By Rick Banas of assisted living provider BMA Management, Ltd.
The BlueRidgeNow.com headline on Google certainly caught my attention in a way I was not expecting. I was doing a little further research for a Blog I was writing on Chainsaw Wood Carving Artist “Mountain Dan.” He had visited the Heritage Woods affordable assisted living community that we manage in Dwight on Aug. 29, 2012.
I was waiting until today to post the Blog because the impact of the events of September 11, 2001 are what led him to take up chainsaw wood carving.
Becky Gish, the Resident Services Coordinator at Heritage Woods, had arranged for Dan to do a wood carving demonstration. He was in the area because he was one of the attractions at the Central States’ Threshermen’s Reunion that is held annually over the Labor Day weekend in Pontiac, Illinois.
Dan carved a 32-inch black bear out of a hemlock log. His daughter, Stephanie, put the hair on the bear and sanded the face. She is learning to chainsaw. A young man who is learning the art, torched it for color. The used spray paint and a combination of linseed oil and paint thinner to provide the finishing touches.
Heritage Woods was purchasing and dedicating the bear in honor of Hollis Porter, who was one of the first residents of the assisted living community. Hollis’ daughter, Barb, was there to see Dan in action and for the dedication ceremony for her mother.
Dan and I had a chance to talk about his life as a chainsaw wood carving artist.
He started at the age of 60 just a few months after 9/11. “I was doing high dollar landscaping work in North Carolina,” he said. “What happened to the market and to the economy shut us down.”
One option was to go back to the west coast and “do the timber thing.” He had years of experience working for timber companies.
Instead, he tried his hand at chainsaw wood carving. He said he had been “running a chainsaw since he was 10 years old” and was good at it. He also had seen what others were doing when it came to chainsaw wood carving.
On Jan. 2, 2002, he decided to take a block of wood to see what came out. “It was pitiful,” he said. “I cut its head off.”
Rather than be discouraged, he kept at it and discovered “a gift from God that had been dormant all his life.”
He spent 12 hours a day, seven days a week for 120 days straight wood carving. He wanted to build a sufficient inventory of wood carvings by Memorial Day weekend, when the tourist season starts in the Great Smoky Mountains.
“I can take a picture of any animal and do a wood carving,” he said. “I run the fastest chisel in town.”
“Most of what I do is with wood that has been rejected by sawmills,” he added.
He talked about his belief that, “God never lets someone who he gave a gift starve. There were times that were tough, but we never went without.”
But, he told me, you have to do your part and put in the work.
He also talked about how his 65th Birthday was his toughest. “I was programmed from the time I was a kid that at 65 you are done.” That is what he was told by others and what the government says. “The government even starts sending you a check (social security).”
He came to realize that “I’m done when God tells me I’m done, not when society says I should be.”
The bear, he prophetically added, “will last longer than any of us.”
The BlueRidgeNow.com headline read “Chainsaw Artist ‘Mountain Dan’ Smathers Dies at Fair: Heart Attack Fells 70-Year-Old Woodcarver from Etowah.”
The article notes that he was advised he needed a pacemaker. With one, however, he could no longer operate a chainsaw.
Dan saw wood carving as a means to an end. He loved to talk with people, especially as a way to spread the Gospel. People stopping by to watch him work and to look at his wood carvings gave him the opportunity to talk with them.
He died doing what he loved.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let us know.
“BMA Management is the leading provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
Do you have any expired medications or prescription drugs that you no longer use filling up your medicine cabinet or taking up room in a drawer?
Proper disposal of these outdated drugs reduces the danger that you might accidentally take these medications and the risk that others might illegally abuse these drugs.
Proper disposal also helps protect our environment.
This Saturday, April 28, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has scheduled its 4th National Drug Take-Back Day.
You can bring in unwanted or expired medications to one any one of the more than 5,000 Take-Back Sites, ensuring safe and proper disposal.
The Take-Back Sites are scheduled to be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let us know.
“BMA Management is the leading provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
We hear it so often from family members before Mom moves into an assisted living community. Mom likes to be by herself; she is not the type to participate in the social activities offered by the community.
A few weeks after Mom has moved into the community, we get the phone call from a worried family member. Can you please check on Mom? I have been trying to call her in her apartment for the past several hours and she is not answering the phone.
Checking by a staff member finds that Mom is more than fine. She is out of her apartment enjoying life. After breakfast, she went to a morning exercise class. After class, she met up with another resident and they got to talking. Before they knew it, lunch time had arrived. Then it was time to get together with the other members of the community’s Wii Bowling team for a couple of hours of practice.
A resident of one of the assisted living communities that we manage decided not to tell her family that she was taking a class to improve her flexibility. Before starting the class, she could not lift her arms above her shoulder. By the time she was done, she was able to surprise her family members. They had come to visit and were sitting in her apartment. The resident showed off her improved flexibility by reaching up over her head to get a snack down off the top shelf of one of the cabinets.
The odds are that she would not have taken the exercise class had she been living alone.
Two residents of another community that BMA manages decided one afternoon that they would spend their time practicing how to pick up splits in Wii bowling. After a couple hours of practice, they reached their conclusion. You can pick up splits if you do it just right.
Of all of the services and amenities that come with living in an assisted living community, the opportunities for socialization and companionship are among the most important.
For those not living in assisted living, you can make arrangements for home-delivered meals. You can have someone come in to provide help with bathing and getting dressed and to do cooking and cleaning. You can set medications up in pill boxes and either call or stop in to check if a family member is taking their medications as they should.
But what about social interaction? What about the impact that loneliness and isolation has on older adults?
A study done by the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found evidence that an active social life may delay memory loss among older adults.
