{"id":224,"date":"2017-06-09T11:29:00","date_gmt":"2017-06-09T19:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/?p=224"},"modified":"2017-06-09T11:29:00","modified_gmt":"2017-06-09T19:29:00","slug":"marions-garden-comes-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/marions-garden-comes-to-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Marion’s Garden Comes To Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marion\u2019s Garden Club, Or How To Build A Dream<\/p>\n

Portola\u2019s skilled nursing facility director, Lorraine Noble, has started a Wednesday garden club, and she\u2019s asking for volunteers to help \u201cpreserve and enhance Marion\u2019s Garden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marion Vorhees is a skilled nursing resident who has spent several years bringing a patch of dirt and gravel behind the facility to brilliant, colorful life. Eastern Plumas Health Care\u2019s previous groundskeeper, Robert Hayes, used to bring cuttings from home and worked with Marion in her garden.<\/p>\n

Initially, according to Noble, Marion planted hens and chickens in one corner. Then, Noble gave Marion a private room where she could look out on her garden, and \u201cshe just went crazy.\u201d Noble said she showed Marion the plans for a beautiful landscaped space that an architect drew up back in 2001. That seemed to motivate her even further. When she could come out and help, she would. When she didn\u2019t feel up to it, Robert would bring her outside, and she\u2019d direct him to do various tasks from her chair.<\/p>\n

Over the past few years, they planted several trees, daffodils and iris. \u201cMarion physically planted all that stuff herself,\u201d said Noble. \u201cNow, her yellow roses line the entire side of the building and her tulips are open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noble explained that Marion was upset because her health has deteriorated. Noble started the Garden Club to encourage Marion to come out whenever she could. \u201cLast week,\u201d added Noble, \u201cit was raining out, but I could still plant the pansies. \u2018Next week,\u2019 I told her, \u2018we\u2019ll plant the lilies. Hopefully next week will be warm, and we\u2019ll be able to take you out again.\u2019 I\u2019m hoping this will spark her to eat right and kind of get back to life again, cuz she\u2019s my favorite girl!\u201d<\/p>\n

Noble said that getting out in the garden is good for her, because she gets to \u201cgo play in the dirt for two hours.\u201d But, it\u2019s what she\u2019s doing for Marion that stands out. Noble cuts flowers while she\u2019s out in the garden and brings them back into Marion\u2019s room and arranges them in a vase for her. \u201cShe\u2019s my mom when my mom\u2019s not here,\u201d Noble explained.<\/p>\n

Noble said she has several steady helpers in master gardeners Linda Rutherford and Lorene Fitzsimmons. Jeanne Harper, EPHC\u2019s occupational therapists, is also helping, along with Don Bliss, who has recently drawn up plans for the walkway and patio area. Marion\u2019s daughter brought large rocks from home with flowers planted in them.<\/p>\n

Noble hopes to put a cement walkway in and another pathway made with pavers so that physical and occupational therapy patients have places to walk \u201cwith different surface areas.\u201d She\u2019d also like to build a big patio \u201cso residents can come out and enjoy it. Eventually\u2014but that\u2019s just a dream\u2014I\u2019d like a doorway where the library is. It would have steps and a ramp. That would be great for physical therapy. And, I have to put up a pen for the dog. Lawton, our new therapy dog is here. And, I have to find someone who will do cement work\u2026I need volunteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, that is how you build a dream\u2014with flowers, with love, and with paving stones.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marion\u2019s Garden Club, Or How To Build A Dream Portola\u2019s skilled nursing facility director, Lorraine Noble, has started a Wednesday garden club, and she\u2019s asking for volunteers to help \u201cpreserve and enhance Marion\u2019s Garden.\u201d Marion Vorhees is a skilled nursing resident who has spent several years bringing a patch of dirt and gravel behind the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions\/226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ephc.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}