St. Luke Living Center correspondent
Our living center bakers used a recipe this week from Pumpkin Patch Treasury, a cookbook produced by the First Mennonite Church of Hillsboro. The Great Pumpkin Cookie recipe made a large batch with great flavor, perhaps due to the oats, brown sugar, and chocolate chips.
It’s been said “there always room for one more,” but Friday afternoon we were pushing our limit. Bingo players were fitted around the large dining room table like a jigsaw puzzle with Pat Smith and Bill Schimpf in command. When the last winner had been rewarded, we served the morning’s pumpkin cookies with coffee or juice. Pat’s sister-in-law, Shirley, provided assistance during the games plus Hershey’s bars at the end.
Special Saturday morning guests were MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) and their children, of course. These youngsters gifted residents with orange and brown paper leaves, pumpkins, and turkeys. They also had made a large turkey wall-hanging with many small, colored, hand-print feathers which proudly hangs on the wall in 400 hall.
The Saturday classic movie matinee was “The Adventures of Tom Sawyers,” a David O. Selznick film from 1938. We had popcorn, naturally, plus drinks and other snacks.
Rev. Don Mashburn, pastor of Strassburg Baptist Church, provided the Sunday afternoon service with pianist Kristi Krispense and members of the children’s bell choir.
We began our Monday by prettying some nails. We played some pitch with Marie and kicked some inflated balls, not between, through, or into goals, but we did have a lot of leg action.
We spent a nostalgic hour Tuesday morning honoring our veterans — Don Viets, U.S. Army Air Corp., 1945-45; Dean Batt, U.S. Army Air Force, 1949-49; Leroy Riggs, U.S. Navy, 1943-46; and Martin Hajek, U.S. Army, 1948-58.
At 11 a.m., the facility observed a moment of silence, commemorating the armistice signed and cessation of fighting 90 years ago which ended World War I.
As a side-note, Amelia Vinduska recalled that Armistice Day. She was 12½ years old.
Our housekeeping department worked very hard Monday and Tuesday, stripping and waxing our dining room floors. Talk about a makeover! They looked like glass or shiny marble.
When the hospital auxiliary women arrived Tuesday afternoon for the monthly “coffee,” we were able to choose from three different cheeses, slices of summer sausage, three kinds of homemade cookies, snack crackers, and candy corn served on holiday plates with matching napkins. Thank you, Shirley Bowers, Margaret Tice, Mary Kay and Matt Classen, Jean Case, and Terri Colburn.
We drove west toward Canton on our weekly outing Wednesday afternoon and then north to Maxwell Wildlife Refuge. We’re certain there is wildlife on the preserve, we just didn’t see any except for one deer.
Shirley Bowers and the hymn singers’ voices could be heard Thursday morning throughout our halls. In the afternoon, we cut out and tied colorful paper leaves to a thankful tree. This tree was a naked, summer, potted plant and its little limbs lent themselves perfectly to our leaves of thanks, each containing a personal message from a resident, family member, or staff person.