Studies by the University of Chicago (UIC)indicate that older adults who feel lonely face greater health risks. One of the studies indicates that loneliness is a major risk factor in high blood pressure among older adults.
A study by researchers at UCLA found that feelings of social isolation can negatively impact your immune system, causing a greater risk of viral infections, cancer and heart disease.
A psychologist notes that loneliness also can make it harder to sleep.
In a BBC News report, loneliness was labeled as the “hidden killer” of the elderly. The lack of social interaction left older adults more vulnerable to depression and at a higher risk of developing poor eating habits and getting less physical exercise.
Certainly, the research and what we see and hear from residents in the assisted living communities that BMA manages gives us something to think about as we hear a chorus of folks tell us that the best approach is taking care of older adults as they live alone in a house, condominium or townhouse.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment and let us know.
“BMA Management is the leading provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
By Rick Banas of senior living provider BMA Management, Ltd.
I was visiting the Heritage Woods affordable assisted living community that BMA manages in Bolingbrook, Illinois, last Friday afternoon just to take a few pictures.
Keyboardist Marty Sammon was performing. Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Marty has appeared on television shows in the United States and Europe and on several Grammy Award winning albums.
What I experienced as Marty, accompanied by Tim Wilsey on drums, entertained those in attendance with ragtime, boogie, blues and country tunes stood in stark contrast to comments made in a story that was posted earlier in the week by Stone Health News.
The story focused on comments by Stephen L. Goldstein, Ph.D., about assisted living and nursing homes. Dr. Goldstein contends that it is a “national disgrace” that so many folks in the United States are “dumping” older adults into nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Older adult Moms and Dads should be living with their children.
Certainly, assisted living is not for everybody, and certainly it is a disgrace when adult children wash their hands of their parents after Mom and Dad move into assisted living or a nursing home, coming to visit seldom, if ever.
But the performance by Marty and Tim provides a wonderful example of what can make living in an assisted living community so much different than living with family or living alone with assistance provided by family members or home health.
More than 50 residents and their family members, friends and guests were gathered together clapping and singing along to the music. All sported smiles on their faces. Some were dancing, with other residents and with staff.
The contrast really hit home when they started singing along as Marty and Tim played the Fats Waller version of “Ain’t Misbehavin.” The opening lines to the song are…
“No one to talk with,
All by myself
No one to walk with”
As I heard the words, I found myself thinking about just how fortunate residents of assisted living communities such as those at Heritage Woods of Bolingbrook are. Because of where they live, they never have to walk – or talk – alone.
Can the same be said for those who live with family? Would they have the same opportunity to enjoy life on a Friday afternoon?
Click here to view more pictures from the performance.
BMA Management is proud to announce that our Blog on Calling Assisted Living an “Acute Care Setting” Is Just Plain Wrong has been nominated for a 2012 Assisted Living Today Best Blog Award.
To see the nominations and to cast your vote for Best Blog, click here. Voting is located at the bottom of the page.
“BMA Management is the leading provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
By Rick Banas of senior living provider BMA Management, Ltd.
The story in the second chapter of Cheryl Woodson’s book “To Survive Caregiving: A Daughter’s Experience, A Doctor’s Advice on Finding Hope, Help and Healing” really hit home.
Only my mother-in-law was not as fortunate as Mrs. M in the book. When my mother-in-law pulled out into traffic coming home from church, she was hit broadside. Fortunately, no one in the other car was injured. The accident she caused, however, cost my mother-in-law her life. She died a few hours later while petting the dog.
Roger Breisch, Executive Director of the Batavia Chamber of Commerce, had just finished reading Dr. Woodson’s book the night before we saw each other at a Batavia Women in Business luncheon last week. With our company operating a Heritage Woods affordable assisted living community in his town since 2003, he wanted me to have a copy.
Dr. Woodson wrote the book as a doctor who has practiced Geriatric Medicine for more than 20 years and as a daughter who was a caregiver for her mother. She will be the speaker at the Batavia Women in Business luncheon on April 10, talking about “Eldercare” Five Keys to Caregiving Survival.” For more information, visit bataviachamber.org
What I love about Dr. Woodson’s book is that it is filled with real-life stories about her experiences and the experiences of other caregivers. It is written in everyday language and filled with practical suggestions and advice for caregivers.
Dr. Woodson talks about struggles, guilt trips and the crushing responsibilities of caregiving.
The Crisis in Caregiving today, Dr. Woodson says, is that caregivers are responsible for caring for more older adults for much longer periods of time. In addition, the older adults being cared for are older and sicker than those in previous generations.
The focus of the book, however, is not on the person being cared for but on the caregiver. Dr. Woodson stresses the importance of caregivers taking care of themselves. As a caregiver, you are “your loved one’s most valuable asset.” How well do you take care of that asset?
BMA Management is proud to announce that our Blog on Calling Assisted Living an “Acute Care Setting” Is Just Plain Wrong has been nominated for a 2012 Assisted Living Today Best Blog Award.
To see the nominations and to cast your vote for Best Blog, click here. Voting is located at the bottom of the page.
“BMA Management is the leading provider of affordable assisted living in Illinois and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
The BlueRidgeNow.com headline on Google certainly caught my attention in a way I was not expecting. I was doing a little further research for a Blog I was writing on Chainsaw Wood Carving Artist “Mountain Dan.” He had visited the Heritage Woods affordable assisted living community that we manage in Dwight on Aug. 29, 2012.
We hear it so often from family members before Mom moves into an assisted living community. Mom likes to be by herself; she is not the type to participate in the social activities offered by the community. 
Two residents of another community that BMA manages decided one afternoon that they would spend their time practicing how to pick up splits in Wii bowling. After a couple hours of practice, they reached their conclusion. You can pick up splits if you do it just right.
A study done by the Harvard School of Public Health (
Keyboardist 
