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St. Luke Living Center: Winter, Kottwitz have lucky ducks

By SUE GUTSCH

St. Luke Living Center correspondent

May 18-24

Pastel-colored dinky ducks remained here and there Friday morning as Nursing Home Week counted down to completion. We're pleased to report Edna Winter and Frances Kottwitz had the luckiest ducks fished from the "pond" Thursday afternoon and were crowned the big winners.

Our Friday morning bakers agreed to try a chunky oatmeal cookie recipe clipped from a weekly farm paper. Now we know why it was billed a "family favorite" by Penne Rowland of Williamsburg. We admit adding a secret ingredient, so possibly ours were even better.

Pat Smith called bingo in the afternoon, which preceded the final week's observance, vanilla or cookies and cream ice cream cones for everyone.

Polka hour began shortly after breakfast Saturday when Gene, his accordion "Elka," and toe-tapping could be heard up and down the halls.

It was happy hour Saturday afternoon when Shirley Bowers and Bettie Batt brought birthday cakes in honor of their 84-year-old husbands, David and Dean. There was ice cream, bright napkins, and other goodies, plus chocolate, white, and strawberry cakes and candles to extinguish. Dave's daughter, Bev Jennison from Stilwell was here to celebrate his May 25 birthday. Dean's was May 14.

We appreciated the foresight shown by the Rev. Mashburn of Strassburg Baptist Church who made arrangements to bring Sunday worship in the morning to avoid conflicts with high school graduations. We're also grateful for the Mother's Day service the Rev. Wesner of Emmanuel Baptist Church shared with residents last week.

Book clubbers' imaginations drooled Tuesday morning as Farmer Boys' mother prepared a breakfast of plump sausage cakes, fluffy stacked pancakes with butter and maple sugar, oatmeal, and apple pie. And then we chuckled out loud as Almanzo and the two French boys, Pierre and Louis, hitched the yoked oxen calves to a sled and took a ride — for awhile!

The middle of the week included Dick Pracht in prayer group, Shirley Bowers for hymn singing, state guests for surveying and a lunch bunch outing to Zimmerman's plus reservoir tours.

May 11-17

Making good use of the cooler morning hours, Melvin and Gene Vinduska planted 12 tomato plants in the courtyard garden Friday morning.

Not to be outdone, the living center bakers mixed u a "must-have recipe" from a current women's magazine, making a double batch of soft chocolate chunk cookies. Later in the day we bagged 32 sacks of two cookies each, decorated and labeled, "with sweet memories of Mother," to be placed on Sunday's meal trays.

It seemed liked old-home week when Eunice Christensen came a-callin' that afternoon — bingo, that is. We even enjoyed an extra bingo session when the CWF came a-callin' Tuesday evening.

During Saturday afternoon's untitled activity, we read and critiqued a magazine article and pictures on growing and marketing edible flowers. We heard "confessions" from those who have personally tried honeysuckle and squash blossoms. We also enjoyed a Mother" Day article by nurseryman, Andy Rizza.

Shirley Bowers brought assorted colors of carnations for the residents Sunday, compliments of Eastmoor United Methodist Church.

We began our National Nursing Home Week celebration with an outdoor cakewalk Monday afternoon in the beautiful weather. The winners of five cakes, prepared by Linda Kannady and Janet Herzet, were Phyllis Enos, Dean Batt, Pearl Baxter, Helen Bailey, and Gladys Johnston. Actually there were no losers as the cakes were shared with everyone by the gracious winners.

In the afternoon, Magdalen Dvorak helped us create potted flower pictures. Our time-tested residents believe "waste not, want not," so we used leftover scraps from greeting cards and construction paper crafts to make our unique and colorful designs.

Using some mental muscle Tuesday morning, we continued the celebration. Our challenge was to guess the number of marshmallows and fun-size candy bars in one-half gallon jars. Twenty-seven residents offered opinions and the correct marshmallow guesser was Jim Johnston. The perfect candy bar estimator was Frances Kottwitz.

Prayer group met in the chapel Wednesday morning with Joyce Ford as our interim leader.

The afternoon's special event was the showing of 33 works of art by BCC students of Pat Wick and Jan Davis. Madonna Schafers, Iris Summers, Albert Steele, Keith and Norine Holtsclaw, Frances Turner, Judy Reno, Betty Fetrow, Mary Alice Jolly, and Lenore Dieter displayed their work. We thank the exhibit organizers, Bennie Holtsclaw for providing the easels, and the opportunity to host an event of this kind.

Thursday morning, residents filled 60 individual pies and prepared two large relish trays to be served at the noon potluck meal. Our dietary department provided oven-fried chicken, chicken fettucine, vegetable beef soup, a large fruit salad, and a variety of breads. Our "luck" was really great, too. Family members and staff brought additional dishes and it grew into a delicious smorgasbord.

The singing youth group from Morning Star Mennonite Church north of Durham was here in the evening to bring a wonderful day to a peace-filled close.

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