesse uno scritto ancora moltissimo
migliorato dacchè egli avea ricevuto quelle due parole:

«Signor Presidente,
«Tra dieci minuti forse il tulipano nero sboccerà; e
appena ciò sia, io vi invierò un espresso per pregarvi di
venire in persona a vederlo nella fortezza di
Loevestein. Io sono la figlia del carceriere Grifo, quasi
prigioniera quanto i prigionieri di mio padre, sicchè da
me non potrei recarvi questa maraviglia. Il perchè oso
supplicarvi a venirvelo a prendere da voi.
«Mio desiderio sarebbe che si chiamasse Rosa
Barlaeensis.
«È sbocciato, è nerissimo... Venite, signor Presidente,
venite.
«Ho l’onore di essere vostra umilissima serva
«Rosa Grifo.

— Va benone, va benone, mia cara Rosa. Questa lettera è una

maraviglia; non l’avrei scritta io con tanta semplicità. Al congresso
darete tutti i ragguagli che vi saranno richiesti; saprassi come il
tulipano sia cresciuto; di quali cure, veglie e timori sia stato cagione;
ma ora, Rosa mia, ora non un istante da perdere... L’espresso!
l’espresso!
— Come si chiama il presidente?
— Qua, ci metterò io l’indirizzo. È ben conosciuto, è Van Herysen,
sindaco di Harlem.... Qua, Rosa, qua.
E con mano tremante fece la soprascritta:

«A Pietro Van Herysen

«Sindaco e Presidente della Società orticola di
Harlem.