Sponsored by Weinstein Law/Weinstein Real Estate
The Parents of the Graduating Senior Class of Malakoff HIgh School would like to say a GREAT BIG THANK YOU for your Support for our kids of 2014. The event was a success thanks to all of you.
By Loretta Humble/Around the Town
Here it is June, and since late January, best I can tell, I’ve only written two columns that weren’t about either “O’Keeffe!,” the Bartlett House, or Cedar Lake Nursing Home. Once the Garden Club decided to bring the play here, I dived in and gave it everything I had. Three days after the performance, I got my knee replaced, then checked in to Cedar Lake Nursing Home for rehab, then after graduating, I fixed myself a nice little apartment next door where I plan to stay a while. Since that is all I’ve been doing for nearly six months, it is all I’ve had to talk about.
I skipped last week just to give you a break.
But I got my last home health Physical Therapy visit today from Mark Sulak of Cedar Lake Home Health and Hospice and will soon be released to roam the world as I please. I will really miss Mark’s visit. He is the best. He has pushed me hard to get my knee strong and back better than it has been in years. Mark is a pretty amazing guy. Let me tell you what he has been up to.
In January 2012 Mark started having symptoms that led to the discovery that he had a brain tumor. In July they removed the tumor, but in the course of the surgery, he contracted miningitis, and nearly died. We thought we’d lost him. Pretty soon, however, he made himself get up and around, but he wasn’t really his old self. Visiting one of his doctors, his wife Cathy ask, “When am I going to get my Mark back?” The doctor told her she wouldn’t, that he would never be the same, that they should be grateful he was alive at all. Mark just sat there, didn’t say a word, but later told his wife Cathy he was going to come back all the way, and he’d show that doctor. And this year, on the same day many of us were going to see “O’Keeffe!” he did it. Mark and Cathy, after months of training, joined thousands of other bikers in the MS 150, making a 150 mile ride from Austin to Houston, raising funds to cure MS. When he sent out notes thanking all his supporters, he made sure he sent a note to the doctor who told him he would never be the same. He got no reply. But that’s all right. He showed her. Later this summer Mark is going to participate in the “Hotter than Hell” ride in Wichita Falls. Cathy is staying home for this one, but one of his daughters is going to ride with him. I can’t imagine doing that if you’d never been sick, but to have been in the shape he was in such a short time ago, and now doing all this—totally unbelievable. It made it hard for me to complain when he made me walk around the building. But I complained anyhow. Continue reading “Mark Sulak Overcomes Doctor’s Diagnosis”
PWC press release
A favorite annual project for the members of Pinnacle Women’s Club (PWC) is the Book Fair. The purpose of the Book Fair is to donate books to the Kindergarten and 1st grade students in the Malakoff ISD. This year, there were 202 students who each received five books. The age appropriate books were delivered shortly before the end of the school year so the students would have summer reading materials. The student’s books were distributed in book bags which had been donated by Lily Enterprises of Athens, the owners of McDonald’s in Malakoff and Athens.
The PWC members were especially delighted when they entered one of the 1st grade classrooms because the students stood and sang the “Happy, happy, happy” song while dancing. Other classes had made ‘thank you’ cards for the PWC members. This was an awesome and very much appreciated welcome!
READER REPORT (7:25 PM)
“ONCOR coming for emergency danger situation with the top 5 feet snapped off of a power pole and hot lines all over ground at 700 block of N Smith St, Malakoff.”
By Loretta Humble/Around the Town
I don’t feel so hot. The nursing home lunch today was great: tender pork roast with gravy, broccoli and some really well seasoned corn, but all I could eat was the fruit cup that came with it.
Supper was a big hamburger with all trimmings and chicken tortilla soup. I ate the soup. And a nice cookie that seemed like it might be home made.
I mention that I don’t feel good as an excuse for what I imagine is going to be a very dull column. I am telling you what I did and didn’t eat because some of you seem to be kind of interested in what we have to eat out here at the nursing home. I’m looking for any little interesting thing I can find to tell you.
Yesterday was kind of interesting. The residents had a big Cinco de Mayo party, complete with mariachi music blaring, Mexican-type dips and chips, and frozen margaritas and strawberry daiquiris. They were non-alcoholic as far as I could tell, but they sure did taste good. It was great fun and pepped me up for a while.
Despite the fact that I’m dragging, my knee is doing remarkably well. It is still somewhat stiff, but they tell me my recovery rate is way above average. I can walk around the whole nursing home without a walker, and without pain. They like to keep an eye on me when I do that, but I think therapy will discharge me Thursday or Friday. Since I’m not feeling well I may stay over the weekend. Of course, I’ve been talking big about just staying. After all, I own half of this place. They can’t kick me out. But there is a little hitch. I need a little more therapy, and this is the kind you don’t get in the nursing home. This will be the kind of thing Cedar Lake Home Health and Hospice physical therapy can do for me, where they come to me and help me get set up to live in the world. But I have an idea about that. Remember when I lived in an apartment next door? Well, there are still living quarters there, and I’m thinking I may just relocate to the old nursing home building, way down the hall from our Rehab Department. That way I can learn independence and also get to hang out with these Cedar Lake people I love so much and keep getting served all this good food that I don’t have to lift a hand to provide myself.
You may have heard about Juanita Rocha’s wonderful project, which is to crochet—and teach others to crochet — soft colorful “chemo caps” for all cancer survivors in our area. Several people have joined her effort. Donna Rinn was her first student, and now is churning out chemo caps like a professional. I’m trying, but so far the best I can do is a respectable chain stitch. I did an inch or so of a double something-or-other, but it was very disreputable. Today we met here in the nursing home library. Jill Davis joined Juanita, Donna, Betty Pogue, Annie Ellsworth, and me. This was Betty’s first time, and she has already caught up with me in making respectable chains. I found a really good how-to crochet video on Youtube. As soon as I feel a little better I’m going sit in front of it and practice till I can make at least one more stitch. My plan is learn to make a simple flower, and get so good at it I can make dozens, in all kinds of colors, to dress up all the caps.
Seems like that would be easier to learn than how to make a whole cap.
We are going to be meeting here every Tuesday afternoon to work on caps. I expect Betty and I will be meeting several times before then, to see if we can catch up a little more before then. We’d love it if you’d join us. It’s fun to try even if you’re not very good.
Another project I’ve had a chance to work on while I’m here is restocking the library. We have a very nice library, with a whole lot of good books, and quite a few boring ones. I have store rooms full of good books, left over from when I sold books on the Internet. So I’ve been bringing in a few boxes at a time and replacing some of the older, duller ones. Know anybody who needs or wants some good books? I’ve got lots to share. There is one type of book, however, that we never have enough of. It is LARGE PRINT BOOKS. If you have some extra ones, we’d love to have them. I could trade you a bunch of regular print ones for them.