Thistle Volume 32, Number 3

March 2016 Magazine of the residents of the

Duncaster lifecare community,

Bloomfield, Connecticut

IN THIS ISSUE

A New Beginning—Elaine Wintgen ..... 1

A Little Bit of One-on-One –

Thayer Browne ...................... 2

Between the Book Covers -

Dean Daniels ........................ 4

Tragedy, Tranquility, Happiness —

Dianne Jones ........................ 6

Customs Complexities—Jim Yaeger .... 7

Where is Everybody?- Jim Yaeger ...... 8

Whence the Thistle? - Ted Cowles ..... 9

Organ Music—Will Robin ................... 10

Stott Family Seminars—Jim Yaeger.... 11

What Happens When I Call for Aid?-

Arlene Parmelee .................. 12

Thistle - March 2016, page 2

volunteers received a little training, a

copy of the new Bloomfield Teachers'

Guide about the reading capabilities and

targets for the school children, and spe-

cific tutoring/mentoring instructions from

the Chief Academic Officer of the Bloom-

field Schools. Although only a few of us

had had actual past teaching experience,

everyone had raised children, read to

and with them even before they started

school, and perhaps done it again with a

grandchild or two. And off we went on a

Duncaster bus for an hour a week with

one student each during this six weeks.

It was delightful. Children that age just

suck up new knowledge and experiences;

they are well-behaved; and they actually

listen to adults. After that we learned

that we would each have the same third-

grader in most cases, one-on-one, plus a

Metacomet fourth-grader, a half hour

apiece, on Wednesdays during the 2012-

13 school year.

The teachers that year had clearly as-

signed us the poorest readers from each

grade, ten initially, but we were later

asked to expand the number of our

weekly tutors to twelve in order to han-

dle a few more students. For that school

year the Bloomfield Chief Academic Of-

ficer arranged to have the reading im-

provement for our tutoring students

measured by testing throughout the

year, and compared with that of all the

others in their classes. Both we and the

educators were then pleased to learn

that by year-end our assigned third-

graders in particular had risen from

dreadful depths up virtually to their class

averages. Our little bit of weekly one-on-

one volunteering had helped, and we

were asked to become part of the regular

A LITTLE BIT OF ONE-ON-ONE

Thayer Browne

Late in the spring of 2012 Helen Gettemy

and Al DeVito, with guidance from the

Bloomfield School system, launched a

Duncaster volunteer tutoring effort to

help young children with their reading

comprehension and fluency. Bloomfield

at that time had been performing below

average among Connecticut public school

systems, and its Department of Educa-

tion was making curriculum changes and

enlisting principals, teachers, student

families and others such as our tutors in

an all-out effort to make substantial im-

provements as quickly as possible.

For incoming third graders a six-week

summer Early Start program was orga-

nized at Metacomet School, and our

Thistle - March 2016, page 3

Metacomet School reading program.

The Early Start reading program was

shortened from six to four weeks during

the summer of 2013, and Duncaster's

tutors continued enthusiastically into

the 2013-14 school year, expecting fur-

ther success with our newly assigned

kids. We noticed this time that many of

our third and fourth graders were al-

ready better readers than those a year

earlier.

However, one tutor had a sluggish

fourth-grader who during the first half

of that school year was reading quite

poorly and with little apparent interest.

Then one day his teacher had him bring

to the tutoring session a book about

various adventures of two boys, includ-

ing a chapter about their playing bas-

ketball outdoors. When he started into

that one, our student suddenly lit up

and began reading avidly, with feeling,

and stumbling only a little. He said this

was definitely his favorite sport, and

when we were cut short by the end of

the tutoring session, he made sure that

we would resume reading at that page

the following week. This was then fol-

lowed with enthusiasm for the rest of

the entire book, a source of real satis-

faction and pleasure to our tutor.

Thereafter, over the remainder of the

year that student clearly looked forward

to our weekly reading sessions and to

discovering other subjects that were

new and exciting to him. Finally -

hooked by books.

Lest our preconceptions of the social

and economic status of all our tutoring

students might become too entrenched,

we found that another fourth grader,

one of the top readers, missed some

school because she had been taken out to

go to the Bahamas with her family for a

week of their vacation. Oh, ok. After-

wards, she told her tutor about her ad-

ventures there.

