I’ve had many bosses over the years but none were given the title of “THE BOSS” until Denise! And there were none until the BOSS who called me her slave! But we sure had fun together from the first minute we met. We made quite a team working together in the activity department at Wesley Towers.
I had been the activity director several years before she took it over and I had done creative activities with the residents at Wesley Towers and took them on many trips all over Kansas in the big green bus. But The BOSS was a master of crafts and she did a lot of really cool crafts with the residents.
I could go back to driving again (when she agreed to take the position) which was my first love. I loved to drive them in the Honda to the doctor and take the 22 passenger green bus out for day trips. We planned the trips and I took them out in the bus and a lot of the time she would go along on the out of town shopping trips or weekend trips to eat out somewhere.
When she decided on a new craft for the residents to make she would make a sample in my colors (usually red) and maybe a combination of my red and black. Then she would have the class and they would make the same thing in the colors each resident chose. I was then allowed to bring home the trial or sample craft.
I have a couple of vases that she made for me with wide rubber bands stretched around them to create stripes of clear glass and the rest is spray painted with an opaque paint. One is a tall vase and is white opaque paint with horizontal lines and the other one is a flatter bowl (vase) that sits on a gold stand and the bowl is a sparkly cranberry color. I love that vase but they are both really special to me.
Denise (The BOSS) loved to think up things we could do with or for the residents. Sometimes we just did something for entertainment for the residents and other times we both took part in the activity with them. One of my favorite activities with the residents was the annual Staff/Resident Wii bowling tournament. Which the staff always lost because the residents bowled several times a week and had lots of practice.
I was the Bingo caller even when I was the medical driver, because I could sign for the deaf resident, and the BOSS took over the driving while I called Bingo for an hour. When I drove them, in the 22 passenger green bus, to the grocery store for shopping one afternoon a week she jumped in the Honda and took over the driving.
It was a real partnership taking care of and entertaining the residents. I let her think, she was The BOSS but we were a true team in the activity department. The BOSS reminded me often about her title and also about mine and we’d laugh about it.
Denise was my Boss in everything but the driving. It was a working relationship that worked well for us. The BOSS and I always came up with something fun for holidays and loved to dress for the occasion and we always dressed alike in costumes.
Once a month Denise would take over the medical driving for 3 hours in the afternoon and I would make cinnamon rolls with the residents. I would do one class for the women and one for the men. I would teach only 6 in each class, so they would have 4 rolls to take home with them in a small pan.
My cinnamon roll recipe is one that you can make the rolls from start to finish in an hour and a half. The classes were always a lot of fun and of course the BOSS had to come and heckle me when she was back in the building.
One of our favorite activities to do together was going into the dining room at lunch time when they were all seated, and after the prayer, to tell them a joke. I’d find jokes for two people and they had a good laugh before they started to eat. If we didn’t go in often enough we heard about it. I tried to tell a joke every day but they loved it when we did one together.
My relationship with Denise was a special one that you only have once in a lifetime with a boss when you are working. I retired while Denise was still the activity director because my back couldn’t handle lifting the walkers in and out of the car. I wish we could have worked together a lot longer than we did. No one ever knew what THE BOSS, and I was going to do next and it kept everyone on their toes. To contact Sandy: [email protected]
