WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

March 29, 2018

Hi everyone - sent the last blog the day before Easter almost a month ago.  We were in Livingston, Texas to spend a month volunteering at a CARE Center where the residents live in their campers.

Gary and Steph Vogel were only an hour away in Liberty, Texas working on rebuilding a church that was ruined last August by Hurricane Harvey.  The church was being rededicated Easter morning and they invited us down to attend the service and then to join the rest of their volunteer friends from Mappers for an Easter potluck.

I wish I had some pictures of before and after the Mappers worked on this church.  They did an absolutely beautiful job - most of the group being there for over 4 months!!

The Wrights and the Vogel's Easter morning

A wall that Gary and Steph built - is that beautiful or what?

This is the outside of the CARE Center where we served this month.  We worked two days on and two days off.  On work days we basically did whatever the residents needed.  Some "Honey Do List Items", drove them to doctor or eye appointments.  Jerry was gone from 6:15am til 7:00pm one day taking someone for a cardio cath.  We both drove around the town of Livingston a lot.  Took resident Jake for donuts, his favorite thing to do, grocery shopping, drug store, etc.

We were on call every 4th night so if anything came up during the night we had to handle it, thankfully there were no emergencies.

This is one street where residents live - there are about 45 spaces.  

They have a beautiful garden at the center

One morning a took a lady to get her hair done and had to cross this "bridge" was a little scary - made sure I kept the wheels on the larger planks.

The Care Center is located within a large RV Park.  This was the side of one of the covered RV storage sheds 

This couple who were always smiling have only been married a couple of years and always dress alike.
Notice they each have on one white and one green sock - lol

The residents and the staff and volunteers eat at the cafe care.  They offer three meals a day.

 One of the most exciting things that happened while we were there was losing and finding Charlotte.
Helen owns Charlotte the cat and called one day frantic because Charlotte got out and Helen couldn't find her.  Helen is 91 and this cat is her life.  She has lost her husband and both of her children.  She is a sweet soul and was devastated that Charlotte was gone.  She wouldn't come over to eat as she was afraid Charlotte would return and she wouldn't be there.  So we took her her meals but I don't think she ate much.  She just sat and cried - it was heartbreaking.  Friends of hers made posters and hung them all around the center and the town - offering a very handsome reward but no word on Charlotte. One Sunday afternoon Jerry and I were on call and Helen called and asked us to come over she thought she heard a meow (now this is a miracle as Helen is really deaf).  So Jerry and I and two other volunteers went over to her place and after lots of calling Jerry found Charlotte behind the fireplace in the living room!!  Charlotte was gone for 10 days and we found no evidence of her having been in that location for that long - so really don't know where she was but at some point fell in behind the T.V. which was above the fireplace.  The vet things she had to have had water from somewhere as she was hardly dehydrated at all.  Jerry crawled under there and there is nowhere she could have gotten water.  So I don't believe we will ever know the entire story but the important part is it was a happy ending - It was so nice to see Helen happy again.

Charlotte coming out from behind the fire place

Helen and Charlotee reunited - now Helen had tears of joy

To say Helen was happy would be the understatement of the year

One of our days off we drove down to an area north of Houston called the Woodland's.
We had visited there three years ago and really enjoyed it.

Ate at the Cheesecake Factory.  They do a great job with GF and Jerry was very happy eating a hamburger on a bun and having french fries.  The day was beautiful and it was so pleasant just sitting outside and people watching

Jerry's and my dessert

Margaret who volunteers frequently at care put on a cheese party for the residents.  She had many different cheeses.
Wine would have been nice but it wasn't allowed.  We all had a great time anyway

She had everything displayed so nice and labeled

About a week ago Vincent's mom sent me this pic and asked if I thought he needed his first haircut - ya think?

He doesn't look to happy but was good while sitting on daddy's lap

Can't wait to see him in a few weeks - looks like a little boy now

Just learned that my great niece, on my late husband's side, has started her own little business she named "Growing Hearts by Jess"  Her name is Jessica Grow.  All of the proceeds go to the Leukemia Foundation - she has a friend who has Leukemia.  What a kind and wonderful heart she has.  She is in 6th grade!!
I put some info on FB and many of you responded giving her orders - thank you for that.

CARE's maintenance man Dave and the volunteer coordinator Crystal cooking all the volunteers some fajitas!!

The April 2018 volunteers 

The pad we were parked on cracked!!  Not good - waiting for an estimate to fix

We also took the mail out and brought it back in everyday. 

This is the 2nd time in three years we have spent several months in Texas.  They are some of the kindest and most polite people we have ever met.  Yes sir, no sir - younger people open doors.
The big negative is that so many people still smoke :-(

 Yesterday morning, Saturday, we left Livingston and CARE to start our journey back to Illinois

We weren't to far out of Livingston and we whizzed by this sign.  Caught our attention as we are 12' 6'.  We went by at a pretty good pace so Jerry pulled over so I could go back and see exactly what the height was.  On the way back I found 73 cents and we were turning before we got there so all was good.

We will spend the next week or so in Red Bay, AL where we come every year to get maintenance done on our coach.  The plan is to be back in IL by Mother's Day.

We will not be camp hosting this summer as we have done the last several years.  Instead we will be staying in Waukegan, IL at a 55+ community - more about that next blog.

Hugs and Blessings to each of you - Carol, Jerry and Teddy too