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VOLUME TWENTY FOUR, NUMBER EIGHT
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OCTOBER 2010
O welcome, welcome-home dinner!
By Mary Graff Every year, in late summer and fall, come Beaumont’s summer travelers home to the delights they know so well, and not the least of these is the food. Ah, the food! Beautiful food! Planned, shopped for, cooked and served by others! Expert, imaginative, hard-working others! Every year, in celebration of this wonderful fact, there is a welcomehome dinner. Resident Services Director Kim Norrett has planned this year’s for Thursday, Oct. 7, at 5:30 p.m. in the Beaumont Room. (A little early for some, perhaps, but as always the Grill Room keeps regular hours during special events and Food Services Clerk Sonya Clarke accepts orders in advance for Photo by Louise Hughes home delivery. For more about Sonya, please see story on page 3. A welcome–and welcoming–sight for returning vacationers, Supervisor Samantha Mohan and wait continued on page 3 staff prepare to greet residents and guests on their way to the Mansion dining rooms.
Man vs. Nature in the Adirondacks: the Sequel Last year it was bats. This year it was squirrels. Plus, in addition, an unintended consequence of asking the Front Office to forward our in-house mail. (Chef Mark and Sonya, you will like this.) We started the summer with seven small red squirrels, Mama and six frisky babies, their fur snowy white on cheeks and chests. Cute. Pretty. Affectionate, as they played with each other. But, since they were living inside the roof of our screened porch, with potential access to the inside of
our New Russia cottage and hence limitless opportunities to cause chaos and destruction, it was us or them. With increasingly smaller-meshed Have-a-Heart traps and a generous supply of black oil seeds, potato chips, and cheese nibbles, we managed to capture Mama and three offspring one by one, along with two chipmunks and a little brown weasel. The chipmunks and the weasel escaped. We released the squirrels in distant woods. continued on page 8
INSIDE: Treasuring elderly in Japan, Pages 4, 5 Meet new staff, residents, Pages 2, 7 Labor Day feast photos, Page 6 A rising star poet, Page 8
New faces in Health Services Administration Linda Lemisch, Vice President for Health Services at Beaumont since last spring, is responsible for the Health Care Center, the Outpatient Department, Assisted Living, Social Services, and physical, occupational and recreational therapy. She brings with her nearly 30 years of experience in the field, starting when she was a nursing assistant in high school. She has a master’s in health care administration from St. Joseph’s University and is licensed as a nursing home administrator. The mother of two sons and grandmother of two granddaughters, she has wide-ranging interests including scuba diving, sailing and horseback riding. She presides over a household that includes two horses, two dogs and a cat. She and her new husband, Tony Lemisch, an architectural engineer, were married last January on the beach in Barbados. —Rena Burstein
Linda Lemisch brings nearly 30 years of experience to her post as Vice President for Health Services. Photo by Louise Hughes
Paul McCleary, now Beaumont’s Director of Nursing, grew up in Philadelphia and entered the Army after graduation from high school. Trained as an operating room technician while in the Army, he worked in that capacity at Germantown Hospital after his release and earned an RN from Germantown’s School of Nursing. He served as Director of Nursing at two long-termcare facilities before coming to Beaumont. Married, with two daughters, he plays classical guitar and enjoys reading history and science fiction. —Nancy Harris
Paul McCleary served as Director of Nursing at two long-term-care facilities before coming to Beaumont. Photo by Louise Hughes
The deadline for the November, 2010 issue of the Beaumont News will be Friday, October 8. 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! To see back issues or print out a copy, please go to our website, www.beaumontretirement.com. If you would like to receive the News in large print, please leave your name at the front desk.
The News invites letters from readers, including nonresidents. Letters will be published or not, in full or in part, at the discretion of the editors. Letter-writers are asked to please:
BEAUMONT NEWS The Beaumont News is published by the residents and staff of the Beaumont Retirement Community, 601 N. Ithan Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
1. Confine subject matter to articles that have appeared in the News (past News issues are on file in the Library). 2. Keep letters under 300 words–the shorter the better.
Managing Editor
3. Sign your own name, though requests for anonymity in print may be honored.
Editor Emeritus and Historian
Production Editor New Residents Editor
E-mail letters to Mary Graff at graffs@msn.com (home) AND mgraff@beaumontretirement.com (office); hand in at front desk, or mail to Beaumont at 601 N. Ithan Ave., Bryn Mawr 19010. Letters need not be typed (though typing is appreciated), but please write as legibly as possible and include your phone number (for the editors’ use only).
