Bryan Reynolds [00:00:04] Hello, hello, hello, welcome to Episode twenty four of the Linkage podcast by Episcopal Retirement Services. This episode is for the week of November 16th. Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Bryan Reynolds Vice President of Marketing for Episcopal Retirement Services, and I'm here with Kristin Davenport, director of communications for ERS and our executive producer. How are you, Kristen? 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:00:27] Oh, I'm doing great today, Bryan. I just have a couple of days off, as you know, and I feel refreshed and ready to be back at it. Glad to be here. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:00:34] Yeah. And I'd be remiss in wishing you a very happy birthday. Your birthday was yesterday. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:00:40] Thankyou very much it was fantastic. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:00:42] Great. Great. So the Linkage podcast is dedicated to educating our audiences about issues regarding aging, informing people about the mission of ERS and how that comes to life and our everyday interactions with our residents, clients, families and staff members. So, Kristen, you want to tell us a little bit about our show coming up. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:01:03] Today we have a resident of Marjorie P. Lee in Hyde Park. Her name is Peggy Downs. Peggy and I got together and had a great conversation. We talked about a lot of things, including daily routines and things like that. Always good to hear from our residents. And then, of course, we'll have an update for all things ERS from president and CEO Laura Lamb. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:01:26] Awesome. Well, another great show on tap. So with that being said, you want to introduce your first guest of Peggy? 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:01:35] Yes. So Peggy and I got together on the phone. We really enjoyed talking. We spoke several times before we actually recorded and we had a terrific conversation. So here is my guest, Peggy Downs. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:02:02] Welcome to our podcast, Peggy Downs, thanks for joining us today. Hello, Peggy. I'm so glad that you've decided to join us for the podcast today. I'm glad to be here. Wonderful. Tell us, how are things going for you at Marjorie P. Lee today? 

 

Peggy Downs [00:02:21] Well, they're going through pretty well. I went to Chloe's class. She had an exercise class every morning and she's wonderful. She also does Zoom to Deupree on three days a week and she's there every morning. So I did that. And then after this two o'clock, if I'm finished talking, is knitting with friends. We meet in the courtyard pavilion place and some people some people have come to talk. And William, the one of the people and the clergy here usually comes out and we learn a lot of stuff from him and he kinda listens in on things we say. And I'm pretty sure he takes back things to Jenny that we're talking about because they don't know what we're talking about, you know. So that's that's always good. You know, that's that's about it for today. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:03:21] Well, that sounds great. That sounds like a great day to me. 

 

Peggy Downs [00:03:24] Yes, good. It is good. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:03:26] Tell our listeners a little bit more about the fitness center and the classes that you take with Chloe. 

 

Peggy Downs [00:03:33] Oh, well, there you can you can insert the ten thirty in the morning to 115. You can certain days and you can stand apart part time. Either one. She's young, she's pretty. She's very inspirational and she's fun. Every Friday we have crazy socks. They have to wear socks with, you know, Fiona or something. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:04:00] That's awesome. The great days. I. 

 

Peggy Downs [00:04:02] It's a great way to start the day. We also have an alternative on TV and circuses to work here and is a video here to show us things to it because she's fun and we look forward to it. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:04:18] That is wonderful. So your routine, you're going to a class and taking part that way. What about other things in the fitness center? Is there anything else other than for gym? 

 

Peggy Downs [00:04:32] You can sign up for a time when you come down. I do that and I really do that on Tuesday, like at two o'clock. And only two people are allowed in there at the same time. And then they have to stay six feet apart and or someone is there to keep their eye on it. So you can do that. And not many people sign up for that, which is strange to me. There's very little time. And then there's also a swimming classroom, swimming groove, about four or five women. I don't do that, but they have to sign up for that. But it always has to be someone in the front and center. I regret very much that we can't do that on the weekend because there's no staff available. But, you know, take what you can get. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:05:20] That's right. During these times, that's almost a theme of how we live. So what are some of the other things that you do besides your exercise routine? Is there anything else that you're enjoying? 

 

Peggy Downs [00:05:33] Well, I have my little Margie here that everybody here is. You're aware of ERS, I'm sure. Oh, yes. And I sit and chat with my guys in Boston on the course. They have smartphones. I know, but they use our which I can on a lot on that. I also have a computer and I look at my my bank account and that stuff every day. A lot of Facebook because my kids are Facebook type is a luxury item. Now, I was quite a bit of TV, so, you know, you can't do much else. Well, you can. I mean, I got together on the decorating the pumpkins for Halloween. That was a disaster because I am terrible at arts and crafts and these people were doing wonderful things I was embarrassed to do. So they have I think yesterday they clearly did sign up to make Christmas ornaments. I didn't I'm not artsy crafty, so I avoid that. But Danny is in charge of that. So I think she comes up with all kinds of stuff. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:06:40] That sounds wonderful for if that's your thing. Now, you mentioned knitting. What what types of things do you like to knit? 

