Girls brighten day at the Manor

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent 
 
The isolation of social distancing and quarantine has made life hard for everyone, but nursing home residents have perhaps received the shortest end of the stick. However, two young ladies decided to make lemonade from lemons. Preslee Fitzwater, 12, and her sister Addie, 10, daughters of Michelle and William Fitzwater, decided to write letters and color pictures to give residents “something to hang on their wall.” 
Michelle said her girls needed something to do during quarantine. What better way than to offer encouragement?
“Technically, I didn’t do anything — my girls did it,” Michelle said. 
According to Allison Farella, director of the Weston County Manor, the isolation has been hard on the residents because they can no longer eat together or visit with one another. 
“It’s caused a lot of them to feel down,” Farella said. “There’s no end in sight.” 
Because Easter was coming, Preslee said, she knew that if she were a resident of the Manor, she would want to be visited by her loved ones. She was sad that the residents would miss out on those visits this year. That’s why she decided to put in the effort and do something thoughtful like letters and pictures. 
“I thought I could brighten someone’s day,” Preslee said. “I enjoyed coloring all of them, knowing they’d be enjoyed.” 
“I know that it makes their day, and it makes me happy,” Addie said. 
In addition to coloring pictures, the sisters also started writing letters. Michelle said the first ones were pretty basic and generic, but now they’ve formed relationships with their new pen pals and the letters are more personal. When quarantine is over, she said, the girls are excited to meet their Manor friends and have already discussed going on walks and doing puzzles with them. 
“It makes my day to sit down and write back,” Preslee said. 
Farella said they are trying to keep the residents busy by doing “anything we can do” and making the extra effort to engage them to deter loneliness. They’ve planted vegetables with the residents and even brought in some animals. 
“Our staff has really stepped it up,” Farella said. “They love just any form of animal that comes to visit them.” 
Farella stressed that it’s still important for loved ones to stay connected through phone calls, video-chatting, writing letters and more. Anyone who has any questions or wants to connect with the residents can call Farella at 746-3713.
“They deserve some kind of social(ization),” Michelle said.