Living at Lakeside News

McKENZIE (July 31) — Nine residents celebrated birthdays in July, right alongside America celebrating her 250th birthday. Those residents were Charles Garner, Betty Grimble, Anne Isom, Lonnelle McMillen, Peggy Luther, Thomas Crawford, Elbert Hatley, Phyllis Maddox and Marjorie Evans — who is our oldest resident, turning 99 this year. We wish them all many more years. Sadly, we bid farewell to Mr. Jimmy Wright and Mrs. Imogene Brasfield. May they rest in peace.

We visited the McKenzie Church of Christ for dinner and a firework show, and it didn’t disappoint. There was a huge array of food and a show that rivaled any surrounding towns. The members of the church were so accommodating, making sure we had everything we needed and even setting up a sitting area for perfect viewing. We appreciate Bro. Chance Steen and his church for including us in this event each year.

We had a few other outings along with our usual weekly visit to the Hometown Clinic Breakfast Club and our Errand Day stops. We visited the Weakley County Health Fair and Luncheon hosted by the Dresden Senior Center. We gathered information about resources for seniors, were given loads of free goodies, had a wonderful lunch and had two lucky raffle winners: Mary Ann Melton won a beautiful glass hummingbird feeder and a bottle of nectar food, and Julie Garner won a mug filled with sweet candies. We had an enjoyable evening in the park as we attended the Nights on Broadway performance, and on National Fortune Cookie Day, we had lunch at the local Chinese restaurant. At the end we all opened our cookies and read our fortunes aloud.

We were blessed to have visits from some local reps who came with games and prizes for our residents. Becky Yates with Cherrywood Post Acute played the America's Birthday Cake Candle game, and Carrie Christian did a variety of trivia with a live auction with coins won from correct answers. Sarah and Catilyn from Baptist Hospital came and did an exercise program as a follow-up to their talk last month regarding heart health. A sweet lady who had just recently moved to McKenzie stopped by to donate a lap quilt she had made celebrating the Fourth of July and the 250th year of America. We played some patriotic games on the fourth and gave the quilt away to Carol French, a winner of a right-left story. We also had two visits from Overflow Church.

A group came on their community service day. The youth did chalk art on our walkway and then came in and did music with residents. A Sunday School group came on a beautiful Sunday afternoon and handed out fresh flowers for the residents to enjoy. We had a very special volunteer to visit us for our Christmas in July party that was actually a surprise party for our wonderful director, Cris Stafford. Santa and Mrs. Claus, a.k.a. Joey and Tena Gooch, came in with Santa's red bag containing birthday gifts and Mrs. Claus pushing a cake. It was a fun surprise. Santa also brought his Naughty/Nice Meter, and let’s just say we have a few that need to do some work. HAHA. We then played a game of Christmas Family Feud. The winning team was Sue Smith, Eloise Bumgardner, Carol French and Robbie Adams. Each lady won some cold hard cash. Santa was the host; Cris Stafford our judge; and Grace Stafford and Sheila Willis were production. We finished this fun day with photos by our summer Christmas-themed tree.

Each year, the residents have a community service project. From this event, we buy school supplies and donate them to the local elementary school. This year we held a Pop-Up Farmers Market. We had a variety of fruits and vegetables and some country-themed home décor items for sale. Within just a couple of hours, we were all sold out and had raised a little over $300. We took our money and bought a variety of items from the school supply list. Tonya Brown, principal at McKenzie Elementary, came by and picked the items up saying she was sure all the items would be put to good use and would be very helpful.

We ended the month with an afternoon of games we called the Jellybean Challenge, as it was National Jellybean Day. A bag of jellybeans is full of sweet and tart flavors, all different colors and a slight varying of shapes. Our Lakeside home is like that as well: a group of wonderful seniors who have come from different locations all with varying careers and professions, each with personalities and traits that make them special and unique, and we get to celebrate them each and every day.

Until next time….