South Cheektowaga Courier/ Friday, December 19, 2014
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-SOUTH CHEEKTOWAGA-
DECEMBER 19, 2014
CIRCULATION 14,533
Holy Family Senior Center is home and more By Catherine Miller COURIER CORRESPONDENT
Ann McMahon felt right at home when she stepped in to the Holy Family Senior Apartments when it first opened at the corner of S Park and Tifft three years ago. And why shouldn’t she? “I went to grade school in this building,” reminisced McMahon, about the building that was once the Holy Family Catholic School, “I was married to my husband Thomas in the church next door and I raised nine children with him just a few blocks away.” So when the time came to find a senior living place that would allow her to maintain her active lifestyle and enjoy
Ann McMahon [front] is joined by friends Sharon Godwin, Yvonne Kelso, and Annette Byrnes [left to right] for a Buffalo Bills game at the Holy Family Senior Apartments
the social interaction she was accustomed to, the Holy Family Apartments seemed perfect. The wide halls and warm ambiance with its well-known layout, amidst a familiar neighborhood and friendly residents seemed like an ideal new home. It wasn’t until after moving in that McMahon made another discovery about the center. During the conversion of the building to a senior living center, the halls of the structure were renovated with a bit of the “grade school” feel to its décor, using the classroom chalkboards intermittently throughout the halls as message boards and displaying art work from years past to capture the school-like feel. Walking
outside her apartment door shortly after moving in Ann McMahon looked up and saw a familiar name signed to the bottom of a painting that was completed over 60 years earlier. “James Hinman, Grade 7” had completed a depiction of Jesus with his mother, Mary. The young artist, James Hinman, was Ann’s youngest brother who had passed away years earlier. She was shocked and delighted. After a bit of investigating McMahon found that the picture was part of a school art project that was completed on the gym floor of the school in the mid 1950’s by a select group
“See Holy Family, Page 2”
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