VOLUME TWENTY SIX, NUMBER TWO
FEBRUARY 2012
Whither telephone in world of ‘Triple Play’ “Triple Play” refers to cutting-edge advances in Internet, phone and television services. The new wireless Internet service was described in the January issue; the television stage will be described in a future article. By Mark Surkin, Director of Information Technology As installation of Beaumont’s Triple Play system progresses, putting Beaumont in the forefront of retirement communities in this area, the inevitable phone calls to our office have kept pace. In the case of telephone service, the answer to most questions is one we’re as happy to give as residents–both current and prospective–are happy to hear: All traditional features you are used to with your current phone system will remain intact, with the exception of fax. The technological advances of the Internet have
replaced fax capabilities, thus causing new advances to cease support of fax capability. Consequently, residents with fax machines will have to choose between using a secondary dedicated fax line from Verizon, using the fax machine in the main building, or using a Beaumont-managed option of Internet fax, which replaces the physical fax machine with a number linked to an e-mail address. Otherwise, you’ll continue to use the same phone, wires, and jacks that you already have and use in your residence. Like other innovations for the telephone, the changes will be largely invisible, but will provide plenty of benefits including significant cost savings. Your basic phone service on the new system will include unlimited local and national long distance, continued on page 7
We’ll be dancing again on Valentine’s Day By Rose-Marie Pringle, Dining Services Director
Valentine’s Day here at Beaumont will begin at 9 a.m. Feb. 14 with a Coffee Social on the Lattice Porch, where Louise Hughes will have special Valentine surprises; in the evening there will be a dinner dance in the Beaumont Room. Weekly Reminders will explain all. In the meantime I did some research, and found many different stories and references pertaining to the beginning and evolution of Valentine’s Day. Christian martyrs . . . popes . . . the paper valentines that first became popular in England in the 19th Century . . . all played a part. Mixed in were Dining Services Director Rose-Marie some wonderful quotations: Pringle’s 5-year-old grandchild Jasmine Chaucer: “For this was St. Valentine’s Rose Christopher wishes Beaumont a happy and romantic Valentine’s Day.
continued on page 2
Resident Services Director Kim Norrett snapped Sophie and Ed Donaghy dancing out the old year in what might have been an early Valentine’s Day moment. More New Year’s Eve pictures, including one with Ed’s face, on Page 8.
“I remember. . .what do you remember?” By Margie Manlove
Exposition. I had a dollar I remember having my to spend and bought the tonsils taken out at the first thing I saw, a 4-inchBryn Mawr Hospital. The high Liberty Bell. Soon I entire hospital then was saw a better Liberty Bell, what is now only the also a dollar, but it was too Gerhard Building. The first late. My older sister, who part of the present hospihad not been in such a tal facing Bryn Mawr hurry to spend her dollar, Avenue was completed in bought one of the better 1929. Because of the Bells. Depression (and no medI remember the first ical insurance) it was summer there were any impossible to fill it all and Japanese beetles. They the two top floors were ate all the leaves off our closed off. grape vines and off many I remember when Waverly Road was a dirt Photo from Lower Merion Historical Society other shrubs and trees. Our mother paid my brothroad. The dip, now raised, The old Bryn Mawr Hospital, now the Gerhard Building, which the ers, sister and me 25 went all the way down to author remembers with a reminiscent twinge in her throat. cents for each quart the little creek. It was scary when I was riding our pony Queeny, as she Mason jar filled with beetles. I remember. . .what do you remember from long would try to hurry up before she reached the bottom so ago? as to get a headstart uphill. I remember when I learned to drive a car. It was over The Beaumont News would welcome many further 70 years ago. My grandmother’s chauffeur took me contributions of this sort. onto the large field that extended from Waverly Road to Black Rock Road where I practiced backing and CORRECTION: In the January issue, a photo credit under the bottom right-hand picture on Page 8 should turning and parallel parking. I remember going to the Sesquicentennial have read, Photo by Louise Hughes
The deadline for the March 2012 issue of the Beaumont News will be February 6. The News publishes 10 editions a year from October to July. Please sign your story and either turn it in at the front desk or better, if you can, e-mail it to Mary Graff at graffs@msn.com. Please keep a copy for yourself! For back issues, please go to our website, www.BeaumontRetirement.com
Valentine . . . .
continued from page 1
BEAUMONT NEWS
Day, when every bird cometh there to choose his mate”. . .Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet: “Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day, all in the morning betime, and I a maid at your window, to be your Valentine” . . . However it began and evolved, I am glad we have it. But I’d like to add some thoughts of my own: I declare that every day should be Valentine’s Day, each moment you should show every person you love how much they mean to you. Not just your wife, husband, boyfriend, girlfriend, whoever, but your children, grandchildren, friends, aunts, uncles–you get the picture. No matter what the day, enjoy it to the fullest and tell your loved ones, “You’re my Valentine–Love you, Babe.” My valentine is on Page 1, her name is Jasmine Rose Christopher and she’s my granddaughter. Love you, Babe!
