Visit at MoDA with Ruby

At the weekend (Sunday 6th Dec) I took my 85-year-old friend Ruby to MoDA (Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture). Only recently she started to get a bit confused, asking me several times something she would normally remember. This may also have been because she had a bad cold and still felt the after effects. I took her by car to the museum.

Even though there is only one main exhibition room there was a lot if not too much to take in for her. She was very glad about the sofa at the end of the room where she was able to rest after 15 minutes of arriving. When we entered the room she was very pleased to see a Singer sewing machine. She owned one of those! Memories came back. Then we looked at the drawers with wallpaper designs. The drawers were a bit difficult to open for her and with the light in the room she had trouble reading the labels. She wears glasses. But I also got the impression that her cataract got worse.

Ruby liked the idea of reading comments by other people, but the handwriting and the light in the room made it difficult for her to read it by herself. She quickly lost interest. In front of another display she wanted know which items were what, but didn't find any descriptions. MoDA had an A4 card near the display, which worked like a menu index, but she wasn't able to work it out how to use it.

The kitchenette, an all-in-one kitchen cupboard from the 1930s, was the highlight for her because it was large and tactile – and yes, she immediately touched it and then read out the label "Do not touch!".

Ruby definitely enjoyed herself, but with the soft and dim light in the exhibition room and the differing position of the labels and explanations of the items, it wasn't easy for her to follow the exhibition.

All in all it was a very enjoyable experience! Thanks Ruby for allowing me to write about our day.