Medical Advisers
Mary Graff Christine Johnson-Hall Louise Guthrie Jean Kirk Dr. Jay MacMoran Dr. Herbert Diamond
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Photo Editor Events Manager
Louise Hughes Kim Norrett
Proofreader
Jennie Frankel
The voice from the corner of the kitchen By Mary Schnabel
To residents who are new to our community, she is first a voice at 525-7641 that accepts orders for takeout meals or meal deliveries, arranges reservations when five or more wish to be sure of a table together, and often fields calls for Chef Mark. Then they learn that there is a real and delightful person behind that voice: Sonya Clarke, the efficient young woman who sits in her little office in a corner of the kitchen In her kitchen corner, Sonya Clarke does everything but cook. Photo by Louise Hughes and does much, much more than first meets the eye. the menus, so that residents can decide in advance Sonya is involved with everything that has to do with food. where and what they want to eat. It is Sonya who coordinates the big orders for holiday The invoices from all the food vendors are given to her for tabulation on her computer. In this way she takeouts and deliveries, the turkey dinners and pies and knows exactly both the amount of each separate food cookies for carefree family feasts in apartments and item used each month and how much it has cost the villas, while the kitchens serve other diners as usual. It is Sonya who helps you if you need to purchase a kitchen budget. She forwards these figures to the accounting office along with a record of how many convenience item from our kitchens–milk, bread, juice and such. It is Sonya who helps coordinate private parties. meals each resident has charged during the month. Chef Mark plans ever-changing menus for each And it is Sonya you call to make a reservation for week: one set for the Mansion dining rooms, with many Tableside Dining, those special dinners at which one dishes to choose from, and a different set for the less can watch Chef Mark cooking something wonderful formal Grill Room, where a grandchild can get a (and quite often aflame) right at your table. Sonya has been at Beaumont 11 years, and knows hamburger but the older folk can still dine on filet many residents just by their voices. Her own voice is mignon or wild salmon (for example). Sonya sees to it that the kitchen staff knows what to great, but the person’s even better. She’s worth order and prepare for the week. She also distributes knowing!
Welcome . . . .
Maine, Northeast Harbor: Devie Andrews, Florence Borda, Nancy Harris, Grace and Ned Madeira, Janneke Neilson, Newbold Smith, Ann and Kaighn Smith, and Louise Wanamaker. Maine, other places: Carolyn and Hap Aller, Kennebunkport; Anne and Tom Godfrey, Vinalhaven; Jim Luther, Winter Harbor; Gretchen Mitchell, Camden; Evelyn and Ed Rosen, Naples; Anne and Bob Trout, Topsham; Curtis Chafee, Sorrento; Dr. Clayton Kyle, Southwest Harbor; and Robert and Mary McAdoo, North Haven. Other states: Juanita Boardman, Ocean City, NJ; Barbara Murphy and Sally and Bob Herd, Stone Harbor, NJ; Shirley and Gordon Moyer, Avalon, NJ; Jean Kirk, Holderness, NH; John Brittain and Tony Starr, Edgartown, MA; Betty Webb, Nantucket, MA; Mary Schnabel, Waquoit, MA; Elsie and John Butterworth, Keene Valley, NY; Mary and Bill Graff, New Russia, NY; Peggy Calvert, St. Michaels, MD; Jeanne Cortner, Jackson, WY; Martha Lewis, Manchester, VT; Tuppie and Arthur Solmssen, Vaughn, WA; Gigi and Bill Boothby and Josie Zelov, Pocono Lake Preserve, PA.