The Beaumont News is published by the residents and staff of the Beaumont Retirement Community, 601 N. Ithan Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
Managing Editor Production Editor Editor Emeritus and Historian New Residents Editor Photo Editor Events Manager Proofreader Circulation Manager
2
Mary Graff Christine Johnson-Hall Louise Guthrie Jean Kirk Louise Hughes Kim Norrett Jennie Frankel Barbara O’Brien
Elegance, TLC distinguish Personal Care By Mary Schnabel
Mr. and Mrs. Austin, who built the beautiful mansion we now call home, wanted comfort as well as elegance and luxury in their future abode. We residents see this every day as we walk through spaces like the Music Room and the various dining rooms. What many of us might never have occasion to see, however, are the equally elegant private areas of their bedrooms and guest rooms. These rooms are housed on the second and third floors of the Mansion and are now occupied by residents of Personal Care, formerly known as Assisted Living. It was an extended family numbering eight that moved into our Mansion in 1914, and this area still feels like their family home. Among the reasons for this is that Personal Care Administrator Tracey Vitabile and her dedicated, warm-hearted staff all love what they do
Photo by Louise Hughes Certified Nursing Assistant Jennifer Hyman tends the resident yellow parakeet on Personal Care’s sunny porch.
of the Austins that they provided their servants with rooms that are generous in size and have private baths. Tracey took me to the former bedroom of Mrs. Austin, across the hall from her husband’s. I was staggered at the size of her room! Probably larger than a present-day studio apartment in Philadelphia or New York. A fireplace, large windows, a huge, tiled bathroom. Luxury and comfort for its lucky resident. Every room is different and every one large and handsome. The second floor is now the hub for the unit. Tracey’s office is there, as is another small room for the use of nursing assistants. These rooms may have held a dumb waiter and/or housekeeping supplies. A large, cheerful gathering place for socializing, TV and meals for the residents is the porch, which is filled with plants and wicker furniture. Tracey’s small office is cluttered with files, notebooks, posted notices and piles of papers. Like staff in the rest of Health Services, she is almost drowning in official rules and regulations. The Department of Public Welfare is Tracey’s Regulatory Department of Compliance watchdog, and in case you haven’t heard, her Department passed Public Welfare’s annual inspection without a single deficiency! That’s pretty close to a miracle–and there are 23 full- and part-time staff up there who are miracle workers!
Among the reasons for this is that Personal Care Administrator Tracey Vitabile and her dedicated, warmhearted staff all love what they do and love the people for whom they do it.
and love the people for whom they do it. Also it’s not a big space–15 private rooms–which helps give it the intimacy and special status a larger facility cannot provide. The handsome broad staircase that rises near the present Hostess Stand took family and guests to the second or third floor and their bedrooms. Curiosity prompted me to ask Facilities Director Warren Gillings if Beaumont installed the small elevator near the Hostess Stand or did the Austins. Indeed the elevator was here when Artie Wheeler purchased the property, Warren confirms. The second floor has six family bedrooms with private baths plus three servants’ rooms, also with their own baths. There are another six bedrooms on the third floor, again with a bath for each. It is to the credit
IN MEMORIAM Magdalen Bischoff - Dec. 31, 2011 • Nancy Webster - Jan. 2 Herb Clarke - Jan. 8 • Doris Mohn - Jan. 11 Judith Trachtenberg - Jan. 12 • Alta McNeely - Jan. 15 Marjorie Keating - Jan. 21 • William Driscoll - Jan. 23 Members of the Beaumont Community extend deepest sympathy to their families and friends.