Before the 2014-15 school year there was

no Early Start program, and it became

immediately apparent to our Duncaster

tutors that our assigned students were

much better readers than those in previ-

ous years. In fact several of our students

told us that they were one of the top

readers in their class. It appeared that we

were being assigned the "outliers" in

reading, with our top students being giv-

en more challenging books to read with

us, one-on-one, than they would see back

in class. Even the assigned poorer readers

were much better than those back in

2012-13.

During the year, the Principal at Meta-

comet School received a national award

for having achieved outstanding perfor-

mance improvement for Bloomfield third

and fourth graders. Also, during the

spring of 2015 the Superintendent of

Schools spoke at Duncaster, describing

the program that had been planned and

implemented three years earlier to im-

prove public education in our town sub-

stantially, and he cited the successes to

date. At year-end we learned that aca-

demic performance at Metacomet School

was now rated well above average for

those grades around the state.

Thistle - March 2016, page 4

BETWEEN THE BOOK COVERS

Dean Daniels

Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon, super Israeli

spy and soon to be head of the Office, is

a busy fellow. The author's latest, The

English Spy (2015), finds him in Rome

about to take his very pregnant wife,

Chiara, to Tel Aviv for the birth of twins.

But their trip is interrupted when Allon is

beckoned to London by his friend, Gra-

ham Seymour, head of Britain's Secret

Intelligence Service (MI6).

The English Spy starts with a bang or,

more specifically, with a bomb exploding

in a 154-foot luxury yacht off the coast of

St. Barthélemy. On board was the beau-

tiful British estranged princess, Amelia,

with a newly-found lover. The princess'

male friend was none other than the infa-

mous bomb-maker, Eamon Quinn, for-

mer member of the Real IRA. When the

boat was discovered several days later in

2000 feet of water only one of the two

lifeboat dinghies was found in the wreck-

age. And Quinn was long gone.

As the story develops we learn that the

princess' murder is a subterfuge planned

by Russian leaders to lure Allon to his

death. But Gabriel has his own plans.

He enlists Christopher Keller, a veteran

SAS player who is now a professional as-

sassin, to help him track down the Rus-

sian “heavy” and, once Quinn is identi-

fied, the princess' murderer.

The English Spy takes place primarily in

Germany, London and Northern Ireland.

In the middle of the book we read, from

the London Guardian, that “Gabriel Allon,

Israeli's avenging angel, next in line to

be the Chief of the Office, was dead.”

Don't believe it! Although badly injured in

a mid-London bombing, our hero lives to

fight another day. As he and Keller take

care of the Russian and turn their sights

on historic IRA Ireland, readers learn that

Allon has a very personal reason to pur-

sue Eamon Quinn. Quinn made the bomb

that the Palestinian terrorist, Tariq al-

Hourini, used ten years ago in Vienna to

kill Gabriel's son, Dani, and leave his for-

mer wife, Leah, with a combination of

post-traumatic stress and psychotic de-

pression.

More bloodthirsty than the usual Silva

book, it has both brutal interrogations and

execution style murders. But near the end

of the story there is a tender scene when

Gabriel visits Leah in Jerusalem’s Mount

Herzl Psychiatric Clinic, where she is a

permanent patient.

If you asked me to name five non-fiction

books written since the turn of the 21st

century that have lingered in my memory,

Robert Kurson's Shadow Divers (2004)

would be on the list. It's the heart-in-the-

mouth story about two American deep-

sea divers who locate, explore and identi-

fy a German U boat sunk off the New Jer-

sey coast during World War II. Now Kur-

son has written another diving adventure

featuring John Chatterton, one of the he-

roes of Shadow Divers.

The new one, Pirate Hunters (2015), in-

volves Chatterton and a new sidekick,

John Mattera, in search of the Golden

Fleece sunk off the coast of Santo Domin-

go three centuries ago. As the book be-

gins, the two Johns are enticed by a 69-

year-old treasure hunter, Tracy Bowden,

to locate the famous pirate ship. Although

the general location off Samaná Bay has

Thistle - March 2016, page 5

been known for some time, the wooden

sailing vessel, sunk by the English navy,

becomes a difficult find.