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(Also, of course, as the good cooks among us are wont to point out, there is nothing actually wrong with preferring to cook at home.) Chef Mark Robison and Dining Services Director Rose-Marie Pringle, with all their helpers, stand ready and eager to celebrate right along with us, the returning residents – and also, of course, those who have been here all along, but are none the less appreciative of their blessings. Some conversations at the tables may well center on where the travelers have been returning from, many of them from family camps and cottages. Maine seems to have been the most popular state this last summer, but New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maryland, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wyoming also have left their marks on the front desk’s “Away” log. With apologies to anyone this list may have left out, here are some of our summer destinations, in no particular order: 3
The elderly: In Japan, “a treasure for every household” By Eli Burstein
It was during a visit to Japan that my wife, Rena, and I made in the fall of 1984 that we first became aware of the Japanese national holiday called “Respect the Elderly.” We had arranged to visit our friends Nori and Etsuko Yasuyama in Tokyo prior to traveling to Hakone, a village at the foot of Mount Fuji, where I was to attend a conference. After taking the train from the Roppongi station in Tokyo, where we were staying at the International House of Japan, we were met by Nori at the station closest to the Yasuyama home. Nori was wearing a Yukata, a traditional Japanese outdoor kimono, and Japanese wooden clog shoes, rather than western clothes, his usual attire. He greeted us warmly, explaining that it was Respect the Elderly day, a national holiday held annually on the 15th of September. On the way to the Yasuyama home, we passed a small playground in which colorfully dressed young women were folk dancing Eli Burstein and singing traditional Japanese folk songs. On arriving at the Yasuyama home, we were greeted by Etsuko and the three Yasuyama children, by Etsuko’s sister and her husband and their children, and by Etsuko’s elderly mother, who was clearly the center of attention that day. After a round of refreshments, a traditional Japanese dinner prepared by Etsuko and her sister was served, and then Etsuko’s mother demonstrated her musical talent, creating beautiful Japanese melodies on the Koto, a traditional Japanese string instrument. The “Respect the Elderly” holiday was for Rena and me a most enjoyable and unexpected day. The peoples of East Asia have a long tradition of “filial piety,” which is the moral obligation of adult children to respect and care for their elderly parents and to do so with affection, responsibility and gratitude. Of course, virtually all religions promote filial obligation in one form or another. Judaism and Christianity are clear about the moral importance of filial duty, expressed by the Fifth Commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother that your days may be long.” Buddhism stresses solemn filial obligation and particularly the eternal and deep love of the mother, which even the most pious children would not be able to repay fully. Similarly, Islam and Hinduism stress the duty of children to love, respect, and support their parents. In the East Asian countries, respect for the elderly actually extends beyond one’s parents. According to Confucius: “At home, a young man should be dutiful towards his parents; going outside, he should be
respectful towards other elders.” Thus, the practice of filial piety toward one’s own parents extends to all elderly people in the society. It is important to treat all old people with propriety. The use of honorific language and courteous manners widely observed among Chinese, Japanese and Koreans in addressing elders is a behavioral expression of that respect. Respect for the aged is thus deeply rooted in East Asian culture. Moreover, the moral value of filial respect has not been greatly undermined in the process of social changes after World War II. In Japan, specifically, the day devoted to respect for the aged came into its own after World War II as a day when one shows respect to longtime contributors to society, celebrates their longevity, prays for their health, gains greater awareness and understanding of welfare issues confronting the elderly, and thinks about how welfare services can be improved. A description of the origin of the Japanese national holiday “Respect the Elderly” is contained in the September 15, 2000 issue of the Yomiuri Shimbun daily paper. It is essentially as follows: On Sept. 15, 1947, the village of Nomatanimur (present-day Yachiyocho), a village nestling in the hills of the central Hyogo Prefecture of Japan, mobilized all motorized tricycles in the area to carry local elderly people to a school hall. Masao Kadowaki, the 35-
Neighborhoods will have volunteers distribute free obento boxed lunches to elderly people in the neighborhood, and smaller villages will hold keirokai shows for which the younger people and school children prepare dances and songs. year-old head of the village government, announced to the senior citizens assembled in the hall, “An elderly person is a treasure for every household and also for our village.” Bowing his head, he went on, “Please share with me, a young village head, some of your wisdom.” Kadowaki was apparently worried about dissoluteness among the Japanese people in the immediate aftermath of World War II, and particularly about the breakdown of the long-standing family system in continued on page 5
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Wine Phanatic reports on picnic Sonoma wines were the feature and the Beaumont Room was the place as 125 wine and food fans enjoyed Beaumont’s annual wine picnic dinner on July 22. A Russian River Ranches Chardonnay set the tone for the evening as it had a delightful aroma of vanilla on the nose and oak and ripe fruit on the palate. Chef Mark and his staff started the dining with a salad featuring arugula, roasted baby beets, Maytag blue cheese, Asiago cheese-dusted multigrain croutons, tomatoes, and wild berry vinaigrette. This writer was on the edge of ecstasy at this point. The salad was followed by an entrée of cherrywood bacon-roasted center cut rack of lamb with Calvados
