Lakeside Senior Living Community News

Greetings! You haven’t heard from us in a while, so we decided to spread the news and let you know with a monthly report just what’s going on in our home with our Lakeside family.

Our beloved Cathie Kerr retired as activities director after 12 years with Lakeside. We welcomed Sheila Willis to the family as our new activities director.

We give a shout out to the regular monthly volunteers who come to visit us each month. Churches: First United Methodist Church Gleason, McLemoresville Baptist Church. Clergy/Teachers: Jan Creasy, Carl Applegate, Al Bailey, Wilma Pearson, Jacob Harris, Robert Harris, Chance Steen, Curtis McQuistion and Kenny Carr. Music: Bo Solomon, Charlotte/Max Blair, Larry/Mary Higgins, Kenneth Johnson, 3 Old Men Billie Christian & Shamrock Band. Weekly BP Checks: Kim Jones-Baptist, Sheila Whitworth-Gentiva, Carrie Christian-Amedisys. Yoga: Becky Lawrance. We thank all our regular volunteers for their continued support in enhancing the lives of our residents and welcome anyone who would like to volunteer or visit to give us a call at 731-352-4567.

Now for the really fun things we did together this month.

Emily from Baptist Hospice stopped in to play POP-It Trivia with all popcorn-related prizes. We had Pre-Fourth Family Fireworks provided by Jack Brown and shot off by his Dad, Stephen Brown, with Lillian Brown serving watermelon. Then, on the Fourth, we loaded the bus and went out for burgers and ice cream followed by the McKenzie firework show.

We celebrated National Hawaii Day with leis, making flip-flop cookies, a Tiki Bar with tropical drinks and a hula dance by our own Thai Sau.

On National Jell-O Day, the ladies made an array of ten desserts, and that afternoon we had a cake walk with some very happy winners.

A special treat this month was McKenzie native Keith Lindsey of Mississippi putting on a stellar performance of jazz and blues, playing his trumpet and saxophone and singing for us. He is so talented, and his mom, Mrs. Robye Lindsey, who lives with us, beamed with pride as he entertained us all.

We had an ice cream social with fresh peaches hosted by Sabrina from AHC & Unity. We also had a prize auction with Carrie from Amedisys after residents won coins from trivia questions.

We had three more outings in July. We went to the McKenzie Park Theatre to see Thelma, went to Mallards for lunch and shopped at Dollar General.

We enjoyed beignets and faux champagne for the 2024 Paris France Olympics Opening Ceremony.

We played dominoes, Rook, Skip-Bo and bingo for sure, but I was happy when we introduced some new games, and many joined in to learn. We played Left-Right-Center, Phase 10 and had a rotating gift for storytelling.

We had art class with two new techniques: Sharpie art and bag painting. We celebrated seven birthdays in July with gifts and cupcakes. We kept fit with three exercise classes a week.

Many residents had out-of-town families visit and stay in our lovely guest room, and a few went on trips with their families.

Who doesn’t love a summer vacation? Plus, there is always time for a quiet spell of sitting on the front porch, overlooking the lake, watching deer roam, catching hummingbirds around the feeders, reading a book in the library, gazing at the fish aquarium or having one-on-one visits.

Finally, we had our planning meeting for August, and it is going to be a busy time as well. I can’t wait to tell you all about it… Til next time.