The Kendaliers

Good news – Kendal at Granville is no longer without a choir! On the evening of December 19, with a program of traditional Christmas music, the Kendaliers made their debut. They are a nine-member chorus comprised entirely of Kendal residents. The enthusiasm of the standing-room only crowd showed that the community appreciated the group's efforts, and the singers themselves said how pleased they were to have been given an opportunity to return to the hobby of choral singing they had once so much enjoyed. While it's not clear whether the Kendaliers will become a fixture on the Kendal scene, there's little doubt that many residents have been reminded of the lure of choral singing, and so it's likely that other efforts and experiments will soon follow.

The founder and director of the Kendaliers is Teddy Westlake. Having just retired from careers in which she directed both church choirs and community choirs – and a fine keyboardist as well – Teddy realized that she had talents to offer to her fellow residents. From her work as the guiding spirit of the Vintage Voices, Granville's community choir for seniors, she is familiar with the vocal limitations that adults in the seventies and eighties might experience, and she knows how to coax spirited and enjoyable performances out of mature vocal cords. She recruited her singers early in the fall and scheduled one-hour weekly rehearsals during which they learned to blend their voices, listen to each other, and overcome their discouragement that they might no longer have the resonant voices and vocal control that they recalled having had when thirty years younger. She also recruited two talented and non-senior singers, Sandy Wolfe (who works in our Wellness Center) and her daughter Brittany, to perform solos and duets.

The event was held in the large entrance hallway of Kendal at Granville, decked out with traditional seasonal trappings. The program celebrated Christmas, with choral settings of familiar carols and solo performances of reverential pieces, interspersed with a narrative telling of the Christmas story. Afterwards, the community joined with the chorus in singing Christmas songs of all sorts – the lively, the quiet, the rollicking, and the soaring. Several audience members enlivened the occasion by supplying, when appropriate, an aural backdrop of sleigh bells.

When the evening was over, everyone felt warmth about the occasion and gratitude toward Teddy – for her vision, her labors, her generosity. Moreover, the comments that have been making the rounds in the days after the concert suggest that there is a genuine appetite for more choral opportunities and performances at Kendal. Let's hope the Kendaliers have a future.

Better Late than Never

I planned to write this the day before Thanksgiving, but as so often happens in our lives in the words of  Robert Burns “The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.”   All sorts of things conspired to keep me from following my plans until today.  So here I am at last able to reflect on what there was and is to be thankful about my life here at Kendal at Granville.  One real big thing for me in connection with thanks giving is the very special way in which the Thanksgiving Dinner is handled here.

Our meal is served from eleven to three that day making it possible for us to eat a very leisurely meal.  The menu is fabulous.  So much so that when someone asked my daughter-in-law where she was going for Thanksgiving Dinner and she said she was going to eat with her mother-in-law who lived at a CCRC, and that person said, "Oh that's too bad," my daughter-in-law replied, "Oh no, it's a wonderful place to eat for Thanksgiving, we love the food there. It was our choice to eat there instead of at home.' The fact that my family which includes my son, his wife and two sons - one just beginning college and one a sophomore in high school,  all of whom like to come here so we can enjoy the meal together has a lot to do with making it something I'm very thankful for.

Our menu offered two soups - one a wonderful crab and corn chowder and the other a delicious roasted butternut squash soup.  In addition to the usual mixed greens salad with assorted dressings there were four special salads - broccoli cole slaw, a fresh fruit salad, lemon Seven Up salad and a tomato avocado salad.  The main entrees consisted of honey glazed ham, baked filet of sole with seafood stuffing and white wine sauce, and the traditional roast turkey.  My daughter-in-law told me the sole was really scrumptious and from the number of helpings my son and grandsons had of the ham I know it hit the spot. The sides included mashed potatoes, praline sweet potato casserole, corn bread stuffing, green bean casserole, creamed pearl onions, and cranberry sauce. Of course, there was plenty of gravy.   My daughter-in-law also told me that the sweet potato casserole was very tasty.

 As if all that were not enough for desser we had a wide assortment of pies and cakes crowned  with a luscious chocolate cherry cobbler and warm bread pudding with caramel sauce.   As always cookies and ice cream and assorted beverages were on hand.  Who could ask for anything more?

One of the nice things that the dining department does is check ahead of time to see who has family coming.  Tables are then set up and reserved so that when a family comes in they can be seated together without a great deal of rearranging of tables to get all of the family together.  There are also dining personnel available to help those who need assistance and to keep the tables cleared of used dishes.