3
Take a trip to Beaumont Room and find an adventure there By Kisa Wolf, Beaumont physical therapist
Among the most evocative of the residents’ artworks currently lining the walls of the Beaumont Room, in my opinion, are “Une Maison de Roquebrune,” a photograph by Sally Herd (lower right on this page); the oil painting “Maine,” by Bobbi Rosen (right); and the watercolor “Neglected Barn” by Charlene (Chick) Simpson (lower left). There are others, of course, but the Beaumont News asked me to choose three of the artists to interview, and these three works gave me a particularly strong feeling of being transported into the scene of the picture, whisked away to a whole new place. Sally Herd said she started photographing landscapes and still-life scenes during the 1980s. She has entered many photography contests through the Merion Cricket Club, and her photograph entitled “Une Maison de Roquebrune,” taking the viewer to the South of France in 1995, was awarded Best in Show in its year. On an Art and Food trip with Amherst College, she said, it was the “simplicity of the lines” in this street corner that caught her eye, the grouping of three and the symmetry of the scene. The viewer is almost able to feel the roughness of the wall and the smooth texture of the wooden shutters. The important and challenging part of the work, she said, was the cropping of the photograph. It was essential to capture the simple scene without distractions from adjacent areas. In Bobbi Rosen’s oil painting, “Maine,” you can almost smell the pines. This piece was completed at a resort at Lake Kezar in Lovell, Maine, during a time when Bobbi was making a transition from a realistic to semi-abstract style. I felt as though I were sitting on the porch of one of the resort’s quaint cottages, looking through the trees. “The trees fascinated me,” Bobbi said. “They were so geometric.” Bobbi was able to take geometric shapes and build a fascinating landscape involving texture and dimension. Close your eyes and
you can almost feel Maine’s hot summer air. The scene of “Neglected Barn,” I was surprised to find, was actually not even a real-life place. Chick Simpson said she painted this beautiful watercolor from a picture during an art class more than 20 years ago. Despite never having seen the old barn in person, Chick was able to take the viewer back in time. “I liked it because it was neglected,” Chick said. When she was painting the piece, she envisioned a farmer leaving his farm and going off to war. The humble landscape took me back and made me imagine a time when we did not have the various technologies and chaos of current times. To see these and the other works yourself you will have to hurry. The residents’ show is scheduled to be taken down Friday, Feb. 3, and a new show–by a group of quilt artists calling themselves Friends Quilting Together–is to go up the next day. There will be a reception Feb. 12.
4
The Movie Opera: Tears, popcorn on a Saturday afternoon By Sis Ziesing
Beaumont does a great job providing its residents with all sorts of wonderful trips. Louise Hughes, our terrific new trip coordinator, is in charge of arranging to take us to museums, theaters, restaurants, the orchestra, a haunted woods on Halloween, Gettysburg for overnight, even Delaware Park, where you hope to hit the jackpot by picking the right horse. One of my most favorite trips, though, is attending the Movie Opera. This takes place in a movie theater (mostly in King of Prussia) where the actual performance of an opera taking place at the Met in New York is sent by satellite to the movie screen. You start this experience by being driven to the theater by one of our genial drivers, Mark or Ed or Tony. You arrive an hour before it starts as this is a very popular event, without reservations. You’ll get settled, eat a little sustenance, chat with your neighbors and then the lights dim and it starts. Imagine seeing Carmen on the huge screen having a mad love affair with Don José and then getting stabbed and killed at the end when she rejects him. All the while, their gorgeous voices envelop you through the theater’s surround system. The magnificent scenery and costumes hold you in awe. Consider La Bohème, in which frail Mimi and the poet Rodolfo fall in love. Further into their relationship,
Rodolfo’s incessant jealousy is destroying them and they part. It ends with Mimi returning to his garret dying of tuberculosis. When she dies, Rodolfo cries out her name in desolation. By this time, you’re an emotional wreck watching this incredible tragedy, but, of course, you’re enjoying every minute! Another tearjerker is Madama Butterfly. U.S .Navy Lieutenant Benjamin Pinkerton (the cad) arrives in Japan and arranges to marry Madama Butterfly. However, with a 999-year contract he can cancel any time. Of course, she gets pregnant and produces a little boy after the cad has left on his ship. He returns three years later with a ‘real’ American wife. They try to persuade Butterfly to give them her son. Needless to say (you’ve guessed it), she offs herself with a dagger. Again supreme tragedy and you’re practically there with them as the screen is so big. What an experience! Another Movie Opera plus is that during intermissions someone like gorgeous Renée Fleming interviews the actual performers, which gives you an inside peek at what’s going on. Time to go home, drop your empty popcorn bag in the trash, and, with swirling mind, walk out to find faithful Mark or Ed or Tony, who will ferry you home. What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and many thanks to Beaumont for arranging it.