What is known is that Joseph Bannister,

a respected English sea captain on the

Jamaica-Britain route, turns rogue and

steals the Golden Fleece, the boat he

commanded. The ship becomes a brazen

pirate enterprise much sought after by

the English fleet. Finally the English un-

cover the ship being careened on a se-

cluded beach. A two-day sea-to-shore-

to-sea battle ensues, the Golden Fleece

is incapacitated and the English sail

home.

Chatterton and Mattera locate the re-

mains and, after recovering 300 year-old

artifacts and photographing the ship's

skeleton bottom, go off to perhaps dive

another day. Pirate Hunters certainly

isn't another Shadow Divers. Kurson

provides historical data of the period and

biographical sketches of the principal

characters. The drama occurs in the dis-

ciplined search for the target and in an

encounter with some robbers trying to

relieve the hunters of their find.

Lisbeth Salader, the girl with the dragon

tattoo on her back, is alive and well!

Commissioned by the family of Stieg

Larsson, David Lagercrantz's book, The

Girl in the Spider's Web (2015), con-

tinues Larsson's trilogy about the adven-

tures of the female expert computer

hacker and her journalist friend, Mikael

Blomkvist. The Girl with the Dragon Tat-

too, The Girl Who Played with Fire and

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest

were translated and published after Lars-

son's death in 2004 as the Millennium

Series.

In addition to Lisbeth and Mikael, readers

will find other characters from the Series

such as Erika Berger, editor of Millenni-

um Magazine and Mikael's occasional lov-

er; Holger Palmgren, Lisbeth's legal

guardian and lawyer; members of Säpo,

Sweden's security service; and incompe-

tent Stockholm police. But there are new

characters too, such as Prof. Frans Bald-

er, a world expert in artificial intelligence

with links to NSA, the United States' na-

tional security agency. And, there's Au-

gust, Balder's 8 year-old son, an autistic

savant who has never spoken a word.

August, a handicapped young genius,

spends his time drawing intricate scenes

he has witnessed and working on mathe-

matical equations. As the story opens,

the boy is living with his mother, Hanna,

and her abusive male friend, Lasse. Un-

expectedly and although hardly knowing

the child, Balder takes August to live with

him. Then, Balder is murdered!

Almost all of the action in The Girl in the

Spider's Web takes place in a snowy

Stockholm during four days in November.

Settings and characters change within

the chapters. Salader's presence is less

evident than in the Larsson books but

she is there to shake up the bad guys.

Her long absent twin sister, Camilla, the

beautiful but evil one, also shows up near

the end of the story.

Fans of the Millennium Series will want to

read this book. I'm sure that author

Lagercrantz is setting us up for a contin-

uing saga. And, we will, in all likelihood,

see more of Camilla in coming editions.

Thistle - March 2016, page 6

When British soldiers came to camp on

the island, Ursula assumed the war was

over. The soldiers killed and ate the

farm animals. Within a few days two

British officers knocked on the farm-

house door asking to take hot baths.

The heating system was broken. They

fixed it, bathed and left the bathroom

clean! Each time they bathed they left a

packet of sugar and one of butter on the

front steps. Ursula and her sister-in-law

hadn’t had either for a long time.

During the 1990s when we were friends

her American husband died and their

Watch Hill home was inherited by his

first wife’s children. So Ursula lived in a

condo simply furnished with a few re-

markable things, such as a Biedermeier

desk, a pastel of her mother as a child

and a large oil painting of a British race

horse (circa 1830). She loved horses,

boats and the ocean. I believe that her

tranquility was the result of her daily

walks along the beach from Watch Hill

to Misquamicut and back.

Although Ursula treasured her life in

America, she made yearly visits to a

cousin in Canada at Christmas and to

Switzerland and England in the summer

to visit the family of her father’s Jewish

partner. Friendships seemed to be the

source of her happiness.

