AN NHS worker in Poole has been left devastated after receiving a distasteful letter from one of her neighbours criticising the appearance of her house and garden.
The mental health nurse, who works at a hospital in Poole, recently moved into the Broadstone bungalow with her husband, an ambulance driver for a private firm.
However, after spending the day with her one-year-old daughter on Friday July 9, she returned home to find the note with a copy of her area’s newsletter slamming her curtains and front lawn.
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This note, written in block capitals, read: ‘Your garden and curtains are a disgrace. This is not Turlin Moor’.
The shocked nurse said: “I am sure it wasn’t the person who delivers the newsletter as I had already received one earlier that day.
“The note was tucked inside of another newsletter and left hanging out of my letter box which I thought that was a bit unusual.
“It was just horrible. It’s like being bullied in your own home and that should be the one place where you should feel safe.”
On one side of the bungalow, the couple have a net curtain on the kitchen window.
On the other side, the pair have stuck up a travel blackout blind on the window of their daughter’s bedroom.
The NHS worker took to social media to voice her outrage at the anonymous note.
“I don’t really share things online, but I felt that it was really unacceptable and people in the area should know about it,” added the 34-year-old.
“My partner and I have been working so much over the past year. I have been working nine or ten hour shifts five days a week, and they are not a nice nine hours as I’m dressed up in full PPE with a face mask and apron.
“So, to come home to something like this was really upsetting.”
The nurse, who is from London originally, moved into a house in Oakdale with her husband a few years ago.
After the birth of her daughter during the first lockdown, the couple relocated to a bungalow in Broadstone last year.
She added: “We have taken on an old house on the street, and it is one of the only ones that isn’t developed.
“We are waiting for planning permission to start some renovations on it, but we are kind of stuck in limbo at the moment.
“We have got a very small bungalow and a young growing family. For us, this is our forever home. We really love the area, and we want to stay here.”
Having posted an image of the note on a local community group, the NHS worker has received a wave of support from Poole residents.
“You never know what is going on for other people and you do not know when you are going to push someone over the edge,” she said.
“The reaction I have received is really reassuring. Whoever put that note through my door is in the minority because there are clearly lots of lovely, caring people in the area.
“En masse, it seems that many people are community focused and supportive.”
Having been informed by other residents about the social media post, chairman of Broadstone Watch and ward councillor Vikki Slade said she was “absolutely disgusted” by the letter.
She said: “I can confirm that this was not delivered by a member of the neighbour watch. The person put the message inside their own neighbour watch leaflet and posted it to her house.
“It is appalling that someone should feel compelled to write a comment about the appearance of someone’s home in this way. I was so upset for her.
“Not only to write this anonymous letter in capital letters, but to associate it with a community group that is set up to bring the community together and make residents feel safer.
“It is just such a cowardly thing to do.”
Residents have approached Cllr Slade saying that the message is a form a bullying, to which she agrees, saying “you have to call these things out”.
She added: “If she wouldn’t have mentioned this or posted about it on social media, she would have been sat at home thinking ‘is this how the rest of community see my house’ and resenting the fact she has moved into the area.
“The number of people who have showed their support for this couple is really heart-warming.
"Another couple of residents came around to our house with some flowers and card and asked me to drop its around to the couple just to show that not everyone feels that way.”
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