 

Peggy Downs [00:06:47] I have been knitting a newborn baby hats. I used to volunteer across Australia and the special care nursery, which is like they don't have an ICU unit there, but that's a special nursery. I triggers like 27 years and I'm still knitting baby hats. That's all I knit anymore. I used to wear sweaters and all kinds of stuff. I know baby hats. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:07:13] And those are wonderful. I've actually seen some of those and I've seen friends that have brought them home from the hospital with their child. And that's just such a wonderful thing. 

 

Peggy Downs [00:07:24] Well, unfortunately, right now the hospitals aren't accepting them, you know, with the coronavirus. You can imagine that. So I just come of accumulate them. And Chloe had two friends that had babies. And, you know, I try to give the people who have great grandchildren. I have to do  something with them. I've got all this yarn and I'm going to use it. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:07:46] That's fantastic. Well, I love that. That's so. Even though you say you're not artsy craftsy, that is a real skill. It's something that I hope I can do sometime.

 

Peggy Downs [00:07:54]  I think, frankly, my one daughter, my one daughter in Boston is very, very crafty that I'm not. I like to sketch little cartoon figures. I often do that, but that's just goofy stuff. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:08:09] Well, that's fun, though. That's a great, great thing to do. Wonderful. Well, Peggy, it's been really good to talk with you today and kind of catch up on on what you're doing to stay active and tell us all what one thing you're looking forward to the most after we've got this coronavirus in the rearview mirror and we don't have to worry about distancing in masks. 

 

Peggy Downs [00:08:32] Well, my my daughter comes to visit me twice a year. I would want to go with her out to the bike path. It was lovely because my husband I worked on that for years and years and years. I'd love to go back out there, although I don't walk very well. And I'd also like to go back to my beauty parlor in Montgomery because I went there for over 30 years and I miss that. My favorite restaurant in the on the way to Loveland. It's called the Corner Cafe. It's fantastic. They grew their own food, make their own stuff. And, you know, it's great. So it's kind of silly things, I guess. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:09:13] Oh, they're not silly at all. I think they're everybody can relate to a favorite restaurant, a good haircut and family. Those are definitely top of my list as well. 

 

Peggy Downs [00:09:24] Yeah. You have to realize, it's been since March the county we've been in lockdown and a march. I have that out of place three times the next week I'm going to the inner place. You have to have a medical appointment and you can't go anywhere else. And if you do, you have to go in quaratine when you come back. So you know can imagine, you have to get used to that. And I am. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:09:47] Mmhmm. Well, we've all got to stay vigilant right now and be resilient as much as we can until we get that vaccine and until we have a better way to to go about life in the future. 

 

Peggy Downs [00:10:01] I hope so. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:10:02] Yeah. Well, Peggy, it's been great to get to know you with these phone conversations. It's one of the the best reasons I can think of for starting this podcast. It's been a real delight to speak with you today. And thanks for joining us. 

 

Peggy Downs [00:10:14] Well, I'm glad I finally got together with you. 

 

Peggy Downs [00:10:17] Bye, Peggy. Take care. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:10:28] That was a wonderful interview, Kristin, with Peggy, I really enjoyed hearing about her desire to keep up routines and keep herself well. She's a woman after my own heart, because I'm certainly kind of built built the same way. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:10:44] Yes, that's for sure. You know, we we both know that you are much better at routines than I am. It's always uplifting, though, to hear people that use routines to keep on track. And it's definitely encouraging. Another thing Peggy spoke about was her knitting that she does. And we've had several guests on our show talking about their knitting of the infant hats and is another one of those. It was so great to hear that that's something that she's still working on. So, yeah, I have to get to know Peggy that way. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:11:18] Yeah. And it's she was so grateful for all of the efforts of our wellness team and our life enrichment team. So it's always nice to hear those kind words for such a special group of people that that lead those those activities. Well, with that being said, do you want to introduce our next segment? 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:11:39] Yes, absolutely. So obviously, we're all thinking ahead to the holidays. We have Thanksgiving just right around the corner. And it will be good to hear your conversation with our president and CEO Laura Lamb to hear what what she's thinking about these upcoming holidays. So here is Bryan and Laura. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:12:05] So we're back this week with president and CEO Laura Lamb. Hi, how are you, Laura? I'm doing well, Bryan. How about you? 

