Wichita Community Matters March 2017

Commun ty Matters Wichita Presbyterian Manor

March 2017

Senior artists invited to enter Art is Ageless® annual exhibit Wichita Presbyterian Manor is accepting entries for the 2017 Art is Ageless competition and exhibit through March 10. Artwork will be on display from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. March 13-31 in our Commons area.Winners will be announced during a reception with the artists from 4 to 6 p.m. on Friday, March 31.

Glynice Webb-Guzman

For more information, contact Amy Watson, 316-942-7456, or awatson@pmma.org.

Meet our social workers

McKenzie Smith

March is Social Work Month – “an opportunity for social workers across the country to turn the spotlight on the profession and highlight the important contributions they make to society,” according to the National Association of Social Workers.We are fortunate to have two excellent professionals on the social services staff at Wichita Presbyterian Manor.This month, we’d like to introduce you to these women who serve our residents with compassion and dedication.

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SOCIAL WORKERS, continued from page 1

Glynice Webb-Guzman Glynice serves the residents of our skilled nursing neighborhood. She says the best part of her job is helping residents achieve the highest quality of living when lifestyle changes occur. She loves to hear that they are happy and content.

Glynice was led to Presbyterian Manor after graduating from Wichita State University in 2008. She saw a job opening in our activities and social services department. Before she even got home from the interview, she received a call with a job offer.

A lifelong Wichitan, Glynice enjoys

reading, going to movies, crafts, Women’s Ministry and occasionally singing in the community choir. She has two adult children: a son, Davann; a daughter, RaShawn. Glynice also has four grandchildren, ages 10 to 17.

McKenzie Smith McKenzie has worked at Wichita Presbyterian Manor since November 2015. She was looking for a change after eight years with her previous employer.

When she saw Presbyterian Manor was hiring, she got excited. “Presbyterian Manor has a great reputation, and I love their mission,” she said.

What McKenzie loves best about her job is that she gets to meet people from so many different backgrounds. She loves to hear residents’ stories and to

walk with them through the process of their next steps, whether they return home or need help adjusting to life in a retirement community. McKenzie said she also appreciates working with a team of people who keep her motivated.

McKenzie grew up in Protection, a town in western Kansas. She’s still very close to her two older sisters.When she’s not at work, McKenzie is busy with her two children, ages 2 and 5. Her son plays basketball at theYMCA, so she attends all the games and practices.

They also like to go to the park, play board games, read books and have dance parties.

We appreciate everything Glynice and McKenzie do for our residents.Thank you!

Community Matters

is published monthly for residents and friends of Wichita Presbyterian Manor by Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Learn more at PresbyterianManors.org.

Dawn Veh, executive director Melody Dodge, marketing director To submit or suggest articles for this publication, contact Amy Watson, life enrichment director, awatson@pmma.org.

Telephone: 316-942-7456 Fax: 316-941-3806 Address: 4700 W. 13th St., Wichita, KS 67212-5575 Our mission: We provide quality senior services guided by Christian values.

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Community Matters March 2017

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Tea cart connects Westerly resident to President Lincoln If it weren’t for a young girl in NewYork, Abraham Lincoln may have never grown his iconic beard.What you may not know is that the girl, Grace Bedell, moved to Kansas when she grew up.

Today,Westerly resident Betty Curtis is the proud owner of an antique tea cart that once belonged to Grace.They both lived in the small town of Delphos, Kan., north of Salina.The cart was a gift from Grace’s son to Betty’s father.

Just how did Grace get Honest Abe to grow his beard? In October 1860, the precocious 11-year-old in Westfield, N.Y., liked Mr. Lincoln, and her father was voting for him. But she thought he needed an advantage: “I have got four brother’s and part of them will vote for you any way and if you will let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you – you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you and then you would be President.”

“She was kind of a quixotic little girl,” Betty said.

Clearly charmed by her letter, Lincoln wrote back within the week. A month later, he was elected, and in February he traveled by train from Illinois to Washington, D.C.The journey took Lincoln through Westfield. At a stop Like us on Facebook

there, he called into the crowd for Grace.The girl made her way forward to find the president with a full beard.

Lincoln kissed her and spoke with her for several minutes. According to the NewYork World of Feb. 19, 1861: “The young girl’s peachy cheek must have been tickled with a stiff whisker, for the growth of which she was herself responsible.”

Lincoln to his mother. “I was in the bank one day with my dad when I was 12, and he said,‘Would you like to see that?’” Betty said. She agreed but admits she didn’t fully grasp the significance of the historical artifact in her hands.

“I remember holding it. It had creases in it. But it was just a letter that my friend’s mother had gotten; it was old,” she laughed.

About eight years later, Grace met George Billings.They married, and George set out to homestead on the frontier. Eventually Grace joined him at Abilene, and they traveled overland to Delphos.The Billingses founded one of the town’s two banks.They had three sons – one of whom, Harlow, took over the bank. Grace died in 1936; four years later, young Betty moved to town when her father, a pastor, was appointed to a church there.

Betty recalls the night Harlow and his wife invited her parents over for dinner – because she and her sister weren’t invited. Her father later came home with Grace’s tea cart. “My dad was a fixer upper. If he wasn’t fixing up people’s lives, he was fixing up people’s stuff,” she said. Later she realized Harlow was “downsizing” as he grew older.

At the time, Harlow was still in possession of the letter from Abraham

Coincidentally, Betty later married a man with such a striking resemblance to Lincoln that he was regularly called LINCOLN, continued on page 4 Wichita Presbyterian Manor

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LINCOLN, continued from page 3

on to portray the president in reenactments and photos. Charles Curtis was 6 foot 8 inches tall and had a deep, booming voice – perfect for reciting Lincoln’s famous addresses.

There is a small monument to Grace Bedell Billings in Delphos, but the little town is fading.To Betty, the tea cart is a lasting symbol of both American and personal history.

“Something old is just something old until you have a story,” she said. “And then it’s an antique.”

You can read the full text of the letters between Grace Bedell and Abraham Lincoln online at www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/ education/bedell.htm. For more about their story you can also read “Lincoln’s Little Girl,” a book by Michigan magazine editor Fred Trump.

Fitness routines Everyone knows fitness is important. How have you taken steps to be fit? What’s your regular fitness routine? If you’ve started a fitness routine late in life, what advice would you have for others? How do you think you benefit from regular exercise?

If you’ve got a story to share, contact Amy Watson, life enrichment director, and your story could be featured in an upcoming edition of Community Matters.

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Community Matters March 2017

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