Oops I almost forgot to mention that the dining room also makes sure that the tables are set with tablecloths and special cloth napkins.  In addition the dining room is decorated so that you don't feel like it's an institution but a very special dining spot suitable for a family gathering.  Add i tall up and you can see that the Dining Department is one for which I am very grateful here at Kendal

The many other things I'm thankful for here at Kendal are the convenience of housekeeping and maintenance services, drivers to take us to medical appointments, the caring staff, and the chance to live with a community of people who believe in the Kendal values.

Reading Rocks at the Library

Retired seniors famously fill the ranks of the nation's volunteers. They are the ones who often have free time, and since many want to be useful to their community and are therefore importuned to give of this time, they may well find themselves confronted with the need to make choices. Should I do this? or this? or maybe this?

Recently an opportunity came Kendal's way that many residents jumped at. Volunteers were needed for a program aimed at encouraging kids from disadvantaged families in the nearby Newark school system to imagine that a college education might be a real possibility for them. Here was a project with a clear and undeniably good goal, and so Kendal residents quickly enlisted – so many of them, in fact, that the list of volunteers soon exceeded the number of slots! This could well be the start of a grand and enduring partnership!

The background of the program is this. Some years ago, in an effort to increase the proportion of Newark high school graduates who go on to college, a support program named A Call to College was created. Its founders initially targeted just high school students, but soon decided that if the twin tasks of encouragement and enablement were to be fulfilled, earlier interventions were needed. And so in recent years the program has developed strategies for getting kids as young as second grade interested in, if not college itself (a rather foggy notion to a 7-year-old), then in READING. The plan is called Reading Rocks at the Library, and its aim is to get these youngsters into the public library – many didn't even know such a thing existed – and for them to have opportunities to engage with adults there whose words and lives and enthusiasm can validate the value of books in the opening up of opportunities. Kendal volunteers, living testaments to the values of reading, were asked to step into the role of the validating adults.

Social scientists will tell us that it's much too soon to know whether the strategy of Reading Rocks will have an impact. It will probably take ten or fifteen years before the results can be fully measured. But the Kendal volunteers, savvy in the ways of their young grandchildren, report that their own experiences with the program give them grounds for optimism. They also report that have been having a rollicking good time. After all, who wouldn't have fun walking among a gang of eager and happy seven-year-olds while sporting an odd hat or two, maybe teaching a few words in a foreign language, perhaps showing off a fancifully-attired doll or a gorgeous book, sometimes sharing photos of a childhood from long ago, and inevitably answering a staggering set of questions from primed and curious kids (e.g., did the navy make you bald?)? Art Linkletter never had more fun.

It is probably important to their success with the kids that these volunteers bring a number of different career backgrounds to their service – a counselor, a nurse, a small business owner, an athletic director, a writer, a service veteran. But it is more important that they can answer questions about their lives and (since they're a clever bunch) find ways to link these answers to their living testimony about the importance of books in the shaping of their lives.

Many people have observed how retired folks often draw pleasure and energy from seeing the young disport themselves. Through the Reading Rocks at the Library program Kendal residents are hoping that the young in turn can draw pleasure and a more focused energy from seeing seniors romp as a result of being able to read.

Above and Beyond

One of the blessings of living at Kendal is the manner in which our staff members go above and beyond to meet our needs and to make our life easier.  Just last week I saw an outstanding example of this as one of the maintenance men worked to install a new washer/dryer combo in my apartment.  Actually not a brand new one, but one that would better meet my needs.

It all began at one of the annual meetings which administrative staff hold with residents to discuss our concerns regarding Kendal services.  These small group sessions allow us to share with administration our concerns and to make suggestions about changes we would like to see in the services available to us.  Over the five years that I have lived here the outcomes of these sessions have proven to me how sincere our administration and staff members are in trying to make this a great place to live.  During the course of one discussion I learned that I could ask to have the washer/dryer combo in my apartment changed to one that would make it easier for me to see and operate the controls.

The standard issue washer/dryer combos have the controls at the top.  When you are as short as I am which is under four feet ten,  you can't see the top of the control where the On indicator is located.  If you are lucky, you get it right on your first try at turning the washer on.  More often than not you end up making several frustrating attempts before succeeding  unless you go get a step stool to stand on it so you can see the control.  That's a bit of a nuisance since there is no convenient place to keep the step stool near the washer/dryer.  So I was pleased to receive word that the maintenance department had a machine with controls located below the dryer ready to install in my apartment.