 

Laura Lamb [00:12:11] Doing good. I understand you just got back from a a beautiful few days and nature at the Red River Gorge. 

 

Laura Lamb [00:12:19] Oh, I did. I did. The secret's out. When I get stir crazy with these four walls, my husband and I go down to a different set of four walls. So we really enjoyed it. It was nice time. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:12:33] That's great. That's great. Several weeks ago you were kind of talking about the trends in the infection rates, both locally and nationally. And we certainly I think you had some warnings for us as far as those trends were really spiking. And we've really seen that come to fruition here in the last week particularly. And, you know, the holidays are coming up here in the next week. Thanksgiving's right, right ahead of us. And, of course, the Christmas season. And I you know, there's a number of mitigation strategies going on and new regulations and guidelines. But I wondered if we could start, particularly with the holidays. And, you know, just coming up, you know, what do you think the holidays are going to look like within our communities? 

 

Laura Lamb [00:13:33] Oh, that's a great question. You know, I have to tell you, I don't have a lot of good news. You know, we were really hopeful, frankly. The first of October, things are were so different late September, early October, and even Hamilton County and Jefferson County than they are now. And so in October, we were so hopeful that our dining rooms would be open and although different and unusual, that we would have a way to bring small groups of people together with the kind of the dining restaurant guidelines and, you know, late October, early November, that just blew up Bryan. Yeah, the incident rate in Jefferson County and Hamilton is just off the charts. We know that when the counties are high, you know, fast forward a couple of weeks and we're going to start getting cases. And sure enough, I wish I were wrong. Right. But that's exactly what's happened. So unfortunately, the leadership team got together and specifically looked at Thanksgiving, which, you know, the whole you know, Thanksgiving is based on eating together and breaking bread together. And it's right. It frankly is... And I know I've told you this, it's at my absolute favorite holiday of the year, my favorite holiday, because, you know, I love to cook and and bake and serve my family. 

 

[00:15:11] And, you know, so the unfortunate situation that we're in is that it's not safe to dine with people outside your family. Right. And so I applaud the CDC. The CDC has issued all of us guidelines, not just people that live in nursing homes. You know, Governor, Dr. Fauci said I have three kids and they live in different cities and I will not be getting together with any of my children this year. I'm going to have dinner with my wife. And why are we doing that? Because we want to have dinner next year together. Right. Right. We want to be reunited after this. Covid is finished and we have a vaccine and we're rebuilding our lives together, but it's not going to be this year. So, yeah, communicated with our residents and our families late last week that the dining rooms are going to remain close. You know, you ask what our dining what what Thanksgiving's going to look like. It's going to be joyful. Our dining staff have risen to the occasion again and it's all hands on deck. And the dining staff will provide a very traditional and very delicious meal. And all of our retirement communities, ECH, Marjorie P. Lee and Deupree House, and that'll be delivered to the residence door. And they will hunker down like all of us, and they will enjoy their dinner and think about this time next year. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:16:58] Yeah, I think that's important. Thinking about next year and certainly even in. My own life, my wife, my family, we're we're doing things separately this year, but really in an effort to make sure that we keep people safe and the people around us safe, so. 

 

Laura Lamb [00:17:14] There are so many creative things you can do. I mean, our tradition and our family is everyone has a note card and we write down what we're thankful for. And, you know, we can do that in a virtual way and write planning to keep that tradition alive. It'll just be on Zoom versus, you know, around the dinner table. So I think creativity is going to kind of really shine this year. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:17:44] Yeah, and I've heard a lot of talk about Zoom Thanksgiving this year, and particularly our seniors have become so much more tech savvy over the months. So, you know, that connection can can continue. So that that's exciting. 

 

Laura Lamb [00:17:58] It is exciting. It is exciting. You know, it's we're doing the best we can right now and we will have better days in the future. And I'm looking forward to 2021 holidays. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:18:13] Yeah, absolutely. So kind of zooming out a little bit, you know, again is the spike. We've seen the spike. We're starting to hear more about litigation strategies from different countries, different states, different counties, different cities. You know, and I always go back to that that saying that that you've brought up many times before is. You know, as our communities have spread, that impacts retirement communities like ours, and I wonder if you could talk about some of the mitigation strategies that you're seeing and experiencing and maybe even what's going on here in Ohio right now. 

