May Day Flowers Abound at McLean

Early in the morning McLean Hospice volunteers gathered in the greenhouse to arrange dozens of flower arrangements. They then spread out to Avon, Bloomfield, Bristol, Canton, Farmington, Granby, Simsbury and West Hartford delivering their May Day best wishes to patients and their families. The volunteers purchased the flowers and gathered them from their own gardens. Kathy Mock of East Granby is chair of this annual service project called Operation Hope which brings hope to families in the end of life journey. Operation Hope is one of many McLean Hospice Enhancing Life Programs called HELP. A bit later in the morning, nineteen members of the McLean Auxiliary gathered in the craft room to assemble bud vases for residents of the McLean Home and short term rehab patients in the Health Center Post Acute Center. The best part of the day were the personal visits the Auxiliary members enjoyed with each resident or patient. This annual tradition has been carried out for several decades. Gloria Knierim, Cindy Ash and Helen Molsted chaired this event. The McLean campus is abloom with many perennials, trees and bushes. Residents are enjoying their walks around the 120 acre campus sitting on the benches and just taking in gardens and sunlight. By the entrance to the Health Center, we caught a great shot of Trim, a resident of The Robinson Assisted Living, admiring the magnolia in full blossom in the entrance circle. At lunch several ladies, who live in the Chapel Crossing neighborhood in the Health Center, wore straw hats decorated with many silk flowers. They proudly wore their unique creations made the day before in a craft activity. McLean wishes all of its residents, the hundreds of patients being served by McLean in the community, and all of our neighbors, a lovely May Day.