book- Christmas Bazaar

(Place on page 187 after para. 2)

I loved working at the Manor's annual Christmas Bazaar in early December. My usual job was raffle ticket seller. It gave me the chance to stop playing social worker for a day and just be  plain ol' Greg around staff, families and residents.

All proceeds went to the resident's activities and wheelchair fund. Vendors set up shop in the first floor dining  room. The staff were allowed to dress in their best Christmas attire ( or ugliest Christmas sweater). One of the staff from either Dietary or Maintenance dressed as Santa and mingled amongst the crowd. Hot dogs were sold for a buck , Christmas carols played over the buzz of the shoppers, and laughter echoed through out the first floor.

Families would take their loved one down to the Bazaar to shop or stroll/roll from vendor to vendor. To many residents, it was like the old days, the days they would Christmas browse for their children. Now it was a chance to return the favor, a few hours to bond and forget the everyday routine of life in a nursing facility. The smiles on their faces  made it all worthwhile.

Maybe it would bring back fond memories of Christmas past. It always touched my heart to see families return each year, even after their loved one had passed. That alone said  so much about the facility and the  people who worked there.

 For the staff it was a lot of work, but  it was also a great public relation event  for the facility. And it tended to soften the misconceptions about a nursing home being a joyless place. The Manor was really  one big  family. It was run by a huge  corporation, but the facility had a" mom n' pop" feel to it  in those  innocent days. It  was truly  a special place to work.

 Down the road the business aspect of the facility would become even more prevalent, making warm and fuzzy events like the Christmas Bazaar obsolete. For now, simple yet special times like the Christmas Bazaar were cherished until even those memories melted away like a dusting of spring snow.