Summer is Here at Kirby Pines
Summer is officially here! Although it sneaked in towards the end of June, the unofficial hotter, dryer weather arrived sometime during spring. Luckily for us all, our large trees and park like acreage, provides us with plenty of areas where we can step outside to stroll under the shade of numerous majestic trees. We can also enjoy fishing with friends and grandchildren along the banks of our very own lake, or enjoy a family picnic in the gazebo cooled by ceiling fans, now that outside restrictions for Covid have been removed.
For those who prefer to stay indoors, the July calendar is filled with events to meet a variety of interests. This year Kirby Pines is proud to hold, its’ Annual Fourth of July Parade on Thursday, July 1st. Our culinary department is planning a special treat for everyone on July 4th, along with a traditional brunch feast, and welcomes all families to come and celebrate Independence Day with us. Please make your reservations early, and remember that updated policies require that all members in your party be present before being seated in the dining room.
Throughout the month, the Life Enhancement department has planned on-site entertainers, a weekly farmer’s market, movies, and games. In fact, with so much going on at Kirby Pines, the slightly warmer summer days will breeze by almost unnoticed.
July will be filled with truly important national and community events, Independence Day being among the most noteworthy. This July, when we gather to celebrate the birth of our nation, we will also be ending many of the national healthcare protocols that limited gathering with family and friends, as we welcome back a true feeling of independence. This July, please join with me in thanking all employees and workers as we bask in the warmth of their service and their genuine concern. Yes, summer is officially here.
Michael Escamilla,
Executive Director,
Kirby Pines
His Name is Wonderful
Audrey Meier, widely known for her talents as a musician and songwriter, living and ministering out of Los Angeles, California, wrote a short but very powerful song titled “His Name Is Wonderful.” Her lyrics stated briefly but pointedly a unique quality of God. She wrote:
His Name is Wonderful,
His Name is Wonderful,
His Name is Wonderful,
Jesus, my Lord.
He is the Mighty King,
Master of Everything,
His Name is Wonderful
Jesus, my Lord.
He’s the Great Shepherd,
The Rock of all ages,
Almighty God is He.
Bow down before Him,
Love and adore Him,
His Name is Wonderful,
Jesus, my Lord.
In 1970 at a Christian Booksellers Convention in Philadelphia this song’s writer was featured at a publishing booth. A senior lady nearly 80 years of age pushed into the Convention just before it opened. She was not a bookstore owner nor did she have any business to transact, but asked to be taken to Audrey’s booth. The lady stood before songwriter Meier and told her story.
She and her husband spent much of their lives singing together at nursing homes, hospitals and retirement centers. He would sing melody and she would add her alto part. Her husband had become ill and was hospitalized, waiting for exploratory surgery. The situation was critical.
The lady was called to the hospital at her husband’s request. He wanted to sing one more song with her since his time was short. Their favorite song was the one written by Audrey in 1959, “His Name Is Wonderful.”
They sweetly sang together. When they reached the line “Bow down before Him” she realized she was singing alone. He had slipped away to the One about Whom he was singing.
The elderly woman wanted Audrey to know what had happened and wished to thank her for writing such a meaningful song.
Often we do not know the impact of something we have done has on others. Those who have found value in even the littlest of our actions or accomplishments may tell us long after the blessing has come. Sometimes we may never know. But the One for Whom we live will tell us, even on the other side.
It is expressed in Isaiah 9:6, “For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
And never forget the encouragement of I Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, Always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
Till next time,
-Don Johnson, Kirby Pines Chaplain
Happy Father’s Day from Kirby Pines
Congratulations to Our Employee of the Month: Jeremy Richardson
Jeremy Richardson
Personal Care Assistant
Describe Your Family: Brave. Hardworking. Patient. Successful.
Describe yourself in five words: Caring, Kind, Loveable, Patient, Happy!
What is something you are proud of: I have the best parents in the world – all three of them.
What do you do for fun: Swim, play video games, eat lots of junk food.
Do you have any hobbies or interests: I love to sing and cook.
