"Glen Campbell I'll Be Me" Tells Powerful Story of Music Legend Living with Alzheimer's
Glen Campbell is a music legend, winner of the Grammy for Lifetime Achievement and a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. He also has Alzheimer's.
In 2011, Campbell set out on an unprecendented tour across America. What made this tour extraordinary was that he had recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Glen and his wife went public with his diagnosis and announced that he and his family would set out on a "Goodbye Tour." The tour went on for 151 spectacular sold out shows across America over a year and a half.
The film tells the music legend's story. His life, his music and the extraordinary 151-city "Goodbye Tour" de force that's made him a hero.
"Glen Campbell I'll Be Me" debuts October 24 in theaters New York, Tennessee, New Jersey and Arkansas. The film will be released in Minneapolis and Rochester, Minnesota, and other Midwestern locations on October 31.
Visit www.glencampbellmovie.com for more information.
Ecumen Opens Its First Senior Living Community in Michigan
Ecumen is once again teaming up with Edward Rose & Sons, a Michigan real estate developer, on a new senior living community in Clinton Township, Mich., northeast of Detroit. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony is today.
Chuck Zimmerman: The Joy of Service Defines His 35 Years With Ecumen
In his 35 years at Ecumen, Chuck Zimmerman has done his part in changing aging, presiding over countless transformations in senior care. All that experience makes him certain of one thing: there are plenty more changes to come.
An Unlikely Caregiver Battles Dementia with Friendship at Ecumen Prairie Hill in St. Peter
Doug Mehlhaff’s job description is about caretaking rather than caregiving. But lately it’s hard to make the distinction.
As Environmental Services Manager at Ecumen Prairie Hill and Sand Prairie in St. Peter, Minn., Doug is responsible for the bricks and mortar and the surrounding grounds — making sure the residents have a safe, clean and well-maintained place to live.
But when you see Doug working at that job, very often you see Bill Sexe too. Bill is 63 years old and is a resident at Ecumen Prairie Hill. He has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s and Lewy body disease, a progressive brain disorder that cause motor impairment and is the second leading cause of dementia in the elderly. The routines of daily life are full of challenges for him.
Bill and Doug have formed a deep and abiding bond — a bigger-than-dementia friendship that touches the heart of everyone who sees them together.
“This is such a special relationship,” says Nicki Rehnelt, the housing director. “Seeing Doug and Bill moving through the day together is just so uplifting.”
It’s not that they do anything out of the ordinary. Rather, it’s that the very ordinary things they do together take on a special meaning because of Bill’s disease and Doug’s determination to help him have a normal life.
They pull weeds. They water flowers. They clean carpets. Or they just go for a walk.
Doug says when Bill came to live at Ecumen Prairie Hill last April it was just so obvious that Bill want to be doing more — that he was not going to succumb to this disease.
As if it were meant to be, the friendship just happened. “I just sort of started helping Bill help himself,” Doug said. “I knew that he could be doing more.”
Their routine is now well-established. Most days, they’ll have breakfast together and get to work, side by side. “If I don’t see Bill, I really miss him,” Doug says.
“Bill just wants to be one of the guys, and there’s only about 10 years difference in our ages,” says Doug. “We’re able to communicate and just be good friends. Sometimes he’ll have a really bad day, and we’ll talk it through and find the faith side of a bad situation.”
And they find wisdom. Doug says the main thing he has learned though his friendship with Bill is simply this: “No matter what, live every day to the fullest.”
Top 5 Blog Posts - October 6
Baby Elsie, our youngest volunteer, topped Ecumen's list of most popular blog posts last week. In case you missed out, here are the stories our online visitors found most interesting.
Elsie Williams, 9 Months Old, is Changing Aging as Ecumen's Youngest Volunteer
"Smile" on Ecumen When You Shop on Amazon
Dr. John Brose on Dementia Care: It Doesn't Have to Be This Way
Adeline Carlson, a Gold Star Mother Living at Ecumen Detroit Lakes, Remembers That Day - Always
Star Tribune Highlights Ecumen's Efforts to Make Communities More Age Friendly
To read more Changing Aging stories or Ecumen news, please visit ecumen.org.
Ecumen Scholars Program To Train Nurses Featured in Mankato Free Press
In today’s Mankato Free Press, Jessica Bies reports on Ecumen’s initiative to address the critical shortage of nurses being trained to care for Minnesota’s rapidly aging population.
Working with Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU), Ecumen is creating the Ecumen Scholars program to provide educational, vocational and financial opportunities for nursing students to pursue careers in senior health care.
The program is supported by a $1.9 million grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation.
SCAN Foundation Summit Makes One Wonder: Shouldn't The United States Have A Strategy For Paying for Alzheimer's Care?
If we can build railroads, airplanes and highways, our country should be able to build new, viable solutions for long-term services and supports that help millions of Americans with Alzheimer's and other long-term care needs.
Star Tribune Highlights Ecumen’s Efforts To Make Communities More Age Friendly
Ecumen, the City of Apple Valley, Minn., and national and international business partners, have been working for the past two years on the issue of how to make communities more age friendly.
This week the “Vitalocity!” initiative convened a three-day workshop in Apple Valley to get specific about how to make age-friendliness a reality. Ecumen’s partners in Vitalocity! are Kendal Corporation,a Pennsylvania-based senior services nonprofit company, and BusinessLab, a UK-based global strategy consultancy.
See Star Tribune Reporter Liz Sawyer’s story about the workshop, including an interview about the initiative with Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts, and Sawyer's follow-up story on specific steps Apple Valley could take to be more age friendly.
Ecumen of Litchfield Resident Don Nordlie’s Eyewitness Account of the Battle of Iwo Jima Memorialized
Don and Wanda Nordlie, residents of Ecumen of Litchfield, were at the battle of Iwo Jima almost 70 years ago. He was a Marine sergeant, and she was a nurse.
Two other Litchfield men, Roger Tipka, U. S. Army, and Stan Mortenson, U.S. Navy, also were there.
Don, Roger and Stan raised the flag during the National Anthem at a Minnesota Twins game a couple of weeks ago, no doubt remembering the famous Iwo Jima flag-raising that happened six days into what would be a bloody 36-day battle leaving almost 30,000 dead.
Litchfield resident Tim Mergen has brought their story to life, turning their battlefield recollections into a presentation honoring their service. Mergen points out that Iwo Jima is “pretty close to the size of Litchfield” and asks his audiences to “imagine going around Litchfield and laying 30,000 bodies across that town.”
How Mergen pieced the story together and continues to bring it home for local residents is the cover story in the September issue of Zest Magazine, a publication of the Litchfield Independent Review.
Elsie Williams, 9 Months Old, Is Changing Aging as Ecumen’s Youngest Volunteer
Meet Elsie Williams, the youngest, sweetest and cutest volunteer at Ecumen Seasons at Maplewood.
Last week Elsie mugged for the Star Tribune as she played Bingo with namesake resident Elsie Gustafson, 94. Star Tribune Columnist Gayle Rosenblum wrote the heartwarming story of Elsie and Elsie — a tale of how a charming 9-month-old connects across the generations
“It brings me so much joy to have her bring joy to older people,” says Amy Williams, Elsie’s proud mother, who is Ecumen’s Director of Development. “But it’s equally a gift to her. My Elsie will have so many friends of different ages.”