What’s the Word

Location: Lakeview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center

Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2013; 6:30-8 pm

Valentine's Day cookies

This had been my very first project with Chicago Cares and so I do have some fondness for the residents who participate in this activity.  Since it was Valentine Day’s eve, I took some cookies with me for sharing during our session.  Plus, having seen everyone’s fondness for cookies, I knew that they would be greatly appreciated.  This was exactly the case as Jack, Jim and Larry took a cookie each and we chatted till Gwyn got there.  Besides them, there was another member of the newsletter editorial committee, Mary. This evening we were going to be working on the March/April issue of ‘As We See It’.  For the previous three issues, I had been present at its final presentation.  For the first time, I was actually going to be able to see it being created.

Gwyn's Paczki

I have never seen Gwyn arrive empty handed and today she was carrying with her two boxes of Paczki.  She told about how last year she had gone looking for the perfect Paczki in Chicago only to realize after bringing them home that the stuffing was missing.  This year she had foregone any special store and had picked these up from the usual grocery aisle of a store, with strawberry and raspberry filling.  Quite honestly, I had never heard of the term Paczki and had always been referring to these as stuffed donuts, without the holes.  She offered these to us and Larry, who is a big fan of anything sweet, immediately got started on one. 

It was not all fun with Gwyn though, since she was upset that despite requesting 80 copies of the previous month's issue, the staff had only made 24.  Larry, who is in charge of distribution, and Gwyn discussed what they should do if such a situation were to arise again and Gwyn was adamant that the staff be cut from the distribution list.  She said emphatically that there was no point in doing this project anymore if the staff was not going to cooperate in making copies.  To add another twist to this tale, we learnt that there was a rival newsletter which was also being printed and Jim claimed that he saw some stuff from ‘As We See It’ being plagiarized.  This may be a nursing home, but there is no shortage of competitive juices.

A valuable resource

Enough time had been spent on this discussion and Gwyn wanted to put us to work.  She had managed to get her hands on a laptop computer and assigned two volunteers, Beth and Kate to work on the machine.  She paired me and another volunteer, Jane, with Jack.  One of my favorite sections in the newsletter is the trivia around some of the days of the month.  Jack is in charge of that and relies on a book, ‘Chase’s Calendar Of Events’.  The one Gwyn had provided was from 2007, but it would have to do.  Jane and I decided that we both would take turns in jotting down notes.  Initially Jack and I would read through some of the events and she would note down the interesting ones.  Then she and I would switch.  Jack claimed to have read the book cover-to-cover and had already made some headway for March and April events.  He and I continued from where he had left off, starting with ‘Helen Keller Miracle Day’.  I would read through some of the events that I thought were interesting, but the final say was Jack’s.  It was quite apparent that Jack is a huge sports fan and thus wanted to include days such as ‘Major League Baseball Strike Anniversary’. 

I also wanted to include some funny trivia and hence suggested that we include the week for the annual ‘National Whistling Conference’.  Other things we noted were ‘National Volunteer Week’, which seemed appropriate, and the William Shakespeare’s birth and death day, which happen to be the same. And I thought my birthdays were uneventful!  I also learned that April celebrates the ‘First License Plate Anniversary’, dating back to 1901 in New York.  I joked that it was a pity that New Yorker's still had not learned how to drive safely and Jack found that amusing.  We finally closed with ‘Children Of The World School Spirit Season’, which runs from April to September.  While we had been doing this, Beth and Kate were using Gwyn’s notes from the previous session to scour the internet for more information and pictures.  Gwyn was working on the restaurant review, for which she had picked ‘Jimmy John’s’, primarily because they delivered to Lakeview Nursing. There was even talk of getting some sandwiches delivered for our next session, a motion passed without much hesitation.

Since I had this book available to me, I wanted to see what was special about my birthday and learned that it had…absolutely nothing worth noting.  Jack’s birthday on the other hand falls on August 7^th, which is also the ‘Out All Night Day’.  Jane and I teased Jack about it and he wistfully said that there were no longer any ‘night’s out’ for him, especially after three strokes that had left his left hand  and side paralyzed. This has not prevented him from being active, for while the body may have slowed down, the mind is still sharp.

Decoration's everywhere

Larry picked another Paczki as I packed up to leave, once again my knowledge enhanced through working on this newsletter. I gave the rest of my cookies to Larry and he asked twice if I was sure. I walked out admiring some of the Valentine's Day decorations and with Jim's words in my ears  that he hoped to see me again soon.  I hope that they manage to sort out this printing mess, for the newsletter is a valuable resource for the residents.  I certainly liked each of my copies from the past several months and am looking forward to the next one.  And I had enjoyed ‘Chase’s Calendar Of Events’, for it asks us to cherish each and every day of the year…find something special to celebrate.  Speaking of which, tomorrow was going to be a long one for me.

*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy