Wichita Presbyterian Manor
DECEMBER 2021
Westerly resident is a ‘friendly face’ for health care, PATH residents Every Monday and Wednesday evening, LaNelle Hancock visits the health care and PATH neighborhoods. “I’ll start down the hallway, and if a door is open, I’ll go in and introduce myself,” said LaNelle, who has lived in independent living at the Westerly with her husband, Ervin, since October 2019. If the resident feels like talking, LaNelle LaNelle Hancock, pictured at left, stays and chats for a few minutes. She visits with health care resident Mary makes sure to bring news about her Johnson during one of LaNelle’s neighbors to former residents of the Westerly. Often, residents want to talk volunteer shifts at Presbyterian Manor. LaNelle and Mary often take about recent family visits or how the time to catch up on Mondays and they’re feeling. LaNelle always asks if Wednesday evenings when LaNelle there’s anything she can do to make visits with residents who live in the them feel more comfortable. health care and PATH areas. “It means a lot just to see a friendly face,” she said. The pandemic interrupted her volunteer schedule, but LaNelle is glad to have returned to the PATH and health care areas this fall. “I may be in their position someday, and if I am, I would like people to visit me,” she said. “I feel it’s the least I can do.” LaNelle arrives at 6 p.m. and stays for an hour or more, depending on how many doors are open and how talkative residents are feeling. “It’s rewarding to walk in the door and hear, ‘Oh there she is!’” LaNelle said. “It makes me feel good to know they’re happy to see me. I feel like I get as much out of it as they do.” Amy Watson coordinates the volunteers at Wichita Presbyterian Manor. If you are interested in volunteering in our community, let her know! She can be reached at awatson@pmma.org or 316-942-7456 extension 1511. u
New assisted living resident had an ‘oldfashioned’ childhood Jo Ann James experienced the kind of childhood that is largely a thing of the past. Raised on a farm near Goodland, Kan., just 9 miles from the Colorado border, Jo Ann studied in a one-room schoolhouse through the eighth grade. Jo Ann’s family lived on land homesteaded by her maternal grandfather, who traveled from Illinois to Sherman County, Kan., in 1886 to stake his claim in the West. Their farm was about two miles from two different schoolhouses, and she and her siblings attended both throughout their childhoods. Sunflower School was more modern, with a windmill, indoor restrooms and basement furnace that kept the students warm in the winter. The children attending Smokey Hill school had to use outdoor toilets. “I was happy there, no matter which way I went,” Jo Ann said. “I didn’t wish for anything better, because we kids didn’t know any different.” Jo Ann enjoyed walking to school when the weather was nice, but winters could be “dreadful.” “I remember arriving at school in tears because my fingers and toes were cold,” she later wrote in an account of her school days. “Mom and Pop always made sure we were dressed in warm clothes … but it was not always enough. The teacher would have me run cold water over my hands, which burned like it was scalding hot. It felt so good to stand over the large floor furnace to warm up.”
Memories – continued on page 3
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