Kathy (Flor) Hinkley will retire on June 23rd after 42 years with the New Richland Care Center. She invites everyone to a public Open House retirement party on Friday, June 23rd at the New Richland City Hall from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
By BARB FINSETH
Staff Writer
Kathy (Flor) Hinkley will be retiring from the New Richland Care Center on June 23rd after 42 years serving and caring for residents there. There will be a public Open House retirement party at the New Richland City Hall on Friday, June 23 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m, to celebrate Kathy's many contributions to the Care Center over these years.
Kathy's career at the Care Center began on November 3, 1980 as a certified nursing assistant working with residents full-time on the evening shift for over five years.
After her first maternity leave, she returned part-time on the day shift. She gradually began to add days to her schedule, working in the activities department. "I really enjoyed the extended time interacting with the residents doing activities," Kathy said. She worked into full time in that area and in 2003 became the Activities Department Director.
Kathy has seen many changes over these years. The arrival of the computer was a big time saver for everyone.
"I remember putting together our monthly newsletter using the typewriter," she said, "and all the hand written reports that had to be physically put into the individual resident's book of charts & information. It took so much time away from actually interacting with the residents. The computer made it so much easier to do reporting and organize the newsletter, and allowed quicker access to previous reports in the residents files."
Kathy tells of another positive change called "reality orienting," which greatly improved interactions with residents having dementia. "Residents with dementia often wondered where their parents were or why their family wasn't there," she said. "Years ago we were trained to try to keep people in the present reality. It was so hard to see a resident mourn the loss of a parent over and over again when told that they had passed away. This was finally replaced to instead work with the resident's perspective of reality that their parent couldn't be here today for a reason that the resident could accept and identify with. It made it so much better for them, and for the staff, in having a good day."
"One of the sadder parts of our work," Kathy admits, "are the residents who have no family, or their family lives far away. We become that person's family and recognize how important our interactions are to that person."
"I've always enjoyed finding ways to make the residents days be as good as possible," Kathy said. "Many of them really like the group activities, though there were others who respond better with individual activities. I've liked the challenge in finding out their interests and matching those to an activity that could give them a positive experience."
Kathy tells of two additions to the Care Center that she was instrumental in making happen. First was the addition of the bus that has been put to good use these past years. Some of the most enjoyable rides for the residents included the tour of New Richland during the Christmas season to see all the local holiday lights, and trips to St. Olaf Lake in the summer. "It took a lot of fundraising, but it has been a wonderful treat that residents look forward to," she said.
The second addition was the recently acquired TriShaw bike. This is a bike with two wheels in the front with comfortable seating for two people over the wheels. The driver sits behind this on a traditional bike seat. It is motorized, but also has manual pedals, and the unit is especially made for the safety of older adults. Kathy tells of multiple financial and grant applications she completed finally to get the funding needed." This was so worth working on to get and is such fun for the residents. It will be used a lot during the nice days of summer," she said.
The Care Center has had a Resident Council made up of residents and staff for as long as Kathy can remember. Residents make suggestions or requests at their meetings of things they believe will improve their stay. Kathy tells of one instance that a resident's request made an important change.
"In earlier days," she explained, "when a resident passed away, they were taken out the back door of the building. It was thought that this would be less upsetting to the other residents. But our resident told us that, "I came in the front door, and I expect to leave through the front door," which prompted the change to do just that from then on."
This happened years ago, and evolved into a "procession of honor" to the front door after a bedside memorial service for the family and staff. Kathy said, "I especially liked this tradition at the Care Center as it helps the staff to pay their respects to that resident's life after they have cared for and worked with them, often for years."
Another tradition is to make gold stars with the resident's name on it who has passed away, which is hung from the ceiling in the activities/chapel area. "These stars are given to family members at our annual memorial service as we remember these residents," Kathy said.
Was the Covid shutdown and restrictions the worst of her time at the Care Center?
"That was certainly a difficult time for us all!" Kathy replied.
"Everything had to be changed in our interaction and contact with the residents. It was hard for the staff and hard on the families. We were able to keep the virus out of our facility until September that year, with window visits and phones for the families to connect with their loved ones. There was no hugging, no meals in the dining room, no group activities, and we had to add staff to be able to care for each individual resident. We learned to get very creative in keeping the spirits up for all of us. We had theme days when staff dressed up, "theme carts" with a costumed staff member who served, for instance, ice cream sundaes to each room, and Bingo played with residents in their room doorway and numbers called out over our intercom system. We did a lot of creative things!"
Then Kathy reflected that Covid was not as bad as the flood in 2010 that closed the Care Center. Kathy explained that "with Covid, the residents were still here. With the flood, the residents were all re-located and gone from the facility for three months to fix the flood damage. That was definitely worse!"
Kathy and her six siblings came with her parents, Myron and Eldoris Schumacher, from Stewart, Minn. to New Richland, where she finished her last three years of high school, graduating in 1975. Her father passed away a year ago and her mother is a resident at the Care Center now.
Kathy has lived most of her adult life in New Richland. She has two daughters, Mollie and Marcie. Mollie lives in New Richland with her husband, Brandon, and her four children: Spencer, Marnie, Libbie, and Mace. Spencer, the oldest, and Mace, the youngest, shared graduating this spring from high school and preschool, respectively. Marcie lives in Waseca and has a special friend, Corey.
Kathy and her husband, Chuck, live in Freeborn. Her retirement plans include continuing to watch all kinds of sports programming with him, which they both really enjoy. Kathy doesn't expect a lot of traveling in her retirement. She says, "Maybe we'll do some day trips, though I would like to go to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, and maybe a trip to Hawaii." Otherwise, she is hoping to do some gardening now and possibly pick up crocheting again.
Though Kathy did do babysitting with her grandchildren and gave them a ride to the school bus each morning before going to work, she says, "I'm looking forward to spending more time with them and planning some fun days with them."
Summing up her years at the Care Center, Kathy says, "I am so fortunate to have had the opportunity to work at this facility for all these years! I've had such great co-workers. I didn't have to drive out of town for my work, and the Care Center always, always worked with staff to allow time to go to school activities and other family and personal matters."
"I most enjoyed working with the residents, and that includes their families, too. I've met a lot of people over 42 years! I will miss that."