Page 54 - Summer 2019 - Lubbock Senior Link Magazine - Online Magazine
P. 54
HONORING SENIORS
Better than
Norman
Rockwell
by Jane Bromley
He credits the senior living facility stopped by to welcome us.” It
with creating the atmosphere of wasn’t a hard transition at all.
friendliness. His “early breakfast Helen Vera didn’t expect anything
group” is a bunch of guys who different. She says, “This whole
gather every morning because town is friendly.”
they enjoy each other’s company.
This retired educator also looks Recently, she and her husband
forward to other meals when realized that they didn’t see their
he gets to visit with different immediate neighbors, the ones on
residents. Mr. Cobb is an unofficial their wing, as often as they would
ambassador for Raider Ranch, like. They decided to host a “block
easily listing the benefits of his party”. She sent out an invitation
“neighborhood” and the many to the eight apartments on their
When we remember the activities that connect people – wing, asking her neighbors to bring
neighborhoods of our childhood, like bridge games, golf at the Rawls snacks to share. They pulled a table
many of us recall rocking chairs course, and sponsored trips to places out into the hall, along with a few
on front porches, children riding like Fredericksburg and Hobbs. rolling chairs, and the hallmates
bicycles, moms in aprons, dads There’s even an Alaskan cruise spent nearly two hours getting to
visiting over fences, milkmen and planned for September. know each other better. “You know
postmen whose names we knew. But each other, but you really don’t,
change is an inevitable result of the Hank and Helen Vera have lived unless you spend time together.” It
passage of time, and contemporary at Raider Ranch for almost a year. reminded Helen of the block parties
neighborhoods often look quite They moved to they’d had back in
different from the Norman Rockwell Lubbock after Oklahoma.
image in our memories. living most of
their lives in Mrs. Vera also
The good news is that the physical Oklahoma. It only commented on how
appearance of a neighborhood took them “about much she loved the
doesn’t have to affect the quality of five minutes” many opportunities to
community living. Raider Ranch is to realize what do things with other
an example of a new neighborhood a friendly residents. “There
with an atmosphere of old-fashioned place they had are a jillion things –
neighborliness. David Cobb has chosen. “The Moonlight Musicals,
lived in The Club for 4½ years. He day we moved the symphony, Texas
can attest to the value of living in in, at least five Tech basketball games
a place where people are “friendly or six different and so much more.”
and caring”. neighbors
54 Lubbock Senior Link