TRAGEDY, TRANQUILITY, HAPPINESS

Dianne Jones

She was alone at a table for a fashion

show and luncheon in Rhode Island. She

sat perfectly poised, well-groomed, wear-

ing a white dress with a flower pattern,

blue like her eyes. She was statue-like

with a little smile on her lips. I was intimi-

dated when told I was seated with her.

However, a mutual friend joined us and

conversation flowed. This was Ursula.

A few weeks later Ursula came to tea at

my home. Both my husband and I were

delighted to know this gracious and enter-

taining European woman. She became a

frequent guest.

Over about a five-year period, I was told

the amazing story of Ursula’s youth. They

lived in Germany. Her father was a bank-

er. She went to school in Switzerland.

When Hitler rose to power, Germany

thought he would help the country out of

the recession triggered by WWI. This was

not true. Insider rumors spread that Hitler

could not be trusted. Within a week of

that news, Ursula’s father sent his part-

ner, a Jew, to England. He married Ursu-

la, age nineteen, to a trusted friend twice

her age. The day Hitler nationalized the

banks her father committed suicide. Her

mother fled to East Germany, never to re-

turn.

Her new husband bought an officer’s com-

mission in the German Army. Before leav-

ing for duty, he moved Ursula and his old-

er sister to a farm on an island near Ham-

burg. They had some provisions and farm

animals.

Thistle - March 2016, page 7

CUSTOMS COMPLEXITIES

Jim Yaeger

In the 1960s I was a graduate student

trying to determine the process by

which bone is destroyed in periodontal

disease. One of the research tools I

wanted to use was the electron micro-

scope. Since most tissues are relatively

opaque to electrons, it is necessary to

prepare extremely thin slices to exam-

ine in the microscope. Typically, this

was done using as knives the very

sharp edges of carefully broken glass.

Unfortunately, bone is harder than

glass, and trying to cut thin sections of

bone yielded only chips of glass. So

this aspect of the research was stalled

until I read about a scientist in Vene-

zuela who used the cleaved edges of

industrial diamonds to

cut ultrathin sections. I

promptly contacted

him for further infor-

mation. He very gra-

ciously offered to send

me one of his knives to

try on my bone sam-

ples. Filled with opti-

mism and anxious to begin, I impa-

tiently waited for the knife to arrive.

But did it arrive by mail at my labora-

tory? Of course not. Because it was

shipped without assessing import duty,

it was delivered to the customs office

at O'Hare Airport. A customs officer

phoned me proposing to import the

knife as diamond jewelry. To avoid this

potentially costly decision, I arranged

to meet him at his airport office.

I described the use to be made of the

diamond edge, and he returned to his

book listing duties for various items.

Meanwhile, two other men walked into the

office. One came to claim a box of cookies

sent by his mother in South America. A

discussion with the agent revealed that the

cookies contained something which could

not be legally imported. The intended re-

cipient suggested a compromise; the four

of us opened the package and ate the

cookies. The fourth member of our party

had left Lebanon hastily for political rea-

sons. Looking for a safe place to leave his

motorcycle, he chose the U.S. Customs of-

fice parking lot. He wanted to know if the

Chicago agent could arrange for the return

of his bike from Beirut to Chicago. The an-

swer, of course, was no.

Meanwhile, the agent found a suitable cat-

egory for my diamond knife. It was as-

sessed as a used surgical instrument, with

a duty of only a few dollars.

Within a year of so of this adventure, a re-

lated tale was circulating in the scientific

community. A Canadian scientist was stud-

ying the hormonal reactions to human

stress. A colleague of his in Boston had a

patient suffering from a severe stress re-

action. The Boston physician collected a

sample of the patient's urine to be tested

for stress hormones, and sent it to Canada

by air express. Unfortunately, it arrived on

a Saturday. The inexperienced customs of-

ficer on duty refused to release the pack-

age because he could not determine an

appropriate category for assessing duty.

By Monday, the sample, stored at room

temperature, was worthless for chemical

analysis, but the customs office notified

the Canadian that he could have the pack-

age; it had been classified as "used per-

sonal effects." Since the sample had no

Diamond Knife

Thistle - March 2016, page 8

value, the notice was ignored. Some

months later, the Canadian scientist re-

ceived a warning letter stating that if he

did not claim his package it would be

opened and sold at public auction! Re-

grettably, I do not know the next chapter

of this saga.

