Team St. Leonard's Memoirs Group No. 4: Merry Mix-Ups

It was a big, big-wig retirement party in a big banquet hall in a big building in Chicago, probably the Merchandise Mart, in the 1950’s. The company my husband Dave worked for was sponsoring the party and all the employees and their spouses were invited. We drove downtown from our suburban house and parked on the roof.

We sat at one of the long tables covered with white tablecloths, next to Dave’s friends, Mike and Al. On the tables were beautiful centerpieces of real flowers, and lots of silverware all carefully arranged beside the plates. Black and white garbed waiters kept our wine and cocktail glasses well filled and refilled..

We all chatted casually. Then we heard the people at the end of our table begin laughing very hard. We craned our necks and saw a frumpy, middle-aged woman, dressed as an old washerwoman in a blue and white striped dress and cap and dirty white apron, working her way down the table, wiping the tablecloth with a gray rag, reaching between people, picking up plates and wiping underneath, and switching a plate with someone else’s, never cracking a smile.

She would polish the back of someone’s chair, go back and pick up a napkin she’d clumsily knocked on the floor, and drape it over the wrong person’s lap. She polished the backs of some of the chairs, sometimes licking her finger to wipe off a spot, then dusted imaginary dandruff off a man’s shoulders. She was serious and businesslike, sometimes clucking her tongue in disapproval as she polished a man’s bald head. There was no end to her antics. When she finished with our table, she went on to another, and we heard laughter at table after table. We were still laughing when our first course arrived. She was a good comedian, our entertainment for the evening.

After dinner, we wandered around talking to Dave’s friends. A band played and some people were dancing and visiting the open bar, where Mike appeared to be hanging out. We didn’t stay long, as we had to get home to our children that we’d left with a baby sitter. Dave mentioned on the way home that Mike was drinking way too much, and he wondered how he would drive himself home.

We didn’t find out until Dave went to work on Monday. His friend Al had helped Mike, who was so drunk he couldn’t walk, out to the rooftop parking lot, and asked, “Which car is yours, Mike? I’ll drive you home in your car because you can’t drive, and stay at your place tonight and leave my car here. Then we can both come back early tomorrow in your car and I’ll get my car.” Mike gazed around at all the cars and pointed unsteadily toward a light blue Chevrolet. Al said, “Okay, where are your keys?” Mike fumbled in his pockets, found the keys and gave them to Al. They drove to Mike’s house and parked on the street in front of his apartment.

The next morning, Al and Mike, sober and very subdued and groggy, were having coffee. Al told Mike what had happened. Mike looked out the window overlooking the street and said, “Where’s my car? I don’t see it anywhere.” Al went to the window and said
“There it is. That light blue Chevy.”

Mike said, “That’s not my car. I have a light green Olds.”

Al was dumfounded. “But your keys worked and I used them to drive us here. How could that happen? I don’t know whose car that is, but we’d better get it back fast, before the owner finds it’s missing and we’re arrested for car theft.” As they drove back, they figured out the key problem. General Motors sometimes made duplicate keys for different models, and that’s why Mike’s key worked in the wrong car.

They hoped they would be in time as they drove back to the Mart, and finally, at the top of the ramp, breathed a sigh of relief when they saw their two cars parked there alone in the big lot, and whoever owned the blue car had apparently not arrived, or had gone for the police. They parked the blue car where it had been the night before and quickly got out..

They were almost to their cars when another car, with two people inside, came up the ramp. The driver pulled up beside the blue car and a nice-looking, well-dressed young woman got out.. As she unlocked the blue car, Al said, “Mike! That’s the old washerwoman! That blue car is hers!”

“Nah,” Mike said. “That’s not her. Too pretty. We’ll just never know.
Let’s go. I need more coffee.”
—Carol Vincent

Team Houck: Train Ride with the Easter Bunny!

This was a great day filled with fun, history, and engineering!

San Damiano Residence: Waterfall Landscaping Team!

~photos submitted by project photographer Denise~

Team Stewart: Walking in Grove City, Ohio!

Brandon and his grandma take a break to stop at the reptile show!

It is amazing what you can see when you walk for leisure and fun! Send us pictures of scenic views from your social walking program and we will post them for others to enjoy!

Team Assisted Care: Art by Kristen!

Assisted care residents are enjoying a special art project with creative artist Kristen. Nothing like getting your hands all gooey!

Team Health Care Center: United States Air Force Museum!

Team University of Dayton Engineering & Safety Lab No. 11: Wii Bowling!

Physical therapists use many different types of interventions to treat elderly adults with an increased risk of falling. Typically, they will do so by creating a regimen that uses various exercises. However, a recent case study tested a new and exciting way to improve balance.

It investigated the effect a Nintendo Wii bowling simulation had on the balance of a resident at a nursing home. The resident was an 89 year old woman with a history of falling and was recently diagnosed with an unknown balance disorder. The subject performed six, one hour bowling sessions over a two week period.

After two weeks, the intervention helped to decrease the subject’s risk of falling and her balance. Even though this approach to improving balance seems very unusual, the use of new technology not geared towards balance, such as the Nintendo Wii, might be the future for improving people’s balance and decreasing their risk of falling.

"Tips to Avoid Falls When in the Hospital." Partners.org. Partners Healthcare.2011. www.partners.org/cird/FallsPrevention/pdfs/AVOIDING_FALLS.pdf

Team Tidwell: Strolling through the Woods at St. Leonard!

