They may be get­ting down in age, but that didn’t stop res­i­dents of the Promise House fa­cil­i­ty in San­ta Cruz from tak­ing part in Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions.

For the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year, on Feb­ru­ary 8, they dressed up in their cos­tumes, do­nat­ed by fam­i­ly, friends and well-wish­ers, and par­tic­i­pat­ed in their own pa­rade of the bands at the fa­cil­i­ty. One of the hos­pice nurs­es, Eliz­a­beth Atwell, even made a cos­tume from scratch for one of the pa­tients.

Much to their de­light and thanks to cre­ative artiste and per­former Tion Dop­well, they were paid a spe­cial vis­it by some tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val char­ac­ters—Dame Lor­raine, fan­cy sailors, mid­night rob­ber and moko jumbies.

Un­der the watch­ful eyes of their care­givers, they danced, so­cialised, took pho­tos and had a grand time.

Promise House is an NGO that hous­es a pae­di­atric can­cer care fa­cil­i­ty, an adult can­cer hos­pice, and a home for the aged, all on the same com­pound.