WHERE IS EVERYBODY?

Jim Yaeger and Brian Emerson

At dinner, a resident occasionally com-

ments on the many empty tables. We

puzzle about the absent residents, re-

calling those we know are away for a

month or more during the summer or

winter. Or is it a reflection of the number

of people having dinner in their apart-

ments? Clearly a more quantitative ap-

proach is needed to answer these ques-

tions.

Surveying the "Away Slip" summaries

compiled by Jean Kendall in resident ser-

vices allowed counting the number of

days each month that residents were out

of town. A simple count of the Resident

Phone Card for August 2015 (also com-

piled by Jean Kendall) provided an esti-

mate of the total number of residents

that might be expected at dinner. The re-

sults are shown in the table to the right

which lists for each month the total num-

ber of away-days and the percent that

number represents of the total possible

away-days. The total possible away-days

is the number of residents (201) multi-

plied by 30 days in a month, yielding a

total of 6030.

While small variations occur during the

year, away-days increase more dramati-

cally in May and peak in August. The Au-

gust peak (15%) is about 2½ times

greater than the average of September

through April (5.8%). While this differ-

ence is substantial, it is based on the as-

sumption that every resident in town will

take their meals in the dining room.

But we know that is not what actually

happens; some residents take their meals

to their rooms. For September and Octo-

ber 2015, counts were made each day of

the total meals served and number of

residents taking meals to their rooms,

designated to-go meals.

Since no dinner is served on Sunday, it is

considered separately from Monday

through Saturday. On Sundays, an aver-

age of 110 meals are prepared (range 99

-136) and an average of 28% of these

are to-go meals (range 20-33%, 21 to 36

meals).

MONTH AWAY-

DAYS

% OF

6030

2014

August 905 15.0

Septem-

ber

426 7.1

October 439 7.3

November 264 4.4

December 362 6.0

2015

January 312 5.2

February 360 6.0

March 353 5.9

April 290 4.8

May 493 8.2

June 514 8.5

July 557 9.2

Thistle - March 2016, page 9

Returning to weekday meals, infor-

mation for four weeks (Monday through

Saturday) of the months October and

November of 2015 were tabulated. The

ranges (minimum and maximum) of the

number of meals served in the dining

room (dine-in), the number taken out

(to-go) are shown in the table below.

These figures illustrate the variation in

the number of meals prepared for the

two-month period.

These large changes from day to day are

only partly predictable, illustrating, one

of the difficulties in maintaining optimum

staffing in the Food Services Depart-

ment.

The average number of dine-in meals

served each day during these eight

weeks are shown in this table:

While not evident in these averages,

some special occasions, such as MUD

Dinners and Oktoberfest, attract unusu-

ally large numbers of diners.

Returning to the questions posed in the

first paragraph, the number residents in

town is at a minimum in August and a

maximum in November. The number of

residents in the dining room (dine-in)

varies from about 118 on Thursdays to

about 149 on Saturdays, and the ratio of

to-go to dine-in meals can vary as much

as 100% from day to day.

Mon Tues Weds Thurs Fri Sat

Dine-in Meals

120 123 135 118 128 149

Dine-in Meals To-go Meals % To-go Meals

96-204 46-101 23-48

Whence The Thistle

Ted Cowles

As a relatively new resident of Duncaster

I have become intrigued by the use of

the "thistle" as its logo and symbol. In a

recent issue of the "Thistle" publication

we read the interesting tale of how the

Scottish forces were warned of the Norse

invasion of 1263 by an invader who inad-

vertently stepped on a wayward thistle.

So how did this thistle flower arrive here

at Duncaster? I wondered and asked

about its origin! An unreliable source I

talked to indicated that there might have

been thistles in the fields here prior to

the construction in 1984. But were they

Scottish thistles?

It has been a frequent discussion around

our dining table in recent days, often hu-

morous and sometimes even prickly. I

haven't found a single thistle around the

property here since my arrival last May,

and I have searched diligently. What can

we rely upon as the true fact? I am look-

ing for the answer.

