When Carole Spring lost her husband Leonard, life as she knew it had ended.
Ginger Plikerd of Belle Center gets a hug from Pam Noble, the cook at the Logan County Friendly Senior Center, during the Wednesday lunch service. (EXAMINER PHOTO | REUBEN MEES) |
But in the wake of the grief, she found in the Logan County Friendly Senior Center a way to help fill the void.
“This place was a lifesaver to me when my husband died 11 years ago,” Mrs. Spring said. “I had a friend — Dora Belle Weatherby — I used to see at auctions and she would always say to me, ‘When you get old, come and join us at the senior center.’ After Leonard died, I told her ‘I guess I’m old now’ and I came with her to the meals on Wednesday and Friday. Now I come practically every day.
“I play cards; I’m in the chorus; and when nobody’s looking, I might play a game of pool,” she said. “But I’m really here because of the fellowship.”
Among other benefits, the senior center, located at 934 S. Main St., provides a welcome social outlet for many adults over the age of 55 who have lost their spouses, widower and board member Charlie Patrick said.
“I started coming in 2011 or ’12 after my wife passed,” Mr. Patrick said. “I started as a volunteer at bingo selling pull off tickets and then they got me started working in the kitchen and eventually I became an instructor for other volunteers. A few years ago they asked me to be a board member and I’m on my second term now.”
In addition to the $5 Wednesday lunch and Friday’s $8,000 jackpot bingo nights that are the senior center’s biggest activities, there are a wide variety of other activities available.
Read complete story in Tuesday’s Examiner.
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