91-year-old senior keeps fit in nursing home with unusual hobby -
Lydia Böhm pursues a very unusual hobby: The 91-year-old resident of our senior care facility "Domizil am Leimbach" in Sandhausen not only does 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzles together with her son. In fact, she has taken up an even more unusual hobby - since the two of them moved in: The nursing home resident puts together teeny tiny beads, just the size of a pinhead, to create beautiful, colorful paintings. The so-called "diamond painting" with mini beads requires meticulous precision work and high concentration to reproduce the images and patterns in detail.
Daily activity keeps young
She got the idea from her 15-year-old great-grandson, who visited her shortly after she moved into the senior citizens' facility in Sandhausen and showed her a picture on her cell phone with the words "Grandma, look, do you like this? Since that day, the senior citizen has taken a great liking to Diamond Painting. During the interview, she is currently working on the "Praying Hands" by Albrecht Dürer. Lydia Böhm estimates that it will take her about 14 days to complete the entire painting. Her grandson helps her pre-sort the small beads according to different color shades, otherwise she lays and glues all of the 30,000 beads alone. She spends about 1 to 2 hours a day working on the picture.
Patience and a steady hand are what you need for this unusual hobby. But, Lydia Böhm is convinced, it's a great way to pass the time. She can't sit down and do nothing, and since she can't walk well anymore, this is a wonderful way to keep herself busy. When setting beads, you have to put your mind together, the color nuances differ only slightly, a small mistake shows up later in the overall impression of the finished picture.
Boredom never arises
The 91-year-old has now been living with her son Hans in our senior care facility in Sandhausen since July 2022. Her son will turn 70 in the fall and lives in the room next door. The two of them feel comfortable at "Domizil am Leimbach": "I'm content and don't want to go anywhere else"; she says with a smile. She is involved in the home's advisory board and is currently looking for other needlework fans among the home's residents to start a regular needlework circle. In her life, she has always enjoyed knitting and sewing. Lydia Böhm says of herself that she is a contented person. If she could give advice to others, she would recommend being open to everything and trying out new things. She has had good experiences with this herself; it keeps the gray cells fit.