Category: Malakoff

By Loretta Humble/Around the Town

Good morning from Cedar Lake Nursing Home. I woke up this morning feeling the best physically I’ve felt in a long time. My knee feels stiff, but no pain. Of course I’m still taking pain medicine, which helps with that, but which may also explain why this column doesn’t make sense if it doesn’t.

First of all I have to tell you the folks taking care of me at Cedar Lake Nursing Home are some of the best people in the world. I love these guys. They are unfailingly kind and cheerful. They watch my incision like a hawk, they carefully give me just enough drugs and not too many. They cook good food, they give good baths, they keep the building shiny clean and in excellent repair, they find my stuff when I lose it, they give me lots of activities opportunities, (which so far I haven’t availed myself of)and they relentlessly push me to make more and more progress on that knee.

The only problem I see with them is their compulsion to wake me up in the middle of the night to see how I’m doing. I’m always doing fine. Looks like they would get the picture and let it go at that.

But the Spine and Joint Hospital folks did the same thing. I guess that is a common failing of places like this.

I really do love it here. I’m very proud to be a part the history of this place. I may just stay. Seriously.

Even after my goals are met and Medicare and Blue Cross don’t see any reason to pay for me, I may just hang out, like I’m on a retreat or something. We have an extra room right now, and I don’t eat a lot. I’d try not to be much trouble. I just want to be still and think about things for a while before–and if–I get back into my previously complicated life.

In June I’ll be 76. I sure don’t feel that old. I am extremely healthy. And when this knee gets plumb well, I’ll be better than I’ve been in probably 20  years. I’m thinking if I play my cards right I can have at least another ten years in nearly as good a shape as I am now. These ten years could be the best ones of my life. I could do some good, maybe undo some of the messes I’ve help make, and even have a few adventures.

Bringing “O’Keeffe!” to Malakoff was one of the most rewarding things I’ve been involved in in a long time. Hanging out with the artists and letting our imaginations run loose was wonderful fun. And watching people who don’t usually talk to one another much get together on this project was something else great. I want to help bring more art and fun to Malakoff. That is one thing for my bucket list. I’m pretty sure I’ll add some more.

I’m seeing this rehab time as a break between all the years I’ve already lived and this bonus part, letting me rest up for what could turn out to be the best time yet.

By Michael V. Hannigan

A Malakoff Tiger fan posted the Tigers’ 2014 football schedule on the Henderson County Now page. Here are four thoughts I had.

1. This is the first time through this schedule. After realignment, the Tigers now play in District 11-3A (Division I), which includes: Malakoff, Elkhart, Eustace, Kemp, Palestine Westwood and Teague.

2. I cheered when I checked out who the Tigers will play on the road this year. The farthest trip is to Elkhart on Oct. 17, which mapquest says is about 52 miles from Malakoff. That means no road trip this year over an hour.

3. The Tigers will face Daingerfield in a big Sept. 5 non-district matchup in Malakoff. They say you get better by facing tough competition in your non-district lineup, which Malakoff Coach Jamie Driskell surely believes. Daingerfield was a state quarterfinalist last season and is a perennial powerhouse.

4. October is the important month for Malakoff as far as getting into the playoffs. The Tigers will play four of their five district games in the month.

By Loretta Humble/Around the Town

My knee has been replaced, and I am home! Cedar Lake Nursing Home, that is, for a week or two of rehab. And this is just about as much home to me as my house, as it has been a huge part of my life since 1967. People, that is 47 years! Sonny, our 56-year-old administrator, was 9 years old when we got Cedar Lake. It boasted 30 beds, and consisted of the area next door that is now the Rehab gym and offices. It stopped where the fire doors are now. Each of those wings was added on later. We got this place with no money down, because we had no money. Just a lot of notes. And we didn’t have any other jobs to support us, and even those 30 beds were not all filled. If we’d had good sense, we wouldn’t have stuck our necks out on a risky venture like this. But I am so glad we did. It turned out just fine.

The main reason it turned out so fine was waiting for us when we got here. Her name was Charlene Abbe then, though its Owen now. She had way more than her share of common sense and old fashioned caring, and she was and is, a praying woman. She was fresh out of LVN school, and working the evening shift, but was already running the facility for Dr. Joe, who had built it for his son, Sam, who had other things in mind to do with his life. I’m thinking things could have turned out a whole lot differently if Charlene hadn’t been there with us every step of the way, helping us grow Cedar Lake into a place to be really proud of.

Then there was this nurse aide, Stella Tolliver, another woman of exception common sense and good will. They became not just trusted employees, but the family’s best friends as well. There were plenty of other excellent people there in the beginning, who worked with us for years, then retired or passed on, but those two are still going strong, and who still own my tremendous love and gratitude. In fact, Charlene came to see me yesterday, and she has already called Stella, and we are going to get together and do our annual memory-reliving session while I am a patient here.

This is probably real disjointed. I started to skip my column this week, as pain meds are keeping me slightly tipsy, and I don’t want to say anything much dumber than I usually do. But I wanted to let you know I made it, and that it looks like the surgery is going to turn out great. I’ve had some discomfort, but not all that much. They keep asking me “on a scale of 1 to 10…?” But I have no idea what a 10 would be like; I just know I haven’t got anywhere near to that. I’ve had plenty of visitors who have bought me everything I need and they’ve even bought me some of the best CBD oil UK to help the swelling go down and help me rest and sleep better.

Doug Humble Jr., Sonny’s dad and still co-owner of the nursing home, honored us with one of his rare visits today. We were sitting out front at the nursing home, because that was the only way we could get our cell phones to work, when all of the sudden Lola Mae Kitchens walked up. It took us a while to recognize one another, but all finally agreed we are actually holding up pretty well. Kitchens, as we always called her, was always a big cut up, and a great nurse. I remember her as a trim, feisty little thing in her white nurse dress and cap. Actually, at nearly eighty, she is still a trim, feisty little thing. She reminded me she was working at the nursing home when Doug and I and our three small kids first showed up.

She said she always told people we didn’t know a bedpan from a doorknob. I don’t think she was totally right about that. We knew what a doorknob was. We got in, didn’t we?