Ecumen Century Club: Happy 101st Birthday Lillian Jorgenson
Ecumen honors Lillian Jorgenson, a resident of Ecumen Sand Prairie in St. Peter, who is 101.
Ecumen Century Club: Happy 100th Birthday Lillian Jorgenson
Ecumen honors Lillian Jorgenson, a resident of Ecumen Sand Prairie in St. Peter, Minn.,who is 100.
A Senior Prom Especially for Seniors at Ecumen Prairie Hill and Ecumen Sand Prairie
Residents at Ecumen Prairie Hill and Ecumen Sand Prairie in St. Peter, Minn., had a “Senior Prom” delivered directly to their communities by sororities and fraternities at Gustavus Adolphus College.
St. Peter Herald Reporter Dana Melius tells the story of how the college students gave the seniors a night to remember, complete with decorations, dancing and a popular photo booth.
St. Peter Herald Highlights the Dedicated Work of Ecumen Sand Prairie Caregiver Robyn Sellner
Robyn Sellner, a memory care assistant at Ecumen Sand Prairie in St. Peter, Minn., has a natural ability to connect with people with dementia.
A Volley Across the Generations Between Gustavus Adolphus College and Ecumen in Saint Peter
At a girls volleyball game at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minn., there is a rowdy group of ladies on the front row cheering enthusiastically. They might be mistaken for volleyball players’ grandmothers. But they are just very good older friends who have come from their assisted-living residence at Ecumen Sand Prairie, also in St. Peter, to show their support for these girls who have given them so much friendship and joy.
The Gustavus volleyball team has made sure their friends have the best seats in the house and have brought them roses to make them feel welcome and special. In return, the older women are cheering their hearts out.
This special relationship started about three years ago when Gustavus girls volleyball Coach Rachelle Sherden talked to her team about doing community service work—something the team could do as a team that was bigger than volleyball. The coach threw out the idea of a pen pal program with young kids. But the girls countered that they would rather exchange letters with senior citizens. After all, since they have gone away to college, they don’t get to see their grandparents all that much.
So Coach Sherden approached Becky Tapper, the activities coordinator at Ecumen Sand Prairie. Becky loved the idea. So did the residents. Now three years later, the program is still going and deep relationships abide. Some of the volleyball team members have been involved the entire three years.
The program began with the residents and the team members exchanging letters. Yes, actual letters—those nearly obsolete things from bygone times now displaced by texts and emails. It turns out that there is still something special about getting a letter, written by hand, coming from the heart. Coach would hand them out at practice, and the distance between the 20-year-olds and the 80-year-olds would rapidly shrink.
“The residents’ stories just blew the girls’ minds,” Coach Sherden said. “They wrote about how they grew up and all they have done in their lives.”
After a few letters, it was time to meet in person. The team went to Ecumen Sand Prairie for a visit. Coach Sherden recalls that she didn’t know quite what to expect from her team in this new situation.
“It was just so cool,” she said. “The girls were so excited when they met their pen pals for the first time. They were giddy like little kids. You couldn’t pull them apart. It was a hoot.”
“The chatter was overwhelming,” Becky Tapper recalls.
Clearly, this was not going to end when volleyball season was over. They made plans to stay in touch. The residents went to a volleyball game. They all followed up with a pizza party. And the next season came and the program started all over again, with some new volleyball players and some from the year before.
This is now the third year of the pen pal program, and Coach Sherden says she’s committed to keeping it going. The team loves it.
“One of a kind” is how sophomore Becca characterizes the relationship she has formed. “My pen pal is Doris, and I can’t tell you how thankful I am to have met her. Her beautiful spirit and tenacious attitude is inspiring to me, and I am so appreciative of the opportunity to connect with the elderly in my community. I love hearing about her life, her stories and her experiences.”
Amber, also a sophomore, says the program “creates this unique connection” that probably wouldn’t happen on its own. “It allows college kids and the residents to talk to someone over the best kinds and most rewarding forms of communication—writing on paper and talking with them face to face.”
The feelings are mutual with the residents. “It keeps us young!” says Marvel. “It’s invigorating. It’s wonderful to be a part of this.”
And Michele adds, “It gives me a feeling of being respected and a part of things—not invisible and left out.”
Marvel and Michele have plenty to share with their pen pals. Marvel was a teacher for 29 years, retired, started a new career in social services, became the mayor of her community and worked actively in politics. Michele was a music major who had a career working at a music store in Minneapolis before she took up photography and writing and co-authored two books.
“The girls want to know about everything,” Michele says.
That’s probably because stories of lives well-lived never get old.
