Staff Christmas Gifts

A week or so ago, one of our advanced aged ladies (a widow), asked me who was going to handle the money for the Staff Christmas gifts from the Residents, now that Paul said he couldn’t do it any more.

This was all new to me, since I wasn’t here last Christmas, and, even when Jean and I WERE here for the two Christmases before that, this activity didn’t register with me.

I told her I didn’t know anything about it, bus she wouldn’t “let me off the hook”, as we used to say in Mechanicsburg.

“Go ask Timi about it”, she said. “Paul said she helped him.”

I tried to figure out how I got into this, but I suppose my being President of the Resident Council caused this lady to “put me in charge”, whether the Council wanted it or not.

I at least asked Paul about it, and he said he couldn’t do it any longer, and that I should see Timi for help. I told him I’d like to talk to him.

I rather “dropped the ball”, and yesterday, the first of December, Pauline (the lady who asked me about it before), collared me again and said, “Who’s going to handle the money?”

Christmas was almost here, and we should be “gathering” the money right away, so I didn’t have time to meet with the Council.

“Forget the Council!”, I said. “I’ll do it personally.”

So, I took Pauline’s and Paul’s advice and asked Timi for the help she had given to Paul.

“That’s not a staff function. You’ll have to do it. I’ll provide a can for you to place in the Dining Room, but you’ll have to keep tab on it. Leave it there all day, but take it to your room at night.”

Right!

“And, write a letter to all the residents about it, and I’ll make enough copies for you to distribute .”(65 or 70, I think).

I went back to my apartment and wrote out a letter, in bold “Calligraphy” type (for Christmas, don’t you know), signed it, and showed it to Timi.

“Good”, she said, “But change the type. They won’t be able to read it.”

“How about ‘Times New Roman’ or ‘Arial’”.

“Try Arial”, she said.

“Bold?”, I replied.

“No, just plain.”

I went back “to the drawing board”, as we sometimes say, changed the type to Arial plain, returned it to Timi, and went to Physical Therapy.

When I came out of the PT room maybe an hour later, I met Timi coming down the hall and she handed me 60 or 70 of those letters.

“What do I do with these?”, I said. (Thinking they would just go in her usual “distribution center”.)

“Just take them around to all the rooms, putting them in their ‘in-basket’. Or, one of the ladies who distributes the other flyers for me would do it, if you don’t want to.”

“Oh no! They have enough to do. I’ll distribute them.”

Isn’t it interesting how these things develop? That’s what I get for “being retired”, as I often say. “It gives me something to do”. (Where have I heard that before?)

Since my back was a little tired from the PT, I sat down in the hall and rested a little.

Shortly, I began distributing them to all 6 of the halls, stopping to rest my back at the end of each.

After finishing the distribution, I kinda felt good, like I had done something worthwhile.

The Staff will get some Christmas money because of this.