Do you have a pet: A snake. It’s name is Gucci.
What is your favorite thing about your job: I love all of the residents. Victoria and Tania are the best managers ever.
What is your favorite food: Crawfish.
What is your favorite song: Necessary by Brandy Norwood.
What would you like people to know about you: I am a really good dancer.
Jeremy Richardson is dedicated to Kirby residents by providing exceptional service with a positive attitude. He arrives with a smile on his face every day. He has always made himself available to work additional shifts during this pandemic. Jeremy’s commitment to Caring in Place is unwavering. We are fortunate to have him on our team!
– Victoria Johnson, Director of Personal Support Services
Staying Safe & Cool This Summer
Did you know that each year more people die from excessive heat waves than from hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes combined? Summer weather can be erratic, especially during the spring and summer months. Even with a degree of unpredictability, it`s almost certain that we will see high temperatures climb into the upper 80s, 90s and even 100 degrees. Older adults are at high risk from excessive heat. As we age, the body’s cooling mechanisms may become impaired. Living alone or being confined to a bed and unable to care for one’s self further increases risk to heat related illness. Existing health conditions such as chronic illness, mental impairment, and obesity can also heighten an individual’s vulnerability. In addition, individuals taking certain medications are also susceptible to heat related illness.
You can follow these prevention tips to protect yourself from heat-related stress:
- Drink plenty of fluids but avoid alcohol, caffeine and sugary drinks
- Rest
- Take a cool shower, bath, or sponge bath
- If possible, remain indoors in the heat of the day
- If you don’t have air conditioning in your home, open windows and shades on the shady side and close them on the sunny side to try to cool it down
- Avoid strenuous activity during the hottest part of the day (between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m.)
- Wear loose, lightweight, light-colored clothing
- Wear sunscreen and a ventilated hat (e.g., straw or mesh) when in the sun, even if it is cloudy
- Never leave children, pets or those with special needs in a parked car, even briefly. Temperatures in the car can become dangerous within a few minutes
- Check on your neighbors, family and friends, especially those who have special needs
How can therapy help prevent heat related stress during the warmer months?
By seeking professional advice to analyze your unique situation, the rehabilitation team can offer assistance and guidance to increase your safety during summer. Your rehabilitation team can offer assistance in creating a plan for summer safety that includes:
- Identifying lifestyle changes that can facilitate staying physically and mentally healthy during the summer months.
- Facilitating ease of movement throughout the home and outdoor spaces.
- Recommending home modifications to keep you safe during the warmer months.
For additional information, please contact your Select Rehabilitation Physical, Occupational and Speech therapists.
Join us for “Fun in the Sun: Outdoor Safety Tips for Older Adults” in the PAC June 9th at 11:00 am
Drink More Water for Better Health
Did you know water makes up about 50 to 60% of your body? True, water is essential to life. Staying hydrated is important for our general health, too. Dehydration can be the result of exercise, certain medications, diarrhea, excessive sweating, breathing, and diseases such as diabetes. With the warm summer days ahead, it is easy to become dehydrated which can cause dry mouth, weakness, dizziness, headaches, heart pounding, cramping, confusion, low blood pressure, rapid but weak pulse and fainting.
Everyone knows—but many people seem to forget—that water is what sustains life. Here are just two of the benefits of being hydrated: Drinking at least five 8-ounce glasses of water daily reduces the risk of fatal coronary heart disease among older adults. Being sufficiently hydrated reduces the discomfort of constipation, improves balance and kidney function (reducing the risk of urinary tract infections). Water helps energize muscles. Cells that don’t maintain their balance of fluids and electrolytes shrivel, which can result in muscle fatigue.
How much water is enough? A good formula for how much water is needed every day is to take one-third of the person’s body weight in pounds and drink the equivalent number of ounces of water daily. For example, a 150-pound woman would need 50 ounces of water daily, or about 6 8-ounce glasses of water.
Don’t wait until you feel thirsty to start drinking water: As we age, we are less aware of our thirst and our ability to regulate our body’s fluid balance via kidneys decreases. If you think you may need to be drinking more, here are some tips to increase your fluid intake and reap the benefits of drinking water:
- Start your day with a glass of water before breakfast.