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Honoring Aunt Daisy
Every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m., Marie Fegley, a resident of Ecumen Lakeshore in Duluth, transforms herself into “Aunt Daisy” and spends the next hour transporting children to a world of make-believe.
It’s story time at Little Treasures Daycare in Duluth, and Marie, wearing a dust cap and apron, reads to the children and takes them to faraway places. Before retiring to Ecumen Lakeshore three years ago, the native New Zealander managed a bookstore out East, where she started a story time for children.
She continued her reading program at Little Treasures, which serves at-risk children. Ecumen teamed up with Little Treasures three years ago to create an inter-generational program to foster the healthy development of children and increase the quality of life of older adults. At the time, Little Treasures needed a permanent home, and Ecumen had some unfinished extra space at Lakeshore that was converted into the daycare center with donations from local civic organizations, individuals and foundations.
Marie was recently recognized for her work there by the Northlands NewsCenter in Duluth, which told her story in its regular “Making a Difference” segment. Click here to link to the television station’s video.
Thank you, Marie Fegley, for all that you do for the children of Little Treasures. We honor you.
Irene Carlson's Dream Come True
Irene Carlson had a musical, infectious laugh and a wonderful sense of humor. When she walked around Ecumen Parmly LifePointes in Chisago City for most of her life-- first as a volunteer then later as a resident-- her laugh warmed the halls. Both she and husband Wally were dedicated volunteers.
Irene loved rolling residents to their doctor’s appointments and doing their hair in the campus salon. Once her pastor came to the salon when she was volunteering, and she offered to do his hair. While she was shampooing him, he fell asleep in the chair. Irene woke him up, but not before she outfitted him in a hideous curly wig. He thought she had given him a perm. Irene laughed and laughed, and they’re still talking about that day so reminiscent of her fun-loving spirit.
Irene and Wally, who ran the BP service station in Lindstrom, were known throughout the community for their generosity and community service. In fact, Wally was on the Parmly LifePointes board for 19 years. Their sons still run the service station.
About three years ago, Irene had some health problems and moved into Parmly LifePointes. And not long after, Wally followed. The day Wally moved in, Irene fell and broke her back. It was a long recovery, and during that time Irene loved going along the prayer walk outside the chapel, as she had done so many times before her injury. But the walkway was gravel and it was hard to maneuver her wheelchair.
Back in March of this year, she mentioned to Wally now nice it would be if the prayer walk were paved. It was so beautiful and calming and uplifting, weaving through the pines and stopping at the plaques and reading the Bible verses. She had walked it many times before her fall. How she wished she could use it now. Wally remembers that they talked about it several times.
But then in April, Irene died.
Wally talked to the kids, and they all decided Irene should have that paved prayer walk she dreamed about. Last Friday, November 15, 2013, the newly paved prayer walk was dedicated in Irene’s memory, thanks to the generous donation Wally made.
“This is a wonderful day,” Pastor Ron Gerls said at the ceremony. “Now this cathedral in the pines, this serene and holy place, is open to all, whether they are in wheelchairs or walking.”
Wally cut the ribbon and led family, friends and staff along the path that Irene cherished. Several wheelchairs made the trip.
The path circles 300 yards through the dense pine trees and about halfway through is a bench dedicated to Irene. “There was no resting spot there, and this was where she liked to go,” Wally said.
After the ceremonial walk, the group gathered at a reception with cupcakes, punch and coffee. Wally, who is 92, decided that, on this very special occasion, he would go all-out and have a cup of coffee, even though his doctor would not approve. So Wally drank his coffee, ate his cupcake and remembered Irene and all the joy she brought him. He summed it up this way: “sixty-eight wonderful years of marriage, four children, nine grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren.”
Irene would enjoy this very much, he said. She would love this new prayer walk.
“I know she would,” Wally said.
About Ecumen Parmly LifePointes
Ecumen Parmly LifePointes is a nonprofit senior housing and community services campus located in Chisago City, Minnesota, just north of the Twin Cities, offering independent and assisted living, memory care, care center, rehabilitative, and innovative, holistic wellness services for vital aging. Gifts from friends, families, neighbors and area businesses will continue to impact and enhance the services and amenities provided. Thank you for support and commitment to Parmly’s Mission of “Service to Seniors.” To consider a gift for Parmly, click HERE, contact us at 651-257-7332, or email.
Honor: Ecumen Resident Kenny Nelson
At Ecumen, we are very fortunate to work with people who have done so much for our country and communities.
