North Shore Living May 2025 Newsletter
Jean Marie Modl
"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."
Gandhi
The last day of April featured a special Tea Party to honor our dedicated volunteers. It was a wonderful event. During the afternoon Open House, we had about forty people stop by to enjoy good drink, good food, and good company. Stories, smiles, and laughter filled the room.
Our Volunteers’ contributions bring heart and joy to our care center community. They share music, flowers, special treats, laughter, smiles, stories, Bible verses, and even invite us to dance and sing along with favorite songs. They are important members of our care center family and we appreciate them very much.
There is sad news too this month: our hospital and care center family mourn the recent loss of RN Mark Abrahamson. Over 30 years ago, Mark and I were study partners for a physiology course he was taking for his Master Degree program at Saint Scholastica. As we tried to understand the chemistry of human biology, together we would take wild leaps of imagination and then have to find our way back to reality. It was amazing and really fun to learn new things with Mark; he was a gifted teacher and a good friend.
With Cook County Higher Education and regional community colleges, Mark and I were able to team-teach small groups of remarkable nursing students and other college biology students over the next decade. I could teach cell biology, anatomy and physiology courses. Mark would teach all of the important clinical skills. Many of our exceptional students still work at the hospital and care center.
Over the last decade, Mark and Steve devoted themselves to the care of Mark’s parents and the family homestead. A few years ago, Mark and Steve used the greenhouses to grow beautiful spring flowers and then filled the Bethlehem Lutheran Church with the bright colors and smells of fresh flowers on Easter Sunday. After a long hard winter, the spring flower celebration was a special surprise for everyone.
If you knew Mark Abrahamson, your life was richer because he was a source of kindness, curiosity, adventure, and joy. Even if you didn’t know Mark Abrahamson, your life was richer because of his dedicated community service, gifted teaching, and generous spirit. We all miss him.
Care Center Residents planted seedlings for the outdoor gardens and the little seeds sprang to life, out-growing their tiny pots in just ten days. They were transplanted to a sheltered garden box outside and are doing remarkably well. We have flowers and kitchen herbs that have survived the cool spring nights. Next year, we hope to have a small greenhouse or even just a cold frame which will be a perfect transitional home for these delicate seedlings.
Beautiful fresh flower bouquets have marked our Mother’s Day celebration. Families have delivered flowers to their loved ones to mark the day. It makes everyone smile and there are often tears of gratitude when a resident receives flowers from family and friends. Here at the care center, we have flower volunteers and soon they will spoil all of us with beautiful bouquets from the fields, woods, and their own gardens each week.
"The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don't wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope."
Barack Obama