LETTERS BRING SENIORS INTO FAMILY CIRCLE.Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY Dennis McCarthy may refer to:
``Our residents absolutely love her letters. It's the highlight of their week.'' - Jody Rambadt, social service director, Country Villa Oxnard Manor A letter arrives every week for 100 lonely, mostly forgotten seniors living in convalescent con·va·les·cent adj. Relating to convalescence. n. A person who is recovering from an illness, an injury, or a surgical operation. convalescent 1. pertaining to or characterized by convalescence. 2. and retirement facilities across the country. It's not from their home or from anyone in their own family. It's from Kay Hodges, a 71-year-old great-grandmother living in Oxnard. Every Monday morning, she sits at a laptop computer and writes about the latest exploits of her family - her two children, four grandchildren GRANDCHILDREN, domestic relations. The children of one's children. Sometimes these may claim bequests given in a will to children, though in general they can make no such claim. 6 Co. 16. and two and one-half great-grandchildren (one's on the way) - and the best memories of growing up in this country. Eating cotton candy at the fair as a kid, going on your first date to see an Andy Hardy movie, falling in love and getting married. Having kids. Each letter is personalized with the first name of the recipient to make them feel like a member of the family. When she's done, Fred - Kay's husband of 53 years - folds the letters, stuffs them into envelopes, takes them to the post office and sends them on their way. By Wednesday, the most popular guy at her retirement facility in Huntington Beach Huntington Beach, city (1990 pop. 181,519), Orange co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast, across from Santa Catalina Island, in an oil-producing area; inc. 1909. It manufactures aerospace vehicles, aircraft parts, optical instruments, and heat transfer equipment. is the mailman, says Flora Borcioman, activities director at Huntington Valley Care Center. ``Our residents are all waiting by the mailbox A simulated mailbox in the computer that holds e-mail messages. Mailboxes are stored on disk as a file of messages, a database of messages or as an individual file for each message. The standard mailboxes are usually In, Out, Trash and Junk (Spam). for the postman POSTMAN, Eng. law. A barrister in the court of exchequer, who has precedence in: motions. so they can take the letter to the activities room and pass it around, give everybody a chance to read it,'' Flora said. Hodges - who writes under the pseudonym pseudonym (s  `dənĭm) [Gr.,=false name], name assumed, particularly by writers, to conceal identity. A writer's pseudonym is also referred to as a nom de plume (pen name). Lynn Fletcher Howard, LFH LFH low-fragmentation heapLFH Local Failure Handler for Letters From Home - has become more popular at these facilities than soap operas This is a list of Soap operas by country of origin. Argentina
``Everyone waits for her letter to be passed around and shared,'' says Ross Hashemi, administrator of Leisure Living, which has six senior facilities in Agoura Hills and Westlake Village. ''She writes in big type and makes the letters easy reading, always stressing the happiest of family times.'' Stressing the best of their memories. ``For so many residents who never get a letter from home, it's become a blessing,'' says Jody Rambadt, social service director of Country Villa Oxnard Manor. ``When someone moves they always ask me to make sure she gets their new address to send their weekly letter.'' Mildred was always so proud of Kay. Her daughter had cared for her in her Oxnard home, and promised to stay close to her mother when she moved her into the Huntington Park Huntington Park, city (1990 pop. 56,065), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential and industrial suburb of Los Angeles; founded 1856, inc. 1906. Its varied manufactures include metal, glass and rubber products and industrial equipment. care facility in 1999. ``Look, another letter from my daughter,'' Mildred would tell her friends at Huntington Valley Care Center, where she lived until dying last year, a few months shy of her 100th birthday. ``Mom always shared the letters with the other residents who never got letters from home,'' Kay said. ``When we visited her, we were treated like celebrities. Everyone knew what was going on in my family.'' Their visits were happy. But when Kay looked around, she saw too many people sitting in wheelchairs, staring into space. ``I figured if Mom and her friends got a lift and enjoyment from the letters, maybe others would, too.'' Kay began calling homes, asking administrators if she could write to residents who otherwise received no mail. When could she start, they wanted to know. The first group of 10 seniors got their first letter in 2000. As she added more groups, each new group started with that first letter, introducing the fictitious Lynn Fletcher Howard and her family. ``We were real people with a fictitious name Noun 1. fictitious name - (law) a name under which a corporation conducts business that is not the legal name of the corporation as shown in its articles of incorporation DBA, Doing Business As, assumed name ,'' Kay says. ``I thought it was better to remain anonymous. I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. why. I just thought it would be better.'' It really doesn't make a difference anymore because it's not the name that's important to these people. It's getting that letter from home every week, often with new baby or birthday pictures. Feeling like you're part of someone's family. Today, she has 100 seniors in 10 groups, and the list is growing as word spreads through the care facility community about the woman in Oxnard. ``My goal is to reach 500 seniors,'' Kay said Wednesday. ``What I need is for people to contact me with the names of seniors who could use an LFH letter from home every week.'' Dennis McCarthy, (818) 713-3749 dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com HOW TO HELP Contact Letters From Home Inc. at (805) 485-9901, or e-mail kay(at)print4u.com. CAPTION(S): photo, box Photo: Kay Hodges composes a family letter in her Oxnard home. Each week, her letters go out to lonely, mostly forgotten seniors across the country. Tina Burch/Staff Photographer Box: HOW TO HELP (see text) |
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