There are many reasons I love living at Meadowlark Hills: friendly residents and staff; easy access to friends in a variety of levels of care; excellent food services; exercise classes; Meadowlark...
Early Automobiles
January 16, 2025
Blog
My mother and father, Conrad and Laurene Erickson, moved to Meadowlark from Autumn Wood, a retirement community in Lincoln, Neb., in 1997. They had moved to Lincoln from their farm near Wahoo, Neb. about 10 years earlier. I don’t think Autumn Wood had the level of care that Meadowlark has, so my brother encouraged them to move here.
“Great sale. Good customer service.”
“Everyone was sweet and helpful.”
“The ladies there are very pleasant and helpful. Thanks!”
“Friendly people!”
It’s the holiday season – a time for good tidings and grateful hearts. At Meadowlark Market, the merry and magic associated with Christmas appear to be experienced year-round. The comments above were sent to the Market team by customers during the past several months, and at least one frequent shopper and one Market volunteer echo these sentiments.
More than 1 million visitors are expected to visit Grapevine, Texas, (population 50,981) during its annual Christmas Capital of Texas celebration, and the Meadowlark Travelers were 38 of that number on Dec. 6 and 7, ready to experience some Texas-size fun. In addition to tour leaders Becky Fitzgerald and Monte Spiller, our group was composed of residents, Passport members, and family members.
Earlier this year, I attended the celebration-of-life service for an old friend. Hazel had died at age 103, but I first met her in 1943 when she was a young married woman and I was a 12-year-old new in town. Her passing meant the shuttering of yet another window through which I once could see “way back when.” The last living person who knew me during my childhood.
There once was a time when the order of my day included playing with my buddies, fighting with my sister (13 months younger), wishing mightily that this fourth year of grade school were over, doing a couple of assigned farm chores, and putting off homework as long as possible. That arithmetic workbook was the sinkhole of my existence.
I have a confession to make. I don’t like Halloween, and I never have. Even as a kid in the Chicago suburbs, it was not a big deal for me. It was a day to get through. Oh, I participated in the school parties, school parade, and trick-or-treat time in the evening, but I never got excited about it like some kids did.
Kelley Boland’s beaded designs are doing more than catching sunlight. They are catching much attention wherever they are displayed.
Such was the case at August’s Empowered LIVE!, an annual event to empower persons living with Parkinson’s Disease to celebrate life and stay engaged. Boland, a newer member of the Young Onset group supported by Meadowlark Parkinson’s Program, was one of several VIPDs showing off their handiwork and hobbies at the LIVE! gathering, held prior to the Speedy PD Race for Parkinson’s Disease.
A recent late September hike along Meadowlark trails quickly confirmed the obvious: our campus biology is sliding full bore into fall—a wonderful time to be out, moving slowly, or sitting quietly, and watching the changes going on all around. Leaves are dying, preparing to drop, and changing colors as they do. Soil and water microbes and fungi soon will begin the large scale digestion of those leaves into their constituent minerals and chemical compounds.
Oink! Now that the calendar has flipped to October, temperatures are cooling, but activities to benefit Meadowlark Foundation are heating up. It’s HOGTOBERFEST season, and here are a few squeal-worthy announcements!
No. 1 – The 11th annual HOGTOBERFEST, an awareness and fundraising event to benefit Meadowlark Foundation’s Good Samaritan Fund, is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 25!
No. 2 – You asked for it, and you got it! Meadowlark’s Prairie Star Restaurant and Event Venue is once again this year’s celebration location!
The music has faded, and the confetti swept away, as we close out the sweet 16th Annual Speedy PD Race for Parkinson’s Disease. We kicked off the party on Friday evening at the Holiday Inn at the Campus for Empowered Live!: An Evening to Celebrate Living Well with Parkinson’s. Guests enjoyed a delicious dinner buffet and viewed the creative talents of our VIPDs (Very Important People with Parkinson’s Disease) before learning more about Lee Silverman Voice Treatment therapies from Kathleen Depperschmidt, Speech Language Pathologist.