Margot Marmalade the bear stood outside Little Chestnut Care Home with her elderly father, Quincy Marmalade.
"No! I refuse to be dumped in a horrible care home whilst you go off on holiday!" Exclaimed Mr Marmalade.
The rest of the Marmalade family were going to the Isle of Wight for a family holiday, but Quincy Marmalade gets awfully bad sea-sickness. So it was decided Quincy would go and stay in the Care Home for the week, rather than the whole family listening to the old bear grumble on.
"Mrs Hazelwood will take excellent care of you, Dad. You can't just stay at home." Margot explained. Quincy Marmalade was rather wobbly on his paws nowadays, and she was worried he would take a fall.
Gossip travels very quickly in Little Chestnut, and so the current residents of the Care Home were already expecting him.
"I hope he's not as grumpy as I remember!" Carmen Cottontail the bunny said.
"He certainly won't like Mrs Hazelwood telling him what to do!" Mrs Renard the fox said, looking up from her newspaper.
After much grumbling, and with the help of some of Mrs Hazelwood's best biscuits, Margot Marmalade managed to get Quincy settled down into a nice armchair.
The main lounge in the care home consisted of a mismatch of different sofas and armchairs, newspapers and tea pots. Mrs Hazelwood kept it very clean and cosy.
"Is that the Sylvanian Times you're reading Mrs Renard?" Mr Marmalade said, nosily peering over.
"Yes, did you know we all get a free copy everyday?" Mrs Renard explained. Mr Marmalade tried very hard not to look impressed by this; the Sylvanian Times was the best newspaper around.
Mrs Hazelwood got him his own copy of the newspaper, refilled his tea, and gave him some more biscuits. Quincy Marmalade was very surprised to find himself almost enjoying himself!
The other side of the room, Mildred Mulberry was watching television and sipping tea.
"Is that Classical Music at 6, Mildred?!" Quincy Marmalade jumped up from his armchair and bounded over to the television, completely forgetting his walking stick!
"We don't have this television channel at home", thought Quincy Marmalade to himself as he settled down in front of the television. Maybe Mr Marmalade was going to have a better time than he'd expected....