- Have a beverage with every snack and meal.
- Choose beverages you enjoy; you’re likely to drink more liquids. If you’re watching calories, go for non-caloric beverages or water.
- Eat more fruits and vegetables especially melons. Their high water content will add to your hydration. About 20% of our fluid intake comes from foods.
- Keep a bottle of water with you in your car, at your desk, or in your bag or walker.
So drink up and stay hydrated and stay well. Don’t forget we have a cool water dispenser in the Oasis when you come to exercise.
ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION WALK TO CURE
Many Thanks to everyone who helped make our fundraiser and Arthritis Awareness Month so successful. I very much appreciate the support for our Walk to Cure with more than 43 walkers and two pups. We are still receiving donations for The Arthritis Foundation but as of this writing we have received over $1,100 in donations which will be used to support research, education, and assistance to people of all ages who live with the pain of Arthritis. We really appreciate your generosity. Way to go Kirby Pines!
It’s Father’s Day at Kirby Pines
Happy Father’s Day! This month we get to celebrate being a father and having a father. Although the day is not as well celebrated as Mother’s Day, it is just as important. Unlike Mother’s Day, legislated by Congress in 1914, Father’s Day wasn’t presidentially proclaimed until 1966 as the third Sunday in June, and then not assured of the day until 1972. Sorry guys, you’re just going to have to settle for a special meal on Sunday. Call Tami to make your reservation now.
I recently read that there are five things that will make you a happier person. Scientists after years of study, now suggest that people actually can take charge of their own happiness and boost it through certain practices. So, I have decided to share with you the five things research has shown can improve happiness.
Be grateful – the study showed that when people take time to write thank you notes or letters of gratitude to people who had helped them in some way, that the note and letter writers reported feeling better afterwards (even if they didn’t send the note).
Be optimistic – people in the study who spent time just thinking about an ideal situation, reported increased feelings of well-being.
Count your blessings – people who write down three good things that have happened to them show a significant boost in happiness. It seems that this simple act forces people to focus on remembered reasons to be glad.
Use your strengths – one study asked people to identify their greatest strengths and then try to use that strength. For example, someone with a good sense of humor could try telling jokes to cheer up friends.
Commit act of kindness – It turns out, helping others is one of the best ways we help ourselves feel better. Maybe it’s time you asked Cheryl Grimes what you can volunteer for at Kirby Pines.
This Father’s Day I’m grateful for the work ethic my father taught me; optimistic that each day can always be better; happy that I can count more than three blessings; believe that one of my strengths is writing these short letters each month; and know that each day when I come to work at Kirby Pines at least one resident is going to help me with a simple act kindness – a smile. Happy Father’s Day!
Michael Escamilla,
Executive Director,
Kirby Pines
Midsouth Woodturner Guild’s Oldest Member & Kirby Pines Resident John Johnson Celebrates 101 Years!
On May 22nd of this year John R. Johnson, one of our founding members, celebrated his 101st Birthday. About two years ago he stopped woodturning but stays active making Zentangle diagrams (repetitive figures often involving only straight lines) and other detailed pen and ink drawings. John’s philosophy holds that to enjoy life one needs a goal every day. If you stand outside and knock on John’s window (he is currently restricted to his assisted living room at Kirby Pines) you will most often find him working there where the light is strong. He’ll look up, smile and be delighted with a ‘socially-distanced’ visit and raise the window for a chat.
