Redington Memorial Home
Redington Offers Cozy Home for Life’s Next Journey | December 2018
By Maria Landry
Founded 80 years ago as a place for “the little old ladies of Skowhegan,” Redington Memorial Home is now a community of both men and women enjoying the next journey of their lives.
“We take people who are 65 or older—most of them are older than that,” said Administrator Eunice Thorpe from her office on the first floor of the home, overlooking Water Street.
She added, “Nowadays we’ve had people in their 80s call and say, ‘Well, I’m just looking around trying to get ideas. I’m still going swimming and I ride my bike.’ So they’re coming in later and living longer, which is wonderful.”
John McClellan purchased the Redington Memorial Home building, located on the corner of North Avenue and Water Street, in 1938—just a few years before the current youngest resident, age 77, was born (the oldest resident will be 99 in January).
Named in honor of McClellan’s mother, Lydia Redington McClellan, the building was originally a three-story Victorian mansion built in 1871.
In 2007 a major expansion nearly doubled the capacity from 16 beds to 31. Most of the rooms are private with their own baths, and four are semi-private.
The architect who designed the expansion matched the original style, and “the inside of the building has been maintained,” said Thorpe.
The front room is even appointed with a 100-plus-year-old piano that helps make the room “look warm and cozy and comfortable like it should be, in a Victorian home,” she added.
“Right now we have 26 residents,” she said. “They’re local people, for the most part. They watch out for each other, and if they notice someone’s not at the table … ‘Is she okay?’ If someone goes out to the hospital … ‘Are they okay? What’s going on?’ It’s an extended family, and they all care about each and want to know about their well-being.”
Thorpe says residents are mostly independent but may need some help. “If they need assistance with showering, getting dressed, help out of a chair from time to time, this is what we offer,” Thorpe said. “For the most part they can do their own. For the most part they want to do their own. To convince them that a little help isn’t bad is a big conversation.”
Redington Memorial Home offers three meals a day plus snacks, daily activities, a beautician twice a week, Bible study, and trips out for shopping and more.
“Come spring and summer, they’ll go on barbecues, they’ll go for rides, they’ll go out for ice cream, they’ll go to a play,” Thorpe said. “We have entertainment that comes in. We have a fellow that comes in and plays the accordion. We used to have residents that would play [the piano], which was really delightful. They’d go in around quarter after 4, 4:30, play for a half-hour, and then they’d all go to supper. It was just … the end of the day, relaxing.”
Children from local schools and organizations, including Cub Scouts, will come visit residents from time to time.
“They’ll do puzzles, they’ll read, they’ll do a craft,” Thorpe said. “Depending on the time of year, they’ll decorate cookies. Fun stuff for the residents, for the kids. The kids you’ve got to keep occupied, and the residents you’ve got to keep occupied, so you get that common ground and it works well.”
“That’s the biggest thing, just keeping them busy and bringing in people so they are part of the community,” she noted. “So they’re not isolated.”
A couple of therapy dogs make stops at Redington Memorial Home as well, and the residents “love it,” according to Thorpe.
One of the dogs—“the sweetest, fluffiest dog,” she says—is owned by a chaplain from Hospice.
“We have had Hospice come in for end of life,” she said. “It’s making them more comfortable. It’s relieving some of their anxiety, some of their pain. It’s a whole spectrum. I personally think it’s a wonderful thing. It helps them relax more.”
When a resident passes away, a chaplain will perform a celebration of life service at Redington. In the spring Thorpe plans to get a remembrance bench to set up outdoors.
“I want an arbor. I want to fix it up and just have a nice place they can sit and reminisce, think. We have a side door that goes out to a courtyard, and there’s a gazebo. It’s fenced in, so we don’t have to worry.”
For now, though, Thorpe and the Redington crew of 22 staff members are focused on the holiday season. Each year they host a Festival of Trees. The trees are decorated in time for Skowhegan’s annual Holiday Stroll and stay up through the end of December.
“We have businesses in town that come in and volunteer,” Thorpe said. The Redington staff sets up the trees and ensures lights are working, and then the businesses and organizations decorate them.
“It’s their ideas, their decorations. They go to town. The ideas they come up with, the creativity for making the designs, it’s unbelievable,” Thorpe said.
Other holiday traditions include opening up Thanksgiving and Christmas meals to residents’ families.
“It’s a traditional Christmas or Thanksgiving meal. They enjoy it. There have been times we’ve had to put people up in the activity room. It’s nice to see the families get together and enjoy the time.”
The family ambiance at Redington is echoed in everything from the festive trees to the residents leaving their doors open to the camaraderie evident as people chat and enjoy lunch together.
“It’s a great place to be. It’s a great place to work. It’s a great place for elderly to come for the next journey of their life,” Thorpe said. “It’s just home.”
Learn more at the Redington Memorial Home website.
