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from full life to Active retirement: seniors share their views

Story and photos by LIZ QUIRIN
Messenger editor

Remember the TV series “The Waltons” where grandma and grandpa Walton lived on the farm with John-boy and the rest of the family? In our computer-iPod-cell phone-driven world, the Waltons would be an anachronism, out of place and time, settled comfortably in a retirement home someplace other than the family farm. Depending on their “senior” living arrangements, that can be a good plan.

In this issue of The Messenger’s Senior Living supplement, homes for seniors were invited to share their services and the types of care they offer to seniors. Making a “field trip” to two of those listed and talking to their residents gives a better view of what it’s like to find a “home away from home.”

Irene Schuessler lives at St. Paul’s Home in Belleville and Aurelia Biehl lives at Grand Court, also in Belleville.

Mrs. Schuessler moved to St. Paul’s almost three years ago when she and her family decided it was time to downsize. She is 97.

She lives in an apartment on the grounds where St. Paul’s has three levels of care: independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing care. Residents can move from one level of care to another when the need arises.

For Mrs. Schuessler, the need for skilled care has arisen twice and both times she was able to return to her apartment. “I wanted to get back across the bridge,” she said, explaining that walkways link the various levels of care so that residents and visitors can move from one level to another without going outside.

To Mrs. Schuessler, “crossing the bridge” meant she would be returning to her own apartment after staying in skilled care until she was able to resume independent living.

The beauty of her situation, she said, was that her daughters who live out of town, could stay in her apartment while she recuperated in the skilled care section of the home.

Moving to St. Paul’s was an easy choice for Mrs. Schuessler once she decided to move out of her family home.
This was “familiar territory for me,” she said. St. Paul’s “was a couple of blocks from my home. I was sorry to leave but I felt this was the place to go.”

Mrs. Schuessler had also been a volunteer at St. Paul’s before deciding to move into the facility.
Active again after returning to her apartment, Mrs. Schuessler said she participates in activities, taking advantage of “anything that comes along.”

She also attends meetings held for those in independent living where residents talk with nutritionists about the meals offered and what they can do to make them better.

Aurelia Biehl has been living at Grand Court in Belleville for eight years. She watched the construction of the building and passed it every day as she took her six children to Cathedral Grade School.
“I thought ‘maybe some day I’ll be there,’” she said.

The location fits Mrs. Biehl’s needs perfectly she said. “We’re near church (a bus takes residents to the 8 a.m. Sunday liturgy at the cathedral every week); we’re near (St. Elizabeth’s) Hospital and downtown.”
When she quit driving, “common sense tells you to move on,” she said. At 84, she said life can be as relaxed or as active as she wants.

Activities at Grand Court include daily exercise, morning rosaries and Mass every first Friday with Father Gene Neff, director of the diocesan Ministry to Sick and Aged.

A volunteer at Grand Court, Mrs. Biehl is known for her needlepoint both at the residence and within her family.
She makes Christmas ornaments for each of her children, grand children and great grandchildren — 40 in all. Because of her busy schedule, which includes playing cards, she has already begun making the ornaments.
At Grand Court, she sets up her Christmas village in the atrium, and the display is open to the public from the day after Thanksgiving until what she called “little Christmas,” the Epiphany, Jan. 6.

Mrs. Biehl appreciates her continuing connection to the cathedral, even though she no longer lives in her home outside Smithton.

“I’ve been associated with the cathedral all my life,” she said.

She met her husband as a young woman when she participated in the Cathedral Music Study Club, a group of 40 high school-aged youth who performed in operettas and musicals at the old Cathedral High School where she remembers the stage being on the third floor of the building.

Active in other organizations, Mrs. Biehl has a book on Queen Isabella next to a comfortable chair in her apartment and looks forward to reading about her.

She has been a member of the Daughters of Isabella since 1981, and that sparked her interest in reading about the queen.

“I want to read all about her in my spare time,” she said.
Preparing for the future, Mrs. Biehl said she has her obituary written, and she’s “ready whenever the Lord is ready” for her.