Elderly bridge gap with adolescents through life lessons
by Courtney Ortega, staff writer
They say you can learn a lot from the past. Take a visit to
Lynwood Rehab & Nursing one afternoon and one will learn
that life is best learned from those who have lived it.
Located on Alamo Road in Levelland, Lynwood is home to an
array of elderly individuals from across the South Plains,
each with a unique story to tell. While the look of wheel
chairs and canes is disheartening at times, do not let looks
fool you. Each one has lived through both the trials and
joys of life, taking each experience as a learning lesson.
“They really are a learning experience themselves,” says Amy
Viernes, activity director of Lynwood, who has worked at the
facility for eight years. “You come in here not expecting
much, and you leave with so much more.”
In a time when life is quite fleeting and youth, as they
say, is wasted on the young, today’s society is often guilty
of forgetting where they came from and those that came
before them. Yet listen in on a conversation at Lynwood, and
you will gain more than you bargain for. As two of the
residents at Lynwood showed, if you are looking for advice,
simply come to those who have been there and done that.
At
61, Dorothy Espinoza of Littlefield is still as vibrant as
ever. Originally from Montana, Espinoza and her family left
the state after work became scarce because of the cold,
harsh winter weather. It was then that the family made the
decision to migrate to Texas, where Espinoza has called home
for the past 40 years.
Looking back at her life, Espinoza recalls many great
moments that defined the decades of her adolescence. These
are images that even today, so many years later, remain
vivid in her mind.
“There were great moments and then there were sad moments,
like when Elvis Presley died,” says Espinoza.
There also were moments that left the entire nation in shock
and disbelief, moments such as the death of President John
F. Kennedy, that cast a veil of sorrow over the lives of an
entire country.
“When John Kennedy died it was horrible,” says Espinoza.
“It was such a sad time. I remember everyone being in
tears.”
Looking at the world today, Espinoza agrees it is most
important for young people of our generation to, regardless
of their situation, always have a plan of direction.
“Before you go anywhere, make sure you know where you are
going, what you are going to do, and know whether or not you
have the means to do what you need to do,” says Espinoza.
Those are simple, but meaningful words, she says, that will
get you far in life if considered. Those are words she
wishes she had heard as a young adult that would have helped
put her own life into better perspective. However, that is
not all Espinoza wishes she had known during her
adolescence.
“If I have one regret, I wish I had would have known more
about Jesus Christ,” she says. “I would have taught my kids
more about t
he Lord, since I myself did not know much about
him myself.”
It seems that is not the only thing that Espinoza wishes
she could change. As she thinks about the state of the youth
and the problems they face today, there are many words of
advice she wishes she could relay to them about taking care
of themselves.
“It just kills me the way they take care of their selves, as
far as diseases and pregnancies,” says Espinoza. “I would
say, “Take better care of your selves. You only have one
body, so you might as well make the most of it by keeping it
healthy and clean.”
Yet as Espinoza sits in her wheelchair, recalling her years
to mind like a storybook with pages unfolding before her,
she agrees that it is most important that the youth of the
community, as well as the world, continue to try and build
strong relationships with the elderly.
“I use to love to sit and listen to the older people of my
community, how I enjoyed it so,” she says. “You never
realize how much you can actually learn until you sit there
and listen.”
Sit and listen to Dora Inglewood, the merry 73-year-old from
Levelland, and you will hear a story about a life that has
seen its share of medical strife. Yet, with a smile across
her face, extending from ear to ear, you quickly learn that
she hasn’t let any of this deter her vigor for life.
“I went in to have a surgery on a heart condition, and while
I was in surgery I suffered a stroke,” she says.
Having lived as many decades as she has, it seems impossible
that Inglewood could learn any more than she knows now. Yet
ask her, and she will be quick to point out that every day
is a new learning experience. She says that moving into the
Lynwood facility around seven year ago was a new experience
in itself.
“Coming here, I never realized how happy I could be,”
Inglewood says. “After the stroke left me paralyzed on one
side, I came here as my own decision. They have taken such
good care of me and I get to see my friends every day.”
With a life that has been so full of events and memories,
Inglewood has no doubt as to the greatest moment she has
every witnessed in her life, simply summoning up the
experience in one sentence.
“When I had my babies,” she says.
Inglewood is sure to remind all that it is the simple things
in life that ought to be greatly cherished, as she boasts of
her gratitude for her family, which includes several
grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Yet as she thinks of
her young relatives, as
well as the youth of today, she offers this timely advice
handed down from her own mother.
“My mother always taught me to be careful about the people
that you run around with,” she says. “If you run around with
the wrong crowd, you set yourself up for only trouble.”
She believes it was those great lessons given to her as a
teenager, by an adult who knew the ways of life, that has
enabled her to live a wonderful life, a life that Inglewood
cannot seem to find anything that she would change about it.
“I think I’ve done pretty well in life,” she says. “I raised
my babies, took care of my business, and always tried to do
what was good.”
If there’s anything the two women of Lynwood, as well as the
other residents, agree with, is that life is fleeting. It
must be cherished for every single moment that is given.
“Life is such a blessing, and we can’t ever take it for
granted,” says Inglewood.
Anyone interested in volunteering or learning more about
Lynwood Rehab & Nursing can contact Viernes at (806)
894-2806.
*All photos
by Brenda Cuellar/Plainsman Press