green-peppercorn demiglace served over cauliflower puree. The entrée was accompanied by Yukon Gold mashed potatoes with caramelized onions and colorful harvest carrots with cilantro butter. Rose-Marie Pringle and her dining staff poured Pinot Noir, from the Gloria Ferrer winery, which exhibited a wonderful, ripe, dark fruit on the nose and a long, smooth and silky finish. At this point the writer was in total ecstasy. But wait, there was more. A Cabernet-wine-poached pear tart with sweet cream was accompanied by a Gloria Ferrer sparkling wine. Magnifico was all that the attendees could utter. —Joseph H. Fortenbaugh III
Jimmy Carter, proclaiming the first Sunday after Labor Day “National Grandparents Day” to honor Japan. From the following year on, the village of grandparents, to give grandparents an opportunity to Nomatanimur designated Sept. 15 “Old Folks Day” show love for their children’s children, and to help and held events to pay respect to senior citizens in the children become aware of the strength, information village. The village holiday later spread over the entire and guidance older people can offer. Hyogo Prefecture. But the Japanese “Respect the Elderly” day is far Rapid changes in the industrial structure and the more serious than the American version. trend of urbanization after World War II have loosened Neighborhoods will have volunteers distribute free the communal bonds obento boxed lunches to among people in rural comelderly people in the neighmunities, neighborhoods borhood and smaller and families. In addition, villages will hold keirokai technological innovations shows for which the have resulted in a tendency younger people and school to regard the decades-long children prepare dances experience and wisdom of and songs. The elderly the elderly as old-fashattendees are also treated ioned. In 1966, 19 years to to lunch, tea, and sweets the day after the village of after the performance. Nomatanimur mobilized all There is another its tricycles for local senior Japanese celebration citizens, the Central involving the elderly which I Government of Japan personally experienced established Sept. 15 as a when I reached my 88th national holiday to respect Dr. Burstein’s 88th birthday present: a special bowl and the box it birthday. In Japan the Photo by Louise Hughes the elderly for their continu- came in. celebration of the 88th ous contribution to society and to celebrate their birthday is very special. It is called “beiju,” meaning longevity, and changed the name “Old Folks Day” to rice celebration. Because rice is so important to “Respect-the-Elderly Day” (‘Keiro-no-Hi’to in Japanese, as an integral part of daily life that is vital to Japanese).” In 2003 the date was changed to the sustaining life, the 88th or beiju birthday which signithird Monday in September in accordance with the fies longevity is a celebration of great importance in “Happy Monday System,” which moved a number of Japan. Four years ago when I turned 88, close friends national holidays to Monday in order to obtain a long and colleagues in Japan sent me Beiju greetings and, as weekend. (Several holidays, such as the Emperor’s a special token of friendship and respect, gave me a Birthday, New Year’s Day, Vernal Equinox Day, and tea ceremony bowl that was created by a 10th generAutumnal Equinox Day could not be moved to a ation traditional Japanese potter. Monday.) Dr. Burstein is Mary Amanda Wood Professor of Of interest in this regard is the fact that in 1978 Physics, Emeritus , in the University of Pennsylvania’s Congress passed legislation, signed by President Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Elderly in Japan . . . .
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Labor Day feast features family as well as food Susan Woolford prepares to carry off a helping of celebratory piglet carved by Cook Dwight Langley, (here serving resident Fred Brenner), as new resident Hoffman Dolan and wait-lister Eleanor Ingersoll are caught by camera mid-meal and dessert table awaits. Resident Liz Dornberger entertained son John and his children, twins Sam and Dan and daughter Elizabeth. Photos by Louise Hughes
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Geometric works of art The eye-catching objects now on display in the Beaumont Room cabinet are the work of a distinguished University of Pennsylvania professor emeritus, a graduate of MIT with a doctorate from Princeton, who became fascinated by solid Dr. Eugenio Calabi geometry in the 4th grade. Beaumont resident Dr. Eugenio Calabi at first loved playing with wooden models held together by nails. As time went on, he learned how to make a 16-pointed star to be used as a Christmas tree decoration, using four strips of paper. As a professor of mathematics, specializing in differential geometry, he put his ingenuity and manual dexterity to work making shapes that would be attractive to students. He now uses four to eight strips, each of a different color. — Rena Burstein Photos by Louise Hughes
Meet our new neighbors
Grace and Ned Madeira, who moved to Beaumont last May, have lived on the Main Line for all 54 years of their marriage. Ned came from Germantown (“the other side of the river”) and Grace from suburban Boston, but a house party on Cape Cod brought them together. Ned graduated from Andover and from the University of Pennsylvania and its law school, joining the Pepper Hamilton firm in 1953. A former chair of the litigation department, he is now Chair Emeritus and senior counsel with the firm. Last year he received the American Bar Association Justice Center’s John Marshall award, established to recognize dedication to the improvement of the administration of justice. G r a c e graduated from Miss Hall’s School Grace Madeira Ned Madeira in Pittsfield, MA, and the former Garland Art School in Boston, where she received a degree with honors in fashion design. An enthusiastic herb gardener, she has served on the national board of the Herb Society of America and is a former chairman of its Philadelphia unit. The Madeiras have three daughters and two grandchildren. They have a summer home in Northeast Harbor, ME, where Ned is an avid sailor. To be continued. . . .