John was born in Martinez, CA but grew up on a farm in Cleveland, Georgia. Completing his few years of formal schooling (finished 4th grade) and ‘put to the plow behind a mule’ he soon learned farming was not for him. Early radios were often just a galena crystal, a “cats whisker” and a pair of earphones, but John moved on to building and operating a ham radio station which involved diodes, capacitors, resistors and learning the Morse code. At the beginning of WWII this served to get him into the Army Air Force (bypassing boot camp), wherein he was flown over much of the African continent setting up radios at local airports in case the military needed them. In 1946 John took flying lessons and much later built and flew two ultralight planes. He joined the Civil Air Patrol and retired as supervisor of the Memphis unit. Through self-study and various organized courses he became a licensed professional engineer. He is widely read, with an enormous vocabulary and an insatiable curiosity, and has travelled over the entire US and much of Europe in his later years. There are few topics which John does not know something about. Currently he is hindered by defective hearing and frequently has to search for the correct word. Because he recalls a great deal of the Bible he sometimes is asked to stay quiet or leave religious classes because he raises so many questions. For his 91st birthday he wanted to fly one more time, rented a plane with an instructor (who never touched the controls) and greatly enjoyed it.
After retirement, John and his wife spent many winters living in an RV near Phoenix, Arizona where he set up a small shop, turned and sold items. He has turned hundreds of stair bannisters, thousands of clock case finials, numerous bowls, weed pots, and offset items during his 65 years at the lathe, never using a sharpening system! He was a master at making adapters, wooden chucks, and special jigs to hold his work. At one time John got into miniature turning and did many objects within objects, often using a jewelers lathe. His large bowl lathe was a converted horizontal milling machine. His favorite lathe for many years was a Delta rescued from the Lazarov Scrap Yard by his friend John Williams.
In the mid-nineties John moved the small, cramped Hobby Shop at Kirby Pines to a new, larger location and set about outfitting it with a wide variety of machine tools for both flat and turned work. He served as the supervisor of the shop until 4 years ago; this included deciding which residents were qualified to use it safely.
Written by Ray Tanner, Kirby Pines Resident
What is Real Value?
Mike Glenn has some interesting thoughts about the difference between the labeled price and the true value of things. He talks about the Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard’s story of thieves who broke into a jewelry store yet didn’t steal any thing. They simply rearranged the price tags on the items in the store. Expensive jewelry was labeled with a cheap price while decorative costume jewelry had a very high price tag. The next morning many pieces were sold as customers paid almost nothing for rich and valuable items while others paid a high price for junk jewelry. All of this happened before the mistaken price tags were discovered.
The story may well be descriptive of what has happened to our world today. Someone has switched the price tags. It started in a Garden long, long ago. Caught up in the rearranged order of our world we pay too much for junk, and often ignore things really valuable because they have been mislabeled with a cheap price.
Fame, often obtained infamously, possessions, wealth and a host of other things are set before us as a golden chalice for our life. We dream that what we have or do are the most important issues in our experience. We embrace the misplaced price tags till we reach disappointment, disillusionment, and maybe even despair. The value of life and family are treated as no longer relevant in this new day. Integrity and unselfishness are no longer virtues to be sought after.
Mike Glenn says, “Nowhere is this switching of price tags more evident than in the area of self-esteem. In our culture people are valued for how they look, what they can do or even what they have, but rarely for who they are. In our world you have to be beautiful by mathematical standards…and entertaining (not talented but entertaining)…and if you are not, the world has no place for you. If you can’t make the Top 100 in the world on some list, you are nothing.”
Too many finally reach the top of the ladder of success only to find they have leaned the ladder against the wrong wall.
Adrian Rogers said, “What is the value of a thing but the price it will bring in eternity!” One might possess an expensive car but use it only selfishly. Its value diminishes until at last it’s worthless. But if it’s used to make us aware of and then to provide help for pressing social needs all around…or used to transport us to areas of spiritual challenge and growth…or assist others in finding the true value of their life, then its value rises far beyond its price. What will be the true evaluation of anything if it does not count for eternity!
The words of Mark 8:35-36 can help us with the balance between price and value. “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” We can’t afford to still be blinded by gain and loss. Our greatest gain means nothing if we face our greatest loss unprepared.
Now is the best time to look at the price tags! Have they been rearranged? Do they need to be straightened out? Let’s stop giving our all for junk! Let’s place our focus and importance on the things that are really worthwhile! Start making a list of what’s truly valuable. We can begin today.
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it”.
– Mark:35
Till next time, Don Johnson, Kirby Pines Chaplain
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