In order to promote interest in the possi-

bilities, perhaps we could encourage a

poetic challenge! Who can best put into

proper or amusing form the story of our

thistle beginnings?

Your submissions could well be published

in an upcoming Thistle publication.

Thistle - March 2016, page 10

ORGAN MUSIC

Will Robin, as told to Dean Daniels

It was early in January. The year was

1945. A recent storm had left several

inches of snow on the ground, and it was

bitterly cold. I was with Gen. George

Patton's Third Army not far from the Bel-

gium town of Bastogne where the 101st

Airborne Division's commander, Brig.

Gen. Anthony McAuliffe, had replied

“Nuts” when asked to surrender to the

surrounding Germans.

It was the waning days of “the largest

battle the U.S. Army had ever fought,” as

the author, Jay Winik, reported in his re-

cent book, 1944. It was the renowned

Battle of the Bulge. The siege of Ba-

stogne had ended the day after Christ-

mas and my unit, the 76th Infantry Divi-

sion, was assigned “mop-up duties” be-

hind the lines as General Patton, “Old

Blood & Guts”, led the bulk of the Third

Army eastward in pursuit of retreating

Germans.

Men of the 76th were busy rounding up

pockets of the enemy separated from

their main forces because of the rapid re-

treat. We were also looking for deserted

barns or other structures that would pro-

vide a place to eat our meager rations

and lay our heads during the long nights

and away from the elements. I'm sure

that there were skirmishes with the ene-

my during daylight hours but the actions

of war are not what remain as memories

in this old man's mind. Here I want to

share two incidents that I will never for-

get.

Off duty one morning, a fellow soldier,

his name was Jacques, and I decided to

hike a mile or so to a nearby town which,

like Bastogne, had seen heavy fighting.

We found the village both devastated and

deserted but at the center of the square

we saw a church. With all of the destruc-

tion surrounding it, the church, with its

steeple intact, was a miracle to behold.

Since there was nothing to inhibit us, we

entered the building. Immediately

Jacques spotted the pipe organ. The

next thing I knew, he was sitting on the

organ bench and had started to play.

And what beautiful music came from the

pipes. It was difficult to leave this holy

place and return to our unit.

The second incident involved a Belgian,

French-speaking, teen-aged girl who told

us that she was on her way to a dance.

She was walking alone down an isolated

road where our unit was bivouacking.

Jacques, who spoke French fluently,

struck up a conversation with the young

lass. As I remember she was also very

pretty so she was getting plenty of atten-

tion from both French and English speak-

ing GIs. Finally we were able to convince

her that there wasn't going to be a dance

and to return to her home for safety's

sake.

Thistle is the bimonthly magazine of the

Duncaster Residents Association. Contri-

butions are welcome. Some editing

may be necessary and decisions of the

Editorial Board are final. Editorial office:

DRA Office, 40 Loeffler Road, Bloomfield,

CT 06002 or DRA@Duncaster.org.

Editorial Board: Al DeVito (Editor), Jim

Yaeger, Dean Daniels, Louise Hine, Helen

Lehmann, Mary Osborn, Jean Peelle, Lar-

ry Rothfield.

Thistle - March 2016, page 11

THE STOTT FAMILY SEMINARS

Jim Yaeger

The term "seminar" is derived from the

Latin word for a seed plot. We may be

familiar with seminars through our expe-

rience as college students meeting with a

professor to discuss an assigned reading.

The seminars held by the Stott family are

similar. Resident Betsy Stott and her chil-

dren Peter Stott, Janet Pembleton, and

Sarah Stott and her husband, Howard

Jennings, gather weekly for a conversa-

tion on a topic of broad importance and of

mutual interest to them all. No, they do

not jet about the country to arrange

these meetings, they do it by computer.

Because all of them suggest topics, they

cover a wide range of subjects from sci-

ence through literature and poetry to psy-

chology. In spite of this variety, they

each find some blend of the agreed topic

and their personal interests to add to the

conversation. At the beginning of each

session, and often at the end, they dis-

cuss family matters, but the time is most-

ly taken up by the "seminar" discussion.

