Social Life
Research shows that seniors who stay active and social experience better health, faster healing and a greater sense of well being. We encourage friendship and fellowship by creating warm gathering spaces, activities to exercise the mind and body and plenty of occasions to celebrate. We also welcome visits from family and friends and encourage participation and involvement in our community.
Our on-site Activities Director coordinates a variety of activities and monthly outings based on our residents’ interests, including:
- Musical entertainment
- Special holiday celebrations and meals
- Summer cookouts
- Exercise programs
- Arts and crafts
- Bingo
- Euchre and bridge games
- Cooking
- Daily happy hour
- Outings to local restaurants, shops, museums, musicals and more
- Holiday shopping, including arts and craft fairs
It was a beautiful summer day when Nancy Schaub and her beloved husband moved into Highgrove at Tates Creek, a senior community providing personal living support for successful aging. The experience changed her life and gave her a colorful experience in later living.
In the cinema room at Highgrove, within earshot of fellow residents socializing, Barbara Mabry shared about her decision to reside at High Grove. Barbara explained that as she started to need additional assistance, she did not want to depend on her children or grandchildren. So, she and her husband, Charlton, decided to move to a community that would be there to support them. While the initial reason to move to High Grove was for support, since joining the community, Barbara continues to pursue her life-long passions.
Frank Lewis was born and raised with his twin brother in Broad Ripple, Indiana. After completing his undergraduate degree at Indiana University, Frank continued his education for an additional three years at Maurer School of Law in Bloomington, Indiana. Frank was admitted to the bar in 1965 when he began his career working as a deputy for John J. Dillon, the Attorney General of Indiana. During this time, Frank gained a great deal of courtroom experience as he tried eminent domain cases before a jury. In 1967, he began working for Public Service Indiana. Frank practiced there for fifty-one years, focusing on corporate law, litigation, and finance. After leaving Public Service Indiana in 1994, Frank was asked to serve as a consultant to the company and continued to fulfill this role through 2017.
“My life maybe wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be,” Mrs. Doris Hendeles said at the beginning of our conversation, “but life is not totally easy. It just happens.” It was very clear that there was a common theme around Doris’s life, a passion if you will, that was able to overshadow the just-happens-ness of life: the importance of education.
When you think about a traditional “assisted living” location, it is easy to miss the smallest detail that may mean the most to the people who call it home. Highgrove at Tates Creek encourages their residents to maintain their independence, keep their mind sharp and their body in shape. For this wonderful opportunity, I chose to interview Margie Stopher, whom most people call “Nana.” I met Miss Margie years ago, but I had not seen her since she moved to Highgrove about four months ago. What I realized once I got there was that Highgrove was more than just a traditional facility that houses people who can no longer be on their own, it was a place that offered independence and various activities for everyone. Margie had such a vision of independence while she was showing me around and I could tell she was so proud to be a resident of Highgrove.
Wanda Brown was not born as Wanda Brown. Well, at least not if you ask her 1940 birth certificate, on which her mother’s lilting Arkansas accent (the same accent that Wanda carries today, turning “washing” to “warshing” and everyday furniture to “a Chester drawers”) caused a
Maxine McGuire and her dog, Gracie, are two of the newest residents at Highgrove at Tates Creek. Living on the third floor, they have been working hard to adjust to making their new apartment home. I had the pleasure of meeting them both on November 8, 2018. Maxine did admit she was a bit nervous for her first ever interview, but we managed to have a wonderful evening getting to know each other.
Whether young or old, this world can feel lonely and dark. The quick pace of traffic, the stress-driven work life, or the absence of close friends and family can leave many feeling more like a number than a human. The song lyrics above suggest that matching younger generations with older generations may be a way to help pierce through the darkness of perceived insignificance while inspiring perseverance even when physical, emotional or psychological obstacles present themselves. The bottom line is that each of us need all of us – from every generation, and it was an absolute pleasure to be able to meet and spend time with Miss Sarah McRady – spending time with her is always a reason to celebrate.
I met Rose Marie Farrah at Highgrove as she was collecting her mail. She eagerly showed me her big wad of mail and said “see all of this fan mail? I get it every day!” From that point on, I knew I would be speaking with a local celebrity. Rose began to show me around her home, showing me the terrace, and the deck that she explained was too cold to use right now. I asked her where she was from and if she was married, and she mentioned it would be a long story and motioned for us to sit down in a couple of chairs in the lobby area. I sat with Rose for two hours before we parted ways.