Thoughts on hibernation from a warm-blooded human
mud below the frost line. At reduced metabolic rates the fish in our Pond will swim at the lower levels of water. Snakes and worms which have gathered in sheltered places on our grounds will emerge when the sun warms the ground. Vernal ponds created in our woods during the winter lure salamanders to lay their eggs there. What are the winter survival strategies for Beaumont residents? Migration to a warmer climate such as in Florida, Arizona, California or the Caribbean Islands is a possibility. Putting on a thick coat of fur and thermal underwear while making the living quarters cozy, warm and cocoon-like, helps the stay-at-homers wait comfortably until the days get longer and warmer and Phil announces a weather forecast that can be deemed reliable. While thus keeping warm and snug, think of all the animals sleeping nestled in the snow, the deer and fox browsing our winter woods, the snow birds, cardinals, doves and occasional owl finding sustenance from the seeds and nuts they harvest from dormant plants. As our dormant trees, bulbs and plants are preparing for spring, they are drawing nourishment out of the soil. From time to time, as we wait for spring, the row of autumn-blooming cherry trees along Pasture Lane manage to brighten the winter scene with their delicate pink blossoms.
By Rena Burstein What happens to animals when the days get shorter and the thermometer readings steadily drop? Many head for warmer climates, others prepare for winter by putting on a thick coat of fur. Some animals head underground for long winter naps, which is considered a form of hibernation. Though bears come to mind, they are not “true” hibernators. They are “light” sleepers, who wake up occasionally between winter snows to forage. True hibernators sleep so deeply they are almost impossible to wake up. Our neighboring woodchucks and ground squirrels and some bats are true hibernators. Hibernating bats find caves where the temperature stays above freezing and where they may stay for as long as six months. In the United States and Canada the woodchuck’s emergence from its cave is celebrated on February 2 each year, most famously by Punxsutawney Phil at Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on Groundhog Day. Our cold-blooded neighbors on the Beaumont grounds also find ways to protect themselves from the cold weather. Frogs and turtles bury themselves in the
continued on page 6
5
When “stuff” is really memories made tangible By Barbara O’Brien
It seems the old phrase “my things” has been replaced by the term “my stuff.” Now that I have moved into what I suppose will be my last home, I have winnowed “my stuff” many times, often with regret, sometimes with a really deep pang of loss. In my small apartment there are still too many things; too much furniture, much of it no longer practical in that I really don’t need it or use it any longer, and many small things, cluttering many surfaces which need polishing, reminding me of many pleasurable and extremely happy moments in my life, so I guess “my stuff” has come to rest. Photographs everywhere remind me of my childhood, my parents; my mother in one of the great “Gainsborough” style wedding pictures, my father looking lovingly at his bride. Old friends, my own family, my new great-grandson, greet me at every turn. Many of my photographs are not black and white, but sepia! Pictures cover the walls: my grandfather’s Japanese prints of actors, oils painted by a great uncle of his sister, my grandmother, with my father, a two-year-old with curls and in a dress! Other paintings are oils of the mid-20th Century and various so-called “primitives” commemorating happy inspirations of the Pennsylvania Dutch. In a large bookcase are what can only kindly be called odds and ends, things I was unable to let go, none of any value except as a jog to memory. I am interested in folk art and there are a great many plates, which sit comfortably together, reminders of trips to Europe, Mexico, and parts of the U.S., because on every trip I bought a plate of the region. There are also two wonderful “Katrinas” from Mexico, somewhat startling, as they are clay dolls dressed in finery, proudly holding large purses, but with skull heads; standard ladies of the Mexican Day of the Dead. A guest might well ask of one tea set, “What on earth is this?” politely not saying, “It’s so lumpy.” It was made and proudly sold to me at a street fair long ago in New Mexico, and I still see the pleased smile of its creator, about 12 years old. How about the lonely Eskimo in his canoe, or the clay birds about to attack each other, or the blue plates which seem to depict Mount Vernon, or fishing somewhere? One might well ask, and many do! The row of Greek plates on top of the bookcase pleases me, but also reminds me that plates in another package, intended for friends, slipped from my grasp in the airport and crashed. I am ashamed of the flaw in my character which caused me to keep the survivors and give no presents to my friends! But messiest of all are the hundreds of books, the last survivors of a much
Photo by Louise Hughes Barbara O’Brien and the “lumpy” tea set she holds dear.
