Halcyon House News

Pastor Maureen Howard, representing the Immanuel Lutheran Church provided the weekly chapel service to Halcyon House residents on Sunday, May 19. 2019. The sermon title was 'Changing with God”. Scripture from Acts 11:1-18 was shared with those in attendance.

The Halcyon House Spanish Wayfarers traveled to a local Mexican restaurant to try out their Spanish-speaking skills. Connie Sorrell went first and told the server in Spanish that they wanted a table for the group in the Community Room, and was understood. Each person from the group had an assignment to request or comment, in Spanish, in a variety of ways pre-scripted. All of them did very well. They also ordered their beverages and food in Spanish and the server spoke to the group mostly in Spanish, but verified in English each order and all were correct as ordered. Clyde Pearce, Spanish Wayfarers instructor, had gone the day before to talk to the manager so they would know what they were all about and the restaurant was prepared and did their jobs very well. Clyde also obtained menus two weeks prior, so that everyone knew ahead what they wanted to order and how to order in Spanish. Clyde's power point slide presentation in conjunction with reviewing the menus enabled them to see just what they would be getting for each food item. The table setting for the group was prepared ahead of time by restaurant staff. Spanish is considered to be the second fastest spoken language after Japanese yet the server spoke to them at a pace we could understand. There were 14 people in all who participated. Some were a spouse or family member of one in the group, and they received a meal but were not expected to speak Spanish. Although they had more than one server at times, the main server Emily did an outstanding job for the group! They all had a great time!

The Spanish Wayfarers are moving onto the next phase of study. They are beginning to learn numbers, counting, dates, calendars and how to tell time in Spanish. No outing is foreseen in the near future related to that topic. However, we do review the local Spanish language newspaper from time to time to see what we can discover given the amount of Spanish we recognize at a given point in time.

Wednesday, May 15, Zion Christian Fellowship of Wellman, came to the Timmins room in the evening. Many family members, which included 13 adults and 19 children, sang wonderful a capella hymns, and gave a message from the Bible. The evening was enjoyed by many Halcyon residents. We always look forward to them sharing their time with us.

Longtime volunteer, Richard Colby presented, Thursday, May 16, his Classics Etc . program, in the Rosewood sensory room. The program included many classical masterpieces, and was enjoyed by residents of Rosewood.

Friday afternoon, May 17, 35, fourth- and fifth-grade students of Lincoln Elementary came to Wedgewood for a Spring music program. Directed by music teacher Julie Hill, the 'Sunrise Singers” delighted a room full of residents from Wedgewood and Sagewood. It was a great joy to listen to all of these students singing.

Happy Birthday wishes go out this week to Marcella Reed and Doris Cornelius.