Spring arrived early this year at St. Leonard. The attached picture of my grandson, Dominic, demonstrates the beauty of the spring flowers along the wooded path. I allowed him to pick one daffodil for his mother. ~Cathy

Team Salons at St. Leonard: Facial Hair

I have had many questions about facial hair in women and why it grows on the lip and chin. As we age, you may notice a few facial hairs growing where we may not want them. A hormonal imbalance can cause female facial hair. All women have testosterone, the male hormone, and estrogen, the female hormone, in their bodies. When the healthy balance of these hormones is disrupted, it can cause increased levels of testosterone and decreased levels of estrogen. This results in female facial hair. They can also cause unwanted hair growth in other areas. So it may fall out on your head but get thicker under your arms, legs and on your chin and lip. Coarse, wiry hairs may appear on a women’s face and chin. Hair is sprouting where it shouldn’t be.

When facial hair appears on women it is often a sign of aging. It isn’t necessarily due to hormonal changes, although hormones can have an impact. Genetics plays a role. If your parents were particularly hairy, then you probably will be, too.

Approximately 10 percent of women experience excess facial hair. The cause may be genetic, but sometimes a medical problem exists that should be investigated. It is important to know when you should ask your doctor if there might be an underlying cause. Older women who suddenly experience facial hair growth should have a medical exam to rule out the presence of ovarian, endometrial or adrenal cancer. Other medical causes include obesity, diabetes and insulin resistance.

In the end… facial hair can safely be removed. They have a few methods. Removing the hair by waxing is the most popular. Tweezing is also an option. Depending on how quickly the hair grows, will determine the length of time between waxings.

Angie Pickering – Supervisor
The Salons at St. Leonard

Team Assisted Care: Emotional Wellness!

Residents feel really good having their nails beautified! They choose their favorite color, have their nails filed and then repainted. Leaving this activity their hearts are lighter. and they love to show off their beautiful nails!~submitted by Sister Christine Doerger~

Team Spiritual Care: Needing Lent

By Sister Sharon Havelak, OSF

Trying to be a person of integrity in one’s actions, mindful of the fate of our planet and its occupants, both human and animal, seems a daunting enough task. But then Lent comes along, with its focus on personal conversion. Just what does a peace activist do?

The words of the prophet Micah (6:8) offer some guidelines that I hope will be helpful, “…what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

To do justice. It’s so easy to become an “expert,” to read up on the issues of the day, to try to grasp the complexity of our world situation, to form an opinion of what needs to be done. In the end, however, I’ll be judged by what I do. What does it mean to “do justice” on a day-by-day basis, keeping in mind the desperate situation of most of my sisters and brothers around the world and yet managing my work-a-day world with its every-day tasks, its own hurts and problems?

To love kindness. It’s also easy to love abstractly. It’s another matter to open myself to the person who looks suspicious, to be patient with the person who doesn’t seem to understand, to be gentle with someone who needs care when I’m feeling needy. How can I keep encouraging my best self to come forward, to love in spite of myself, to remember that the legacy I want to leave is the number of lives I’ve touched, the hearts that I’ve held sacred?

To walk humbly with my God. This is the easiest and hardest. God is with me (and everyone) always; we are never separated under any circumstances. Unless I separate myself from God, accepting that unconditional love is sometimes difficult. How can I remind myself – all day, every day – of that gift? How can I walk each day in the humility of knowing how small I am in the big picture and yet how great I am because of God in my life?

Team Spiritual Care: Show some Real Zeal!

Sister Kateri Theriault
Mission Integration

Zeal is an obscure virtue during the season of Lent. We aim often for the virtues of self-denial, humility, fortitude, and others that seem to lend themselves to our desire for repentance and movement toward the new life of the Resurrection. With that repentance, however, is an opportunity to look at our life in relationship with God and make some real and positive change. That is where zeal can help. Zeal is the quality of eagerness and ardent desire in pursuing something. In Christian language, zeal is love in action. Let us continue this Lenten season with zeal, allowing love to impel us to look realistically, without judgment, at our life and make choices that more fully reflect Christ's life within us.

TODAY'S READINGS: Jonah 3:1-10; Luke 11: 29-32 (226)
"However, take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen."

Team Stewart: Social Walking Scenic Views!

It is amazing what you might see when you go for a walk in the country! Send us your pictures of scenic views from your social walking program and we will post them for others to enjoy.

Sister Kateri Theriault: Vital Life Story!

Team Home and Garden: St. Elizabeth Social Garden

Spring has also arrived in our meditation gardens!

Team Assisted Care: Chair Zumba!

Fun and Function!

The Traditional Assisted Care residents are enjoying some great exercise to Latin American music with our Wellness Center Manager, Certified Zumba Instructor Dr. Jack Harless!!

Blue Zone Your Memory No. 29: Share Your Ideas!

Your intellectual capital or your great ideas should be shared and documented. Why? Sharing creative ideas to solve mundane or new and novel problems can help others to initiate their creative processes. This gift of wellness can also stimulate the fronto-temporal network of others, which is known for stimulating dopamine pathways that promote goal seeking and problem-solving behaviors. In fact, research indicates that sharing ideas with persons in the early stages of Alzheimer's can turn passive thought processes into a robust desire to learn something new. So give the perfect gift of wellness to others and share your ideas and creativity!

Team Maintenance: Volunteer Project!

Ken Huskey gets help from volunteers as they sort through nuts and bolts!

Team Asian Arts: Belt Test!

Team Leisure and Fun! The Bob and Lynn Show!

Residents enjoyed an afternoon of fun, entertainment, and being with friends.