For the Record...

Arts Editor
elizabethfbgoshen.edu

    Last week I was walking through the circular halls of College Church to keep warm along my trek between Newcomer and everywhere else. I noticed unfamiliar voices coming from one of the classrooms, not typically occupied by GC students. I walked past the open doors, and saw dozens of elderly women making crafts: cutting out shapes, and gluing down pieces with rubber cement.
    This scene reminded me of something I’ve thought about more than often during my time as a college student. We don’t often see young children or adults older than our parents’ ages (a.k.a. elderly individuals).
    I felt a pang. I guess, this time it was directed towards the smiling grandmas, cutting and pasting, and being their sweet selves.
    My mom has been the activity director at Pleasantview Nursing Home in Kalona, Iowa, since I can remember. I grew up walking there after school from the elementary. I would settle in the Rec. Room: watching cartoons, riding the stationary bike (which wasn’t really allowed), “playing” pool, using the shuffle board lines as my hopscotch, and saying hello to the residents I knew throughout the home.
    Often in the summer, Mom had me help give wheelchair rides, or play fiddle songs for the residents. I know I was a bit scared during my first visits to the home, but sooner than later, I came to enjoy those times.
     I am completely floored time and again, when I visit my Beachy grandparents, Floyd and Mattie, now in their upper 80’s. They have fascinating stories about World War II, or being raised Amish, and getting their buggy stuck in the deep, mud-sloppy roads after a rain.
    I inherited my grandpa’s habit of whistling constantly. He jingles change in his pockets, and goes to coffee with his gang of other grandpas. Grandma still bakes delicious cinnamon rolls, and reads like nobody’s business.
    On the Erb side of the family, my grandma Lola Faye still takes her grandchildren on a miniature golf outing each summer. Even after they bulldozed the putt-putt dive, we still get together. She listens to classical music non-stop in her century-farmhouse, and keeps the most elegant garden I’ve ever seen.
    Those early experiences at Pleasantview, helped me recognize how the grandmas and grandpas, great aunts and uncles, or elderly next door neighbors (who send you jars of applesauce every time their children have children), are a wealth of wisdom, and coolness. If you have grandparents, soak them up. If you do not, take a second look at the elderly faces in the community: at your church, or at Greencroft. There is a richness there that should not go overlooked.