A Garden Grows With Golden Opportunities—

Nurturing A Woman’s Wish For A Green Thumb

By Kendra Bobowick

A thin stalk of salvia spiking above the flowers gave shape to a garden of petunias, budding marigolds, and deep colored asters that looked as if they would smudge color against Julia Baysinger’s fingers. A blooming flower garden and birdfeeders decorate the landscape outside her window in the Lutheran Home in Southbury. At 100 years old and now living in the skilled-nursing facility, Ms Baysinger can again get her hands into the fresh, sun-loving flower beds she enjoyed in her own home.

Newtown-based Golden Opportunities managing director Knettie Archard met with the home’s recreation director Collette Kowalski earlier this year in the hope of granting one resident’s wish.

In past weeks Ms Baysinger’s wish came true.

“We found some residents who wanted to garden again,” Ms Archard said. “But they couldn’t reach the ground.” The problem was clear when Ms Baysinger rolled into the courtyard in her wheelchair. A conventional garden planned along the ground would not work for her. With a room with a view of birdfeeders placed right outside and beyond them the garden, Ms Baysinger had always enjoyed gardening and had taught the hobby to her daughter Julyann Baysinger, who visits her mother. The two can now visit the garden together.

“We decided a raised bed would be good — something they could get their hands on,” Ms Archer said. Joining Ms Baysinger were several more residents who wanted to put their green thumbs to use. Keeping the resident’s name confidential, Ms Kowalski said, “One woman in particular loves to weed and loves to water…I had another man who also loves to water.”

Through friends Ms Archard spoke with Keith and Debbie Mozer of Massachusetts who constructed raised beds — actually 4-by-5-foot trays filled with soil set up like a tall, rolling bed frame. The mobile flowerbeds left enough clearance for residents in wheelchairs to roll up close and do their garden tending. The Mozers contributed the materials, Golden Opportunities provided funds, and Shortts’s Farm & Garden Center of Sandy Hook provided the soil. The Newtown Garden Club also made financial contributions while the Lutheran Home residents’ family members paid for the plantings.

“So many kindnesses allowed us to grant this wish,” Ms Archard said. “We’re very grateful for all of them.”

Ms Archard noted another contribution made for sentimental reasons. A group of women who had worked in Newtown donated to the project in memory of a colleague’s mother.

Restoring the ability to garden, like any other activity that is lost from a resident’s routine when they move to the nursing facility, is significant. “It’s something they did and when everything else is taken from them it’s a big deal,” Ms Kowalski said. Wishes may be small, like the dishtowels that one resident favors as useful gifts, but they hold a lot of meaning for the recipients. “Wishes are little things like a new book, something to put in their rooms like they would out in their home,” said Ms Kowalski.

Golden Opportunities is a newly established nonprofit organization meant to reach isolated or lonely individuals. Volunteers are matched with residents in homes including Ashlar of Newtown, and facilities in Derby, Shelton, Fairfield, Southbury, and Danbury, who welcome a visit, interaction, companionship, and wish granting.

“If the wishes are something we can grant we will make it happen,” Mr Archard said.

The organization relies on grants, fundraising, and donations. Golden Opportunities works with the families and staff at the various facilities to identify and work with residents. The offices are at 1 Riverside Road suites in Sandy Hook. Call 426-3301 for information.