By Jean Kirk
Sally and Bob Herd came to Beaumont last April from nearby Radnor, where they had lived for 50 years and where Bob was a township commissioner for seven years. Bob graduated from Amherst and spent three years in the Air Force as a jet fighter pilot, flying the supersonic F-100 Super Sabre and the F-84 Thunderjet.Turning to commercial and industrial real estate in civilian life, he eventually formed his own company. He retired 12 years ago. Sally, a graduate of Emma Willard and Vassar, worked for 36 years on the committee running the Vassar Show House, a designers’ showcase and fundraiser for Vassar scholarships. Environmental interests led her to become a member of the boards of the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education and the Wetlands Institute of Stone Harbor, NJ, where the Herds have a second home. They have taken many birding trips to Central and South America as well as the western United States. They are members of the Gulph Mills Golf Club, the Merion Cricket Club, of which Bob is a former president, and the Yacht Club of Stone Harbor. They have two daughters, a son, six grandchildren, and a black cat named Emma. *
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Bob Herd
Sally Herd
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A NEW STAR SHINES AT BEAUMONT As one kind of writer, Rachel Debus is well known to all Beaumont residents.She sits in a cubicle behind the Front Office and writes out our monthly bills. Now read this: Seasons of the Pen By Rachel Debus
In the Winter of my writing thoughts are stiff, frozen. Ideas are elusive, just barely visible underneath layers of ice. I see them, but cannot reach them. Daylight hours are few. In the Spring of my writing the thaw begins, slowly. Days become longer. Warmer. I begin to break up the ground. Seeds planted. Rachel Debus Watering. Weeding. Waiting. I wonder which will grow into something fruitful. In the Summer of my writing more watering. weeding. waiting. I contend with bugs. In the hot sun I wonder if it’s worth it. Still I continue gradually I see growth. Signs of life. In the Autumn of my writing still weeding and watering and then at last – harvest! The fruits of my labor fill me with satisfaction I share it with others. Some like it, some don’t, But each appreciates sharing in it. Autumn fades away, winter approaches, but I don’t worry. I’ve lived through the seasons. I know each holds its own purpose. I will embrace each one and will remember no season lasts forever – the next one is right around the corner.
Summertime living may be easy for some, but not for grounds workers like Kurt Mueller, who kept going through all of the past summer’s grueling heat. Photo by Louise Hughes
Man vs. Nature . . . . continued from page 1
“Together, at least?” I hear you ask hopefully. No. Not possible. Then our helper shot two babies with an air gun as they frolicked along the edge of the roof. The sight of those furry little bodies hurtling from roof to earth was, as Bill put it, “heart-rendering.” At that point we thought we’d got them all, and our helper climbed a ladder and started spraying a special white foam into the holes to seal them. Oops! Out came No. 7, dashing right through the not-yet-hardened foam and down and into the woods with foam on his (or her) face and tiny shoulders which probably hardened right on him (or her) and . . . never mind, don’t even think about it. Just remember, it was us or them, and at least not once did we consider Brunswick Stew. Which brings us to the in-house mail. We should mention here that Stephanie, a longtime boutique caterer in nearby Keene Valley much loved and depended upon by Fytie Drayton and John and Elsie Butterworth as well as ourselves, sold her shop last winter. Alas! Over the summer, Bill took to reading Chef Mark and Sonya’s weekly menus aloud, supplying little tunes in a sort of pre-dinner threnody as I peered about in the freezer. Chef, we missed you! Eheu! —Mary Graff
With this poem, our Mistress of Accounts Receivable won 2d prize for poetry in the latest annual North Wildwood Beach Writers Conference. Her essay “Fog,” which won first prize in its division, will appear in a future issue. “Fog,” Rachel says, will be a chapter in a book she is working on–a book that is “in the Summer season right now.”
IN MEMORIAM Mr. Charles Bolling – July 3 Dr. James Edwin Wood III – August 15 Members of the Beaumont Community extend deepest sympathy to their families and friends. 8