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How do you capture a feeling, a spirit, the essence of moments lived with just mere words?  Working at Redstone for more than 18 years I’ve often wondered how best to capture the beauty of the many moments I’ve witnessed here.  Some might just call them the stuff that everyday lives are made up of, I call them sacred. The love, the joy, the laughter, the challenges, the heartbreak, experienced as a community, to me each is sacred. We’ve invited residents, family members, staff, volunteers, anyone who has a Redstone experience to help us capture the essence of Redstone by sharing their experiences [...]

Church organist, substitute pet sitter, Sunday School teacher, hospice volunteer, generous photography expert, league bowlers, food pantry volunteers, volunteer church workers, political campaign volunteers, Bridge players, back-up grandchild, and great-grandchild babysitters, not-for-profit organization board members, voluntary organization leaders, band and orchestra members, chorus members, bell choir ringers, expert gardeners, university archivist, and many more.  These are just a sample of the activities in which Redstone residents engage for fun, for the benefit of the larger community, and to keep as mentally and physically fit as possible.  They may be retired from regular employment or homemaking, but not from life. If you have an [...]

Several years ago, a Redstone resident (a 90-year-old who still puts out a large garden from which he shares with his happy neighbors), received a birthday card from one of his grandchildren.  When opened, a dog in the card (with a hidden battery) very cleverly barks the traditional “Happy Birthday” song.  The resident enjoys the card so much that he keeps it and opens it for the dog to bark “Happy Birthday” every time one of his neighbors or friends has a birthday.  Everyone has come to expect the serenade, and everyone loves it. If you have an experience you’d like to share, please [...]

A small group of male Redstone residents participate in a weekly prayer breakfast at a local church.  Another Redstone resident operates a food pantry that occasionally has excess fresh produce.  The guys in the prayer group take the extra produce for distribution at the church’s food pantry.  The motto: “Nothing goes to waste.” If you have an experience you’d like to share, please contact me at ldickson@redstone.org. Linda Dickson is the Director of Community Relations at Redstone

How do your capture a spirit?  Is it contagious? Is it a divine gift?  Is it learned?  Is it an inoculation?  Perhaps, but in reality, it is much simpler and personal than all of that. We have experienced a spirit at Redstone.  It is an aura; it is in the atmosphere; it may be in the water as the saying goes; it surrounds Redstone residents so subtly and completely that it often goes unremarked.  Indeed, it is remarkable because it is so natural and low-key.  It is the unexpected invitation; the genuine compliment; the perfectly natural helping hand with a difficult task; the bedside visit; the meal appearing [...]