A man who lives by the phrase “I’ve never met anybody I didn’t like,” Lynn Stone embodies a hard worker, good friend, loving husband, and compassionate father. Born in 1925, Albert “Lynn” Stone grew up the youngest of two in Long Beach, California. As the child of a Ford lineman and a school cafeteria worker in a less affluent family, Lynn explains that “it wasn’t too bad,” because they were still able to enjoy their life and hobbies. Although his family couldn’t afford vacations, he thoroughly enjoyed spending days fishing along the ocean and following the New York Yankees. He dreamed of becoming a baseball player because of his love for the sport. Lynn had an older sister and, although they weren’t the closest of siblings, they got along as best they could for siblings three years apart.
Earlier this week, I had the privilege to meet El and Betty Kemper, who have lived at Highgrove for over a year and a half. El and Betty, both eighty-nine years old, met at the electrical manufacturing company in the Chicago area where they worked. Betty was an administrative assistant to the CEO and El eventually worked his way up to Senior Corporate Vice-President. Both were in their 40s and had recently lost their spouse.
Joyce Smiley, a Somerset native, has been at Highgrove for a few months to recover from a series of surgeries in her leg and hip. Unfortunately, one day when attending a University of Kentucky ball game, the car she was in drove off before she was completely out of the car, causing her to break several bones in her leg. Due to this she came to Highgrove in Lexington to receive rehabilitation services until she was healed enough to live independently once again. I had the pleasure of interviewing Joyce and learning more about her time at Highgrove as well as her life in Kentucky. Joyce is 81 years young and has been a teacher for a majority of her life but is now retired. She achieved her educational goals at Eastern Kentucky University where she obtained her bachelors and master’s degrees in education. Joyce loved her job and the lives she effected by being a home economics teacher for a majority of her career and to this day recalls the amazing years she had as a teacher.
The year is 1929, the first year of the Great Depression, and also the year that Helen Ecton was born. Living on a farm in rural Bourbon County, people were poor, life was difficult, and there was a lot of work to be done. Helen, the seventh of eight children, was not exempt from the chores on the farm, especially after her father and brother were drafted into World War II. It is a common misconception in today’s society that back in the early 20th century, the men took care of the farm and everything outside, while the women typically cared for everything indoors. However according to Helen, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Her parents relied on each and every one of the children, including the daughters, to tend to the farm and all of the animals on it.
1929. This year holds historical significance for the United States in many ways, but most notably, it was the year Ethel Warren Lackey was born.
A young war veteran and civil engineer working on the first transcontinental highway (Lincoln Highway) was moving his way across the country in the 1920’s when, “He got as far as Utah and met my mom,” Ms. Gene says laughing, with a look of deep and fond reminiscence on her face. This is where the awe-inspiring life of Genevieve Van Buskirk begins.
When I met Pricilla, I first noticed her natural beauty and gentle demeanor. Before I arrived at Highgrove, I was told that Pricilla has Alzheimer’s Disease and that it might be difficult to start and continue conversation, but it was evident within the first minutes of our meeting that our discussion was going to be the exact opposite. I thought I would start slow with a brief introduction of myself and why I was meeting with her not pushing for any information, but she was eager to begin, “So what do you want to ask me?”, she giggled.
Marvin, a resident of Highgrove at Tates Creek, is an accomplished husband, father, grandfather, and scholar. While Marvin was born in Michigan, he has lived in Illinois, New York, and Tennessee, before finally deciding to settle down in Lexington, KY. He is a proud graduate of Calvin College and the University of Illinois; it was at the latter where he earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1961. Marvin found his passion in a topic that terrifies most college students: Physical Chemistry (or P-Chem), which focuses on how known reactions occur. Marvin enjoyed many years of employment in the physical chemistry field. Marvin worked at the renowned Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a multi-program science and technology national laboratory sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. It is the largest science and energy national laboratory in the Department of Energy system by size and is famous not only for its founding purpose, pioneering research in nuclear energy (and then nuclear medicine), but also a range of other cutting-edge domains.