Their comments are free and uninhibited

because they each have 40 or more years

of familiarity with the attitudes and pref-

erences of the others. The restrictions

which may limit freely expressing opin-

ions with other friends or neighbors ordi-

narily do not occur within such a closely-

knit family group. "I had no idea when we

started," Betsy said, "how much fun it

would be."

The list of the topics suggested by each

member is maintained by Peter, the sen-

ior offspring. Each week usually centers

on an essay or article available to all par-

ticipants. Sometimes one or more mem-

bers of the group will search out other

related material to share during the con-

versation, often broadening its scope.

This series of

seminars be-

gan last March.

Among the

more than two

dozen topics

discussed since

then have

been: ISIS

(Islamic

State); science

denial in the US;

a Review of Stephen Pinker's book "The

Better Angels of our Nature" (World vio-

lence is decreasing, Pinker says); the

role of ocean circulation in climate

change; former Secretary of Labor Rob-

ert Reich's "Ten Steps to Save the Econ-

omy"; "Is poetry dead?" (provocative

Washington Post Article); a forecast for

"The Next Ten Billion Years" by the

Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of

Druids in America, John Michael Greer;

and the debate over the recent canoniza-

tion of Father Junipero Serra.

What might be included in a list compiled

to include some of your current interests

and those of your children? Just making

the list would be an interesting experi-

ence.

Peter initiates each session by contacting

the participants using Skype. Any of us

who would like to start a similar ex-

change might need the help of one of our

nerdy children (or grandchildren), or

Google search "conference call with

Skype" for instructions. If you need more

information, Betsy is always willing to

Thistle - March 2016, page 12

talk about the seminars, and Peter, Sa-

rah and Janet are frequent Duncaster

visitors.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I CALL

FOR AID?

Arlene Parmelee

It’s 9:45 a.m. in the nurse’s office on

Thistle Way and the call comes in, “Duty

Officer to Nurse”. Everything goes on

hold. The nurse responds, “This is the

nurse.”

“We have a call for aid from apartment

Anywhere 200 and there’s no answer on

the telephone,” says the Duty Officer.

Nurse responds, “I’m on my way.”

At this point the nurse checks her cart for

any necessary first aid or assessment

tools and starts her walk to Anywhere

200. Upon arrival at the apartment, the

duty man has already opened the door

(or if the nurse arrives first, she has an

emergency key to gain access). The situ-

ation is evaluated. If the resident is

acutely ill, a history of the new illness is

obtained and vital signs of temperature,

blood pressure, pulse rate, etc. are gath-

ered. These will be communicated to the

doctor if the nurse feels that a medical

intervention needs to be pursued. It

might be that nursing measures of en-

couraging fluids, ensuring a tray delivery,

assisted living aide assignment for assis-

tance with bathing and dressing, etc. are

appropriate first steps. The nurse will

continue to monitor and facilitate a Hart-

ford Healthcare appointment if needed. If

the nurse reports the situation to the res-

ident’s doctor, the decision may be made

for the resident to go to the hospital for

further evaluation.

If a resident has fallen and been injured,

she is to stay on the floor until the nurse

has assessed her for acute injury. If it is

felt that there are no broken bones, dis-

located joints, head injury, etc., the Duty

Officer assists the nurse to lift the resi-

dent and situate her safely in a chair for

further evaluation.

If it is decided that the resident needs to

be transferred to the hospital for further

evaluation or treatment, the nurse places

the 911 call and stays with the resident

to complete the required paperwork and

communicate with the EMTs when they

arrive. The Duty Officer will go to the

closest neighborhood entrance to greet

the EMTs and guide them to the apart-

ment so they don’t get confused with the

hallway configuration.

The nurse will return to the office to

communicate with the resident’s desig-

nated emergency contact. It is so im-

portant for the names and phone num-

bers of your family or responsible party

to be current. She must also document

everything that has transpired.

An internal message is sent by voice mail

to inform different departments that a

resident has been sent to the hospital.

Gail Walter, Director of Admissions for

Caleb Hitchcock, is in immediate contact

with the nurse, too, to be sure that a

room at Caleb is reserved in case it is

needed for a short term rehab stay after

hospitalization.

Who knew that one push of that little

button sets in motion all of this activity

for your benefit? Now YOU know!