A Visit with the Man with 125 Kids
When Larry moved into his new home two years ago, he had a little trouble adjusting. It took him at least a couple of hours.
Larry Bauer-Scandin was just 64 when he rolled into Ecumen Seasons of Maplewood. The mysterious nervous system disorder afflicting him since childhood was beginning to seriously limit his mobility and keep him in constant pain.
So that first night, feeling a little down, he pulled his motorized chair over to a window, looked out and wondered: “Is this it?”
He pondered that question. And then he did what he’s done his entire life. He moved on. He’s a tolerant guy, but if there is one thing he cannot abide, it’s a “poor-me” attitude.
The next day he was ready to start this new chapter in his life. Time to settle in, hang some pictures, make himself at home. After all, as Larry puts it, “There’s always somebody who needs something.”
No doubt, Larry has had more misfortune than most. When he was lying in his hospital bed for more than four months at age 9, unable to move, he had a lot of time to watch and listen and think. It changed him forever. He was never the same after he heard that little girl down the hall shriek the night she died.
His journey over the next few years had a few false starts, but Larry found his way and his calling. He was not meant to be a priest. Seminary didn’t take. As it turned out, his calling was to help people that nobody else cared about—murderers, rapists, drug dealers, gangbangers. He was a parole officer, jail counselor and a juvenile officer. He started dealing with kids that nobody wanted, the really tough delinquent cases that the system had totally given up on. The hopeless cases.
But by then Larry had decided nothing was hopeless. He started taking in a few of these abandoned teenagers as a correctional foster parent. The number started to build when it became clear to the juvenile authorities that Larry would take most anybody without flinching and, more importantly, would have a considerable amount of success turning these young lives around. At one time, he was taking care of 17 teenagers at the same time, buying meat to feed them by the hundreds of pounds, filling four freezers and three refrigerators.
During that time, Larry saw it all. Like a kid whose mother sold him into prostitution on the street. Like a kid who got cocaine as a birthday present.
Today as Larry sits in his assisted living apartment at Ecumen Seasons of Maplewood he can look proudly at a full wall of his children’s photos hanging in his office. There have been about 125 in all. The oldest is 59, the youngest 33. Some pictures really stand out. There’s the Saint Paul cop. “Every time I hear about a shooting in Saint Paul,” Larry says, “I pick up the phone and call him to make sure he’s all right.” And there’s the Marine, and the soldier in the field in Afghanistan. “And this kid here,” Larry says, “I’m pretty sure he’s a millionaire. He came from wealth but is totally estranged from his real parents. But he’s built a very successful business from the ground up.”
And then, there are the kids who are dead, Larry says, choking up. He does that a lot. He’s a tough guy who thought nothing of walking on a prison floor to diffuse gang tension. But he’s an emotional guy who tears up when he thinks about his kids.
Make no mistake, they are his kids. They call him “Dad.” He is the only real dad most of them have ever known. About 20 of them still stay in very close touch, especially the ones who still live in the area. Larry wishes he could get them all together someday for a picture.
Once he was on the Today Show, and Katie Couric asked Larry the most important thing he had taught his kids. “How to hug,” he said.
So these days, two years into assisted living, Larry finds plenty to do. He’s just gotten a kitten named “Little Bit” to hang all over him. And he’s always on the lookout for someone who needs a little help—or maybe needs a little lecture about how to treat people. Maybe he’ll make sure this lady gets her hearing aid battery changed. Or maybe he’ll have a chat with this gentleman who has just yelled at a staff member for no good reason. Or maybe he’ll roll down to see Joe, the housing manager, about a few things around the place that are bugging him. A guy who’s raised 125 teenagers is not shy about speaking up.
Raising all those kids, he’s learned a few things about keeping order. He’s always watching what’s going on, what’s being said, what’s not being said. Intervening when necessary. Saying what he thinks needs to be said. Shocking people from time to time with his bluntness and the rude bumper stickers on the back of his motorized chair.
In 2010, Larry published his autobiography, “Faces on the Clock.” The title refers to the finite time everyone has on this earth and what we do with that time. He’s thinking he might write a sequel.
The illness that has brought Larry to assisted living is still not definitively diagnosed. He’s seen a lot of doctors over the years and gotten a lot of different opinions. But now he’s decided he just doesn’t care about that any more. It is what it is.
He recalls talking to a doctor recently who asked him if he was depressed. “No,” Larry said without hesitation. “Why would I be depressed?”
“Well,” the doctor said, “I think you’d be crazy not to be.”
But on the balance sheet of fortune and misfortune, Larry figures he’s come out ahead. After all, he’s got many hundreds of faces on his clock.