On May 8, residents, staff, and friends of LSS’ Hidden Lake community in North St. Louis County gathered to dedicate their new Woodworking Shop. The shop was made possible by a very generous donation of tools from the grandson of woodworking enthusiast John T. Moehring.

During the ceremony, Hidden Lake resident Leon Steinbrueck was one of many who thanked the late Mr. Moehring’s family. “Today, (John) is looking down on you and smiling,” Leon said. “And maybe brushing a little sawdust off his sleeve.” With that, Leon presented Mr. Moehring’s great-grandson with a rocking horse-style wooden motorcycle — the first project completed in the new shop.

So many hands have touched this project; the team at Hidden Lake gives great thanks for their partner organizations who helped bring Mr. Moehring’s woodshop back to life.

Hidden Lake's New Woodworking Shop

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Strike up the band! Once a month, a group of local musicians gathers in Lenoir Woods’ community center for a lively, rockin’ jam session. Covering folk, jazz, blues, and rock music from the last six decades, the evening sessions welcome a rotating crew of musicians from the Columbia area, including Lenoir Woods resident Cyrus O. Harbourt (on baritone sax), as well as Lenoir’s Senior Living Counselor Stephanie Flakne’s husband Mark (on guitar) and son Grant (on bass).

Also pictured in the images below are Brian Sears on drums, Dale Pauley on guitar, and Patty Crane on keyboard. Interested in sitting in on a session, either to listen or to play? Contact Stephanie Flakne at 573.876.5893.

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We’d love to hear from you! Located in Columbia, MO 65201, Lenoir Woods senior living offers independent living, REACH Short Stay Rehabilitation, assisted living, and skilled nursing. For more information or to arrange a visit, click here.

Lenoir Woods Jam Session

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Talk about retiring in style! Eleven Concordia Village residents “took their little turn on the catwalk” April 3 for the community’s first-ever fashion show.

The event welcomed forty guests, including many Future Residency Program members, to a special luncheon, where residents showed off some of the season’s freshest looks, courtesy of our friends at The Clothesline. Click below for images of the event.

Located in Springfield, IL 62711, Concordia Village senior living offers independent living, REACH Short Stay Rehabilitation, assisted living, and skilled nursing. For more information or to arrange a visit, click here.

Concordia Village Fashion Show

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“Around 1970, my dad’s mother died,” recalls Jerry Carlson, a resident at Concordia Village. “She was the last of my grandparents to pass away. Dad was not given to being very expressive. He just said, ‘That’s that.’”

“Years later, I thought back on that and it occurred to me what he was really saying is, that generation’s gone,” Jerry says. “I realized then that I didn’t know very much about my grandparents, or even my parents.”

That was something he didn’t want for his children, so he set to work writing his life’s story. And soon, he would have help in the form of the Concordia Village Writing Club.

The group’s roots date back about one year, when a retired professor from the University of Illinois held a workshop in the community’s library to help other residents like Jerry begin the work of writing out their own experiences. Today, seven of the original group are still at it, meeting once a month to swap ideas, share inspiration, and motivate one another to keep refining their craft.

“It’s something I always intended to do,” says George Myers, one of the founding club members. “I kept starting over and starting over. But this time it seems to be sticking.” Thanks in part to the group’s participation, George has made some serious headway toward completing his memoirs, which he hopes to someday set on the shelf beside similar books written by his brother and sister.

Digital printing has been a real blessing for autobiographers. While most of Concordia Village’s writers tell their tales using pen and paper, recently student volunteers from Springfield’s Lutheran High School have begun transcribing the group’s manuscripts into computer documents. Already, longtime group member Pat Long has seen her work converted to electronic format, and another, Betty Hays, is starting to see the results of the volunteer typists’ work.

Most of the writers tell their tales in conversational language, both because it’s easiest to write in and, more importantly, because it too can serve as a historical document, showing later generations how the current ones speak. “I tell my stories the way I talk to my kids,” says Joyce Schmidt. “My grandkids are growing up a thousand miles apart so I want them to know their roots, so I am recording what my youth was like in Maryland.”

Recently, member Dottie McVeigh finished her first volume and got to see it in print. “It started so simply,” she says. “Lying awake at night thinking about my life prompted me to start jotting down things I wanted to write about. It all just came together.” After her daughter proofread it for her, it was off to the printers. For $35, she was able to print enough copies to supply her family.

“It would be easy for us to say, ‘I grew up here, and I did this,’ but that’s not what we want to do, ultimately,” says Jerry Carlson, who today is one of the group’s most prolific writers. “We want our children and grandchildren to have a better feeling for who we are as people. That’s so important to us.”

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We’d love to hear from you! Located in Springfield, IL 62711, Concordia Village senior living offers independent living, REACH Short Stay Rehabilitation, assisted living, memory care assisted living, and skilled nursing. For more information or to arrange a visit, click here.

“You don’t want to think about getting old, but it’s something that happens”, says Lothar Bacher. “You think it happens to other people. But then one day you find yourself asking, ‘What do you mean I can’t walk up the steps anymore?’” He laughs.

For Lothar and Alice Bacher, the house was becoming too much work, and after Lothar retired, they realized they were ready for a smaller place.

Their son Claus had known for some time how hard his parents were struggling to maintain their home – especially his mother. And when they came to the decision to move, he was only too happy to help them find a new place. “My wife and I took them all around Springfield to look at all the places,” he says, “Once they saw Concordia Village they were hooked.”

“This place just said, ‘Hello,’” Alice says, smiling.

Seeing the difference between the way things had been and the way things could be was a revelation for Lothar, especially when it concerned his wife. “It takes a lot of work to keep a house in order,” he says. “Men are used to going to work every morning, and when we come home at night, we just expect everything to be done. We don’t have to see what it takes to get it all done.”

“Alice has a right to retire too,” he says.

And at Concordia Village, she’s got the chance to do exactly that. Thanks to the housekeepers, the maintenance crew, and the groundskeepers, Alice has a chance to relax and enjoy time with Lothar in a way she didn’t before.

Plus, Alice says, she’s having a great time meeting new people. “You kind of have to,” she says. “The people are so friendly, and there are more activities than you can handle.” When she and Lothar aren’t playing games, going to classes or participating in discussion groups, they spend their time going on evening walks and getting acquainted with people in the dining room. In short – they’re doing everything but worrying about the house.

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We’d love to hear from you! Located in Springfield, IL 62711, Concordia Village senior living offers independent living, REACH Short Stay Rehabilitation, assisted living, memory care assisted living, and skilled nursing. For more information or to arrange a visit, click here.