larger library, on every shelf surface, although the books given away or sold when I moved here still cause me pangs: like a part of the family which has been rejected. Even the much too large casserole and some other pots and pans in the kitchen remind me of all the wonderful mixed holidays we had with other families in our house, the many times I tried to emulate Julia Child with a few successes, and the hundreds of meals our family ate together. I have had the same corkscrew for about 50 years; would I be able to drink wine without it? How many bottles did I open on hundreds of occasions? On our 45th anniversary, I reminded my husband that I had cooked him and others at least 27,000 meals. He was suitably awed. As we grow older, our “stuff” becomes more important as a jog to memories which have become a little fuzzy: one look at an object and usually the whole experience in which this object played a part will come back to you; releasing additional memories to give you pleasure.
Hibernation . . . .
continued from page 5
One more winter survival strategy for residents would be to prepare for the spring awakening by exercising with Bob Stedeford, Director of Beaumont’s Fitness Center (featured in the January 2012 issue of the Beaumont News). Consulting services provided by Mark Hritz, Director of Grounds. 6
Sniff, then swirl Showing how it’s done at one of Beaumont’s popular wine-tasting events are those champion tasters, President (and Oenophile-in-Chief) Joe Fortenbaugh (left) with staff members Monique Walters and Justine Peterkin, and Dr. Herb Diamond, Wine and Spirits Committee chairman (above left). Tony Starr, meanwhile (above), offers a toast as Devie Andrews (left) and Elizabeth Royer look on. (Rose-Marie Pringle, Dining Services director, who masterminds these occasions in collaboration with Joe and the committee, likes to emphasize that of course, other drinks are always available.) Photos by Louise Hughes
Triple Play . . . .
VOIP means that instead of transmitting phone calls over traditional phone lines, calls will be transmitted over the Internet. This provides greater speed, reliability, integration, and flexibility–because the networks that make the Internet possible are far superior to those that power traditional telephone systems. VOIP allows us to treat your home phone more like a cell phone; that is, location independent. VOIP allows us to replace the long hold times, automated phone systems, and telephone repairmen of communications giants like Verizon and Comcast with a simple computer system that will allow me to manage all aspects of your phone number from my desk within a few minutes. The telephone is, and probably will remain, a symbol of connectedness. As technology has evolved, it has always gravitated toward integration with the telephone. E-mail, shopping, photography, and more can all be done with a cell phone, but until VOIP, the home phone had been largely ignored. Now we can begin to innovate and integrate the home phone in similar fashion. Science Fiction has always prophesied the invention of a single personal device that replaces your wallet, phone, keys, and more, and we’re nearly there; but it always comes back to the telephone, and that simple idea of making a call, having a conversation, and hanging up.
continued from page 1
including calls to Canada. Other international rates will apply, and you’ll be billed individually for such calls. If you don’t incur any additional charges, you won’t be billed extra. If you need call-history reports, or to change the way your name appears, or to add or remove or troubleshoot an option on your phone such as number blocking, call waiting, or call forwarding, it will be as easy as calling me–and I won’t make you wait on hold very often or for very long. Even voice mail will be included as a standard service. The basic purpose of the telephone hasn’t changed much in the 136 years since Alexander Graham Bell received his patent: Person A calls Person B, they talk, and they hang up. Over time, phone technology and use has evolved, but that central purpose remains: to communicate with others instantaneously, regardless of the distance between. Cordless phones extended the range of use, but with the cell phone, the central purpose of telephony became one of communication anywhere, regardless of physical location. This created a challenge for the home phone to achieve the same goal. Enter VOIP, the newest innovation in telephony. It stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol. This is the technology that will power our new phone system. 7
Strutting their stuff Norma Fabian (upper left) enjoys the show as Beaumont’s New Year’s Eve Mediterranean cruise gathers steam. Upper right: Jean and Lon Homeier. Middle row, left to right, Beaumont Hostess Kristen Gaspari, representing Italy; Sophie and Ed Donaghy, Page 1 couple, from the other side; Isaac (Quartie) and Barbara Clothier. Below left, Jane Garrison and Dining Services’ Justin McLaughlin, and right, Michael Klevence (guest) and Barbara Murphy. Photos by Robin Daye and Kim Norrett
8