CORRESPONDENTS: St. Luke Living Center years ago
By SUE GUTSCH
St. Luke Living Center reporter
The Fourth of July showed real promise when our surviving morning glory vine showed off its bright blue first blossom to greet this special day. The second sign was an early call from Ruth Cotham with an offering of providing ice cream cones that afternoon.
Not to be outdone by the morning glory, most of our residents were dressed in red, white, or blue. Our bakers were in the spirit, decorating the pans of sugar cookies with red and blue sugar sprinkles. And there were beautiful flag napkins and additional decorated cookies at mealtime.
About 2 p.m. Elsie Reiswig and her friend, Ruth arrived with a pail of vanilla ice cream and a dipper and a box of empty cones. As soon as the last bingo game had been won, Ruth and Elsie filled the cones that they served to all our residents and staff.
The traditional end to this day of celebration was fireworks, courtesy of Cindy Stroda, in the courtyard of our facility. Bob Reznicek was the "lighter" of our pyrotechnics, which were followed by much quieter, red, white, and blue frozen Bomb Pops on a stick.
Pastor Don Mashburn of Strassburg Baptist Church was Sunday afternoon's guest minister. Anita Hancock was our guest accompanist and children of the church, the guest performers. We sincerely appreciate this ministry.
We did some pretty-up Monday morning and had a good time that afternoon playing a heads-up, newly invented game, "name-ball" around the square of two large dining tables.
During book club Tuesday morning we began following Lassie on our map, as she started her long journey heading southward to her home and the boy, Joe.
We had a wonderful time with our hospital auxiliary friends who brought root beer, orange or strawberry ice cream floats, and some snack crackers. The cool treats and visits with Rosse and Janice Case, Dick and Evelyn Bredemeier, and Bud and Lavonne Hannaford filled our Tuesday afternoon very nicely.
Pilsen was the destination Wednesday afternoon for our busload of residents. We drove through the church yard and around the little village, with former residents pointing out homes of interest. Our return trip took us through another village, Lincolnville.
We did something Thursday afternoon that does not happen very often. We helped celebrate a 102nd birthday, that of Amelia Vinduska. Her children, Ken, Margie, and Harold and their families hosted the party and served decorated cakes, ice cream cups, and drinks to our residents, staff, and family friends.
Speaking of Amelia, every day or so we've been enjoying sliced, vine-ripened tomatoes picked from the four courtyard plants she and Ken put in the ground early this spring. Two of the plants look somewhat stricken, perhaps due to the hailstones or some other phenomena, but they're hangin' in there and producing.