It so happened that I was confined to my apartment that day because I had a very bad head cold.   From where I was sitting in my living room I could see what was happening as the exchange of machines took place.  As I watched I realized how much above and beyond the call of ordinary work the installer had to go.  First  there was the difficult job of getting the old one out of the cubby hole in the bathroom where it was.  After managing to wiggle it out and disconnect it and remove it to wherever it went, the replacement washer/dryer was brought in. 

Now the real fun began.  The installer had to get behind it in that small space unlit by direct light so that he could make the necessary connections to power and water.  And they had to be exactly right or it wouldn't work or there might be floods or who knows maybe even worse as you read the warnings about the dangers of fire from improperly installed exhausts.  The next step was to push the washer/dryer combo partially back into the space with only  inches to spare on all sides except the front.  At one point when I looked up all I could see were the feet and legs of the installer as he lay on top of the dryer reaching over the back to finish making the connections.  It was then quite obvious to me just how far above and beyond these fellows go for us at times.

As he was leaving my apartment I thanked him for installing the washe/dryer. I told him that I did appreciate the fact that it would now be much easier for me to do my washing and commented that I couldn't help noticing what extraordinary maneuvering it took to do the job. His matter of fact response was that they called that "the belly roll"  which indicated to me that they just take that sort of thing in stride as a part of what they do for us routinely. I call it going "above and beyond" when you have to crawl up on top of a washer/dryer combo and hang over the top in a space that is just big enough to accomodate the equipment being installed. 

And this is but one example of the sort of thing that our staff does that is above and beyond.
Consider staying over night when there is a storm so they will be sure to be here the next morning to make breakfast.  Or taking meals to cottages and villas when the weather makes trips to the community building treacherous.  Or the time a few years ago when we had a power outage that lasted for several days, the housekeeping staff came around and helped us deal with the problems created by the food that was thawing in our refrigerators.  Need I say more?   Kendal is a great place to live because of a staff that takes going "above and beyond" as a matter of routine.

Latest Book Group Event

Kendal Book Group had a really exciting meeting today! Our discussion of three short stories by Anton Chekov was led by Dr. Carol Apollonio who is a professor of Russian Literature at Duke University. This is the third time she has been kind enough to enlighten us on some difficult and beautiful literature. Carol is the daughter of a Kendal resident so we have kind of an "in" which allows us this privilege. The group's assignment was to read three short stories by Chekov.

Some of us thought the stories, "Rothchild's Violin", "Lady with the Dog", and "In the Cart", depressing and pointless. Carol explained that an engaging plot is not always necessary, that a story can be told for other reasons, and that we can enjoy vivid descriptions, find hidden symbolism, and learn about the history and issues of the day. So we had a good discussion about the fact that plot is not always the basis of good writings, and that sometimes in a good book or story, it seems as if "nothing happens."

Two years ago our assignment was to read "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky which was hundreds of pages and very difficult to plod through because the story was about a dysfunctional man who lived in poverty before the revolution. Last year we read "Anna Karenina" by Tolstoy which was easier to read because of the romance and the social life of the upper class. We always find it amazing when Carol uncovers for us meanings we would never have found on our own.

Next month we will read "Unbroken", a true story about World War II, as told by Laura Hillendbrand. We hope that the two men in our book group who fought in that war will enlighten us. So far, our group of twenty or so, have read sixty- some books over the past five years and look forward to more. We occasionally have a local professor to help us understand but mostly we just rely on each other's understanding. We have a good time!

Eloise

Never Too Old to Learn

Hedda von Goeben with Students in Ceramic Lab

This summer we saw a unique example of the application of the value expressed in this quote from a past Kendal Corporation  annual report, "The Kendal idea fosters the integration of continuing learning in all aspects of community life and work for residents, staff, and board members."  One way through which Kendal communities work to fulfill this value is to form links with local educational facilities.  This particular Kendal has been linked closely with Denison University in Granville since its inception.  Many of our residents are Denison graduates and some taught or worked there in other capacities.  Many of the speakers who provide programs for us are Denison faculty members.  Their art department has provided student art for shows in our Art Gallery.

