THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 8, 1996 TAG: 9609060206
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THUMPS UP!
SOURCE: BY REBECCA MYERS CUTCHINS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 96 lines
When Deanna Elliott brought her work home a few weekends ago, she needed four minivans.
She also needed three close friends to serve as chauffeurs, several gallons of ice cream and a variety of gooey toppings.
Elliott is activities director of Emily Green Shores, and she was hosting 20 of the retirement home's 39 residents at an ice cream social in her home.
``To me, it was a natural thing to bring them to my home,'' said Elliott, 45, who has served as Emily Green's social director for five years. ``They feel like I'm part of their family.''
Alene Wixson, who has lived at Emily Green just seven months, calls Elliott ``the glue that holds this place together.''
``She does an awful lot,'' said Wixson, 83, who resides in independent living quarters next to the main facility. ``She's supposed to work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but there are lots of times she works much longer than that.''
If a volunteer doesn't show up to run errands for a resident, for example, Elliott will go out and do it herself.
``She does so many little extras all the time,'' Wixson said. ``And she just seems to never get tired.''
At the retirement home, Elliott is a master at planning activities that are a little out of the ordinary.
She once organized a fashion show featuring residents in zany attire: a pin-striped suit with vertical rows of safety pins; a tea dress complete with dangling tea bags; a bridesmaid gown with cleaning supplies attached; a dinner dress donning fruit, vegetables and small cans of food; and a seersucker dress covered in lollipops.
Recently, residents were treated to a Hawaiian luau - complete with Hawaiian music, a hula dancer, crepe paper leis and a grass hut set up in the living room of the retirement home.
Though transportation sometimes can prove challenging, Elliott manages to escort her residents on numerous field trips outside the facility - despite having only one station wagon that belongs to the home.
Borrowed vehicles and volunteer drivers fill the void, allowing the seniors to go to Oceana to see the Blue Angels, to Willett Hall for military band concerts, to Chrysler Hall for musicals, to little theaters for plays, and to City Park and the Norfolk Botanical Garden for picnic lunches.
``Most anything that's going on, we go to it,'' said Margaret Clayton, 93, who has lived at Emily Green since 1989. ``And it's always so different and so interesting.''
Two years ago, Elliott established an ``adopt-a-grandparent'' relationship between residents at Emily Green and students at Sweethaven Christian Academy.
``Each class there has a grandma here,'' said Elliott, whose 5-year-old daughter attends the school.
``We have taken the residents over there to have Thanksgiving dinner, and at Christmas time the children come here to do a program,'' she said. ``My residents really, really enjoy having this relationship.''
Most of the residents living at Emily Green are in their 80s, she said.
``And a lot of these older people really love children, but we don't get that many children here at Emily Green,'' she said.
It was as a housekeeping supervisor that Elliott started working at the retirement facility about seven years ago, while her two older children were still in high school. When the activities director left two years later, Elliott asked to be considered for the job. She got it.
``I've always loved older people,'' said Elliott, who grew up in Iowa. ``I had a really good relationship with my grandmother, and I enjoyed her stories. I've always loved to sit and listen to older people.''
Elliott moved to the area 25 years ago, following a brother in the military stationed at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital. After working a brief stint at the now-defunct General Electric plant in Suffolk, Elliott met her husband and settled into homemaking.
``Most of my adult life, I was raising my two older sons, and then when they got into high school, my husband and I felt like we needed to have a little more income to get them ready for college,'' said Elliott, whose sons, ages 21 and 18, attend Gardner-Webb University, a liberal arts college in North Carolina.
Three years ago, Elliott was asked by the board of directors to serve as assistant administrator. She's also the home's volunteer coordinator.
``I wear a lot of hats,'' she said. ``and I really enjoy the job.''
Elliott credits her church, Jackson Memorial Baptist, for preparing her to work with older adults.
``I think a lot of my training in church work has been a real asset to the way I've been able to handle this job here,'' she said.
The most difficult part of her work, Elliott said, is becoming attached to residents then losing them through death or transfers to other facilities.
``When you work with older people, you can expect their time is not going to be real long with you,'' she said, ``so you've just got to love them while they're here.
``It doesn't devastate me. It just makes me sad,'' she said.
In her seven years at Emily Green Shores, Elliott has adopted a philosophy that's made it easy to stay focused and enjoy her work.
``I don't look at this place as a facility,'' she said. ``I look at it as a home.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Deanne Elliott is ``the glue that holds this place together,'' says
a resident of Emily Green Shores retirement home, where Elliott is
activities director. by CNB