Article, and images courtesy of Christine Lees LSW/ADC
Billie Strozier, Activity Assistant, pins up another “Thankful” wish on the “Thankful Tree” from a resident at Waldron Nursing Center. (Reference above image)
What a wonderful Thanksgiving Surprise our ladies received from Roger & Kim Rich from R & R Automotive as they arrived loaded down with fresh Carnations of every color for each one of our lady residents on Wednesday morning just in time for Thanksgiving. Roger is the son of our resident Johna Rich. The smiles on the ladies faces just grew and grew as Alex and I made the rounds handing one of the fresh Carnations elegantly wrapped in the floral tissue paper and tied with a lovely ribbon with the “Happy Thanksgiving ” card attached to each one. This was such a lovely thing for them to do and it is just another way that others help bring “joy” into the lives of our residents. I can’t begin to say “thank you” enough to Roger & Kim for bringing this great pleasure to our residents.
Waldron Nursing Center Residents also wish all of our readers a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope they each had a wonderful celebration. Also please help pass this site along to others who have family in Waldron Nursing Center or who are interested in reading our news. Our residents have been busy preparing for the holiday by making lots of Thanksgiving crafts as well as doing art work on the huge Thanksgiving Table cloth that I found at the store. A large group of the residents gathered around the craft tables to get to work on the art table cloth so it could be finished to hang on the wall. The completed cloth is hung on the wall leading to the resident dining room so everyone can see how pretty it looks. Many of the residents wrote their names by the turkeys and other items that they had done so everyone could see their great art work. Along with this activity we have again displayed the “Thankful Tree” that is now located in the day room. Many resident wrote or signed their name on a leaf to hang on the tree with assistance from Billie Strozier, activity assistant, what they are thankful for. Please feel free to go by and see what all of our residents have to be thankful for in their life. The Family style Thanksgiving lunch was a big success as always with some residents having family members come to have lunch with them while others went out on pass with their loved ones to have a day of celebrating in their home.
Other activities that have been keeping everyone busy was Sunday afternoon services with James Self, Monday night singing with Temple Baptist group, Reminiscence on Monday morning with Daine Miller, residents were really glad to see her back although Billie, my assistant, has been doing a good job filling in while Diane was out of pocket, this is one of the morning activities that our residents really enjoy, Bingo on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon with our ever faithful Volunteers, Doyle Wayne & Karen, Joanna Strozier and Pat Morales, Pat is also very good to come and help us out at the craft activities, if anyone has extra time and would like to volunteer at these activities please give me a call so you can fill out the Volunteer form. Judy Cheesman entertained residents with her great singing on Tuesday night, Hot apple cider and donut social. Our Special Wednesday morning activity of “turkey hunt” was great fun. Alex got busy hiding the 30 colorful turkeys that Billie had ready in every nook and cranny in the resident dining room area. The purpose of the game was to find the turkeys that had been hidden with two of them being marked as “prize”. Whoever found the most turkeys also received a prize. Judy Cheesman found the most- Johna Rich and Walker Lathers found the prize turkeys. Dianne Brennan received a 2nd place prize for also finding the most.
The Resident “Joy Tree” list is up and names are being chosen already. If anyone is interested in choosing a name please give me a call or just come by the Activity Office. Thanks also goes out to whoever brought me the nice stack of 2017 calendars. I will be collecting until I have enough for each of our residents to have one on their side of the room.
In closing our deepest sympathy goes out to the family of Jo Marie Hullender, truly a lovely lady and will be greatly missed by all who have known her.