Denison offers a Community Scholars program which grants persons 30 years of age or older the privilege of taking one course per semester as an auditor for a nominal fee.   Various residents have taken advantage of this program from time to time in the six years since Kendal at Granville opened.  What we saw happen this summer involves  one of those persons in particular, Hedda von Goeben.   The availability of the Community Scholars program was one of the reasons she chose to move here from her home in Connecticut.  Hedda came here with a lifelong love of art which over the years had developed into an extensive knowledge and understanding of a wide variety of art forms.   As soon as she moved here in the summer of 2005 she registered at Denison for any class in the art department with an opening for a Community Scholar.  She began with sculpture, then went into a class for life drawing, followed by a year of printmaking and painting and finally after waiting four years an opening appeared in her favorite - a ceramics class! 

In September 2010  upon the occasion of a show in entitled "One Thing Led to Another" in the Bryant Art  at Denison she wrote, "One thing has led to another and I have already registed for my eleventh semester in the Denison art department."   Residents here who were familiar with her work admired her creations and were therefore delighted to learn that this summer something new and different would be offered through the Denison art department.  Hedda would be given the opportunity to lead a class for fellow residents during the summer when students were off campus.  Thus the student became the teacher.

The class filled quickly with ten persons, all new to the study of ceramics with the exception of one who told me she had not done any work with ceramics for fifty years.  The class met from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. for ten days.  One of the class members commented to me that they had a "wonderful time working together and getting to know each other better".  An exhibit of their works with a reception was held on the last day of class.  Everyone who came from the exhibit told the rest of us who couldn't make it that their creations were fabulous.

Fortunately, as the person responsible for our display cabinet I was able to get them to share their creations with us for the month of September.  I have also learned that they are looking forward to repeating their experience once again in January when the Denison students are again off campus. Obviously we are never too old to learn.  See samples of displays from original exhibit below.

 

Our August Seminar on Drinking

Guest speakers are a regular feature of evening life at Kendal. They come to share their ideas and lives with us, and they arrive representing all sorts of interests and backgrounds. Just this past year, for example, our roster of speakers has included business people, educators, local historians, collectors, poets, hobbyists, directors of philanthropic organizations, story tellers, physicians, and travelers. They acquaint us with facets of our world that our daily conversations with friends, our viewing of television, our reading, and our web-surfing are not likely to leave us informed about. And we recognize this. That's why it's not surprising that these evening talks, usually lasting an hour or so (including Q&A), are widely attended.

Part of the attractiveness of the speakers' program is that it isn't thematic. Speakers are scheduled as their availability allows. Consequently, one guest might talk of a school for clowns, the next about the origins of the universe, and a third about genealogical research. We don't get in a rut. Across the course of a year there's something for almost everybody. But sometimes something surprising happens, an unplanned linkage occurs, and unexpectedly we have . . . a seminar!

That's what happened earlier this month when, within the space of a little more than a week, two speakers, quite unknown to each other and without any prior planning, told us about beverages – with particular attention to alcoholic beverages. The result was a conversation among a number of residents about the character and implications of American drinking habits.

The first speaker, a chemist by training, told us about the importance of water for human life (no startling news there, of course!) and then identified the six major ways in which humans have made water more potable and tasty. The earliest device, perhaps as much as 10,000 years old, was beer, with wine coming along several thousand years later. Distilled beverages followed, and then arrived coffee, tea, and . . . yes . . . soft drinks. As he guided us on this historical excursion, our speaker enlivened the evening with anecdotes, forays into molecular structures (he had some building-block models to pass around), and bottled samples of his subjects. He gave us an information-packed hour of fun and instruction, and by the time it was over we all had a fuller sense of how the marvelous ingenuity of our forebears has supplied our own era with such a formidable array of beverages to choose from when we want to quench our thirsts.

Unlike this first speaker, our second speaker, who was an anthropologist by training, came with a policy purpose. A student of the drinking cultures of several continents, he hoped to persuade us that this country could be wiser in its choice of policies to address the problem of alcohol abuse. Again we heard amusing tales – but this time of African workers celebrating at the end of a long day of labor and of American college administrators coping with student resistance to under-age drinking laws. Again anecdotes enlivened the presentation, but they were chosen in part to challenge the assumption that rigorous anti-drinking laws are the best way for a society to address the harm that comes from excessive alcohol consumption.

Both talks were followed by lively (but never heated) discussions, as residents sought more information or clarifications from the speakers, or chose to speak of events in their own lives that bore on the subjects of the talks. The only element missing in our unplanned "classroom" experience was the opportunity to see the two speakers on-stage together, discussing (with us as participants, of course) the character of drinking in America. But even without such a fantasy face-off (and perhaps "face-off" is the wrong term: for all I know, they would have agreed on most points), we had contrived to create for ourselves a summer seminar. Those of us who attended the presentations are wiser for the experience.