Each year, the Lutheran Convalescent Home Auxiliary invites its chief supporters to a special thank-you luncheon to celebrate a year of fundraising. Held at Greenbriar Country Club, this year’s Benefactors Luncheon saw Auxiliary member Anita Trautmann present Lutheran Senior Services President John Kotovsky with a check for $41,981 to support older adults who have outlived their ability to pay for the care they need through LSS Benevolent Care.

“I never get tired of thanking you,” said Kotovsky, who was attending his fifth Benefactors Luncheon since coming to LSS five years ago. “You do so much to help LSS fulfill its mission. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for all that you do.”

Guests were also treated to a cavalcade of spectacular performances courtesy of Ms. Senior Missouri, a touring group composed of current and past winners of the state beauty pageant for older adults. Click below to see all the sights from the day’s events.

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Say it loud and say it proud: “I’m not getting older. I’m getting better!” In the spirit of aging beautifully, we present a year-long series on The Classics ­— books, movies, cars, and music that just get better and better as time goes by.

Ask anyone who’s heard her sing — there’s only one Ella Fitzgerald. Known the world over as the Queen of Jazz, “Lady Ella” was universally heralded for both her technically perfect singing style and her improvisational abilities. But Ella’s road to stardom wasn’t an easy one, and there’s a lot you might not know about the First Lady of Song.

• After her mother died in 1932, Ella spent some time working with a Mafia numbers runner. She ended up in an orphanage in the Bronx, and later a state reformatory for girls. She escaped, and spent some time homeless.
• Ella grew up wanting to be a dancer, and her life may have taken a very different path if not for the Edwards Sisters. The little-known dancing duo were scheduled to go on just before Ella at her debut performance at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater. She was so intimidated by their skill that she opted to sing instead. She went on to win one of the theater’s Amateur Night contests, taking home a $25 grand prize.
• Perpetually shy in spite of her years in the limelight, Ella was a quiet but devoted supporter of the American Heart Association and the City of Hope Medical Center. Today, the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation runs a children’s book program that provides reading material for disadvantaged youths. To learn more, visit EllaFitzgeraldFoundation.org

Working with seniors isn’t always easy for caregivers. At LSS, nurses and aides come to see their role as more than a job — for them, it’s a calling to make a real impact on the lives of the people they serve. And while that calling can sometimes bring difficulty and heartache, those hard times make the good moments that much sweeter. For example, take the story of Julie Bayless, a staff member at LSS’ Breeze Park community.

Lutheran Senior Services Home Health opened its doors for business in 1997. That was 15 years ago, and since that time, the agency has provided skilled medical care to thousands of LSS campus residents and people living in metro St. Louis. The agency has also expanded its services into Illinois.

“Fifteen years have gone by quickly,” said Marcia Eckrich, LSS In-Home Services’ executive director.

According to Eckrich, LSS began offering home health services to extend the quality medical care already available in our senior living communities to individuals living at home.

“Home care services are a natural fit for LSS,” said Eckrich. “It is a much needed option for people to continue their recuperation at home after an injury, discharge from the hospital or one of our REACH units. It will become even more central in the future as healthcare reform takes hold and Medicare looks to us to help prevent patients from returning to the hospital.”

Four employees have been with LSS Home Health since operations began. They are Barb Costigan, RN; Karen Dreher, RN; Angela Kirkley-Manion; Home Health Aide; and Marcia Eckrich, executive director.

“Our staff sets us apartment from other agencies. From the nurses to the support staff, this team is committed to providing the best possible care for our patients,” said Eckrich.

LSS Home Health is a Medicare-certified and stated licensed agency that provides nursing, physical, occupational or speech therapy services for older adults who are recuperating from any injury or illness at home. This care requires an order from physician and all individuals have a right to choose their home care provider. For more information, call 314.963.3430 or visit the program’s website.

Working with seniors isn’t always easy for caregivers. At LSS, nurses and aides come to see their role as more than a job — for them, it’s a calling to make a real impact on the lives of the people they serve. And while that calling can sometimes bring difficulty and heartache, those hard times make the good moments that much sweeter.

For example, take the story of Julie Bayless, a staff member at LSS’ Breeze Park community. “Clarence [Vollmar] and I hit it off right from the beginning,” she says. “He has a great sense of humor. And we both love baseball.”

Julie works in Breeze Park’s care center, where residents receive 24-hour nursing care. There, she met Clarence during one of the hardest times of his life — after some medical setbacks, he found himself in a wheelchair, feeling more than a little defeated. “He would lay in his bed all day,” Julie remembers, “but as our bond got stronger, he slowly became more sociable. He started going on out trips and talking with his neighbors more.”

But the turning point for Clarence was 2011’s LSS Night at the Ballpark. Each year, an LSS resident is selected via an essay contest to throw out the first pitch of a Cardinals game. For Clarence, being chosen would be a dream come true. A Cardinals fan for more than 75 years and an amateur player his entire life, Clarence even has his own official Cardinals uniform, which he received as part of a fantasy baseball camp.

“I told Clarence about the contest,” Julie says, “and he told me, ‘I’m going to win this.’”

So that’s just what he did. With Julie’s help, he got his thoughts down on paper. He got back into shape, tossing a baseball back and forth with the care center’s staff every morning. And when Clarence’s big moment came, he walked out to the mound in front of a cheering crowd at Busch Stadium, arm in arm with Julie.

To this day, Julie can’t help but tear up when she thinks about it. “To actually be there to experience that,” she said, “to see him accomplish something that he’s always dreamt of doing … it meant more to me than words could ever say. I’m so grateful I could be a part of that.”

Thanks to Julie, the barriers in Clarence’s life that had once seemed so insurmountable had come down. Suddenly, anything was possible again. Within months, he was packing his things and getting ready to move out of 24-hour nursing care and into an assisted living apartment.

The day he moved out of the care center, music was playing in the Great Room, and Clarence got up to dance with a friend of the family. “I was there behind him, holding him by the belt loop because I was afraid he was going to fall,” Julie says, smiling through tears at the thought of that day. “When he shooed me away, I stood back and just watched in amazement to see how strong and determined he’d become.”

“It was just breathtaking.”

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