CORRESPONDENTS: St. Luke Living Center years ago
By SUE GUTSCH
St. Luke Living Center reporter
While some residents were enjoying the outing with Khrista Thursday, it should be noted that those of us who remained home were equally pleased to have the company of Toby Branson. Our dog friend made the rounds of his favorite haunts, seeming to understand how much he would be missed.
The living center bakers mixed up delicious frosted almond poppy seed bars Friday morning, a recipe of Pam Mroz of Rochester, Minn. We were fortunate it made a large pan full because they were very popular — tasted every bit as good as they smelled.
Our bingo caller, Elsie Reiswig's schedule allowed her to arrive early. Bill was here, our players were in place this week, so we started a tad early Friday afternoon. The extra time allowed three extra games and more winners.
Many thank-yous to Rev. Brett Huebner of Our Savior Lutheran Church, who was our Sunday afternoon guest minister and Shirley Bowers, who accompanied us as we sang hymns.
We took some time to pretty-up Monday morning, mostly hands and nails. As the dining room was being cleared after lunch, Marie Navrat was here to keep her card date with our pitch players.
Later that afternoon we began "coloring summer" by applying various forms of pigment to black and white scenes of the activities and foods of summer.
As a continuation of Monday's coloring activity, Tuesday morning we added some mental muscle and scissors to the project. We attempted to give each picture a pleasing symmetry before placing our delightful creations on various colored backgrounds to use on a door display.
That afternoon book club began with a story, "Skippy the Church Dog," from a good old days publication. Then we picked up our current novel, "Lassie Come Home," and followed the beautiful dog's move to the Duke of Rudlings' kennels in northern Scotland.
Irene Waylan, Mildred's daughter from Miami, Okla., also was part of this literary group.
In the past week we have been the recipients of several "random acts of kindness." Initially we received an attractive patriotic silk-flower arrangement, followed by a large tray of wonderful brownies and nutty chocolate chip cookies. Tuesday our good fortune was topped off with two baskets of fresh, individually wrapped and tiny bow-decorated chip cookies. Thank you to all those responsible for these acts.
Another act of kindness, although not so random, arrived Wednesday morning when Shirley Bowers said "yes" and filled in for Dick Pracht to lead our prayer group.
We began a new outing-era Thursday afternoon when a bus load of residents drove around Marion County Lake after taking a drive-by inspection of the new swim facility. A second group went to Hillsboro, both trips with nurse Cindy Stroda at the wheel. Cindy had prior experience driving this type of vehicle and we were happy to be "on the road again."