 

Laura Lamb [00:19:00] Yeah, it's a great question, Bryan. Thank you. You know, it's interesting. My head often spins because we are in three states and multiple cities. And the approaches in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana have been very, very different. Kentucky and Ohio are a little closer aligned in terms of what the governors are doing. But but still, it's very different. And as an example, we just we found out today, Bryan, as you know, that Governor DeWine has issued a curfew, a 10:00 curfew for our state. And Andy Beshir last yesterday when I was in the gorge, actually, I overheard I don't know where we were. We I overheard that it was on the news, Selimi, that Andy Bushier was thinking about closing restaurants again. And, you know, that's a very different strategy to close versus a curfew. And, you know, it has a lot to do. What's happening at this specific state level and not one approach works in a particular state, because if the incidence is really growing among maybe college or younger adults, maybe that's why a curfew approach would would need to take place. 

 

[00:20:31] But I think Brashear is seeing that the incident rate is increasing in multiple different age cohorts. So that makes sense to close restaurants or bars. And he hasn't announced that. But that is kind of what what folks are talking and hearing that's on the table. So it's interesting. I also read an article recently that was so fascinating. You know, Europe, just like in the first wave, was a little bit ahead of us. And they are already a couple weeks into their surge. And it was really fascinating in Europe. What they're doing is they're keeping their schools open, but but making sure that they're socially distancing their students. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:21:22] Right. 

 

Laura Lamb [00:21:22] And then they're closing their restaurants and their bars across the board. And that is really enabled Europe to kind of get an early start on suppressing this second wave that they're seeing. So it'll be interesting to see how our country kind of takes that information in of what's happening abroad and figuring out what we need to do. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:21:49] Yeah, I think I've heard Michigan's taking a bit of a similar tack in that they're closing restaurants and bars and schools at the higher levels. But then, like the the the younger kids are staying with in school. So it's interesting to see him. I guess we'll see what that data looks like in the coming weeks or a month or so as. 

 

Laura Lamb [00:22:14] Right. For sure, no, it is fascinating, I mean, we're we always say this, don't we know this is a new virus? So we only know what we know. So, you know, it shouldn't be a surprise to people that, you know, different countries and different states are approaching it differently. And, you know, the benefit is, is we can all learn from one another if we're open to that. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:22:39] Right. Well, Laura, thank you again for for joining us this week. I know love to be talking under better circumstances, and I'm sure we'll we'll provide more updates as the coming weeks go by and hopefully even provide some holiday cheer between the two of us for the podcast as we get into the holidays. 

 

Laura Lamb [00:23:02] Yeah, let's try that. That would be good. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:23:04] Great. Thanks so much, Laura. Thank you, Bryan. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:23:17] Well, Bryan is always great to hear from Laura, and I think that the message that we all need to hear really is we need to be safe this holiday season. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:23:27] Yeah, certainly with all of the data that we're seeing and the information about how much spread of of covid-19 there is now, I think, you know, really hunkering down, you know, between our our families and for our residents, you know, staying, you know, safe within our communities is so important. And and I always appreciate Laura's input. I just I'm always, I guess, shocked. I'm not always shocked, but I'm just shocked that we're already at Thanksgiving and the Christmas season is upon us. So we're looking forward to, you know, what we can do and look at the positives here this holiday season. And Krisitn I just want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving. And I know we'll be joining joining again right after the Thanksgiving holiday, but merry Christmas and holiday season to you as well. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:24:24] Well, thank you, Bryan. And same to you and your family and, you know, to all our listeners, you know, if you take anything away from our conversations here, it's that all our lives are so important and we just safety right now and patience. There is no substitute for that. And for someone post on social media the other day about making sure the next time it is safe to gather around the table that everybody is there. And I just think that image of, you know, anybody being missing I think can help get us through those rough patches that we all experienced. 

 

Bryan Reynolds [00:25:03] Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, Laura had the same sentiment as well in our our segment. So I think that's what we're all really looking forward to, is hopefully we can gather together next year. Well, that's it for this latest episode of the Linkage podcast by Episcopal Retirement Services. For more information, you can visit us on our website at EpiscopalRetirement.com. We have lots of great content, including our linkage online blog resources to learn more about aging and the services we offer. We can follow. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to see what's going on within ERS and our communities. If you have any questions or feedback for us, please email us at info@erslife.org. 

 

[00:25:50] The Linkage podcast is produced by Kristin Davenport and Bryan Reynolds. Feoshia Daviss, our associate producer, our technical director, ERS Michelle Hoehn. I'd like to thank our guests, including Peggy Downes and of course, president and CEO of of Episcopal Retirement Services, Laura Lamb. On behalf of myself, Bryan Reynolds and Kristin Davenport, thank you so much for joining us and we'll look forward to catching up with everyone right after the Thanksgiving holiday. Thanks so much, Kristen. 

 

Kristin Davenport [00:26:23] Happy Thanksgiving.