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Question: How did you navigate the changes in your career? Answer: “I always knew I wanted to do something in medicine. In fact, one time my mom found me operating on her favorite doll. I started out in nursing and got my BSN. I worked as a school nurse for a while and I found out very quickly that the youth were not much better in terms of mental health and school problems and that continued to make me want to teach and educate. I just felt a calling to […]

Question: What do you not miss about living in your home before you moved to Friendship Village Answer: “I don’t miss making my bed when it’s time to change the sheets. I hate putting the sheets on the bed. I have someone who comes around every two weeks and puts the sheets on my bed, so all I have to do is take ‘em off! The fitted sheet, it’s too hard to pull that down and get it tucked. I hate doing it!” – Dorothy Gross, resident Friendship Village Sunset […]

Question: What’s a long-standing hobby of yours? Answer: “I’ve grown orchids for 40 years and I had a large number of plants. At one point in time, I had over 600! It was a lot of work, but it was very satisfying and a real pleasure. I had a greenhouse attached to my house, which was very good in the winter. On a sunny day, it’d feel like summer in the greenhouse and most of the orchids would bloom in the winter, so therefore I had summer in the winter. […]

Question: What do you really NOT miss now that you live in Friendship Village? Answer: “I don’t miss cleaning my house. I did all the cleaning and I used to be called Scrubby Dutch because I came from south St. Louis which was know for having a lot of scrubbing Dutch Germans. The Germans used to get out and even scrub their steps. And I didn’t scrub the steps, but my mother did! And I decided when I got older that I wasn’t going to scrub the steps. I took […]

Question: What do you love about creating mosaics? Answer: “Well, I somehow think it’s kind of a creative thing, because one advantage of it is, I get broken dishes and get to smack ‘em up. So, you’re not really spending a lot of money on materials, so most of my mosaic work has been either broken plates or broken mirrors. And if you break something yourself, you kind of create a little memento of what it used to be. And the only thing is, it’s a rather messy process because […]

Question: Looking back, what was something cool you were able to do in your career? Answer: “I wanted to drive in my career. I drove the fire engine in my work with the fire department, I drove Mayor Tucker for a few years, I drove aerial trucks, gas wagons, you name it. I remember interviewing to drive the mayor and I went into his office and he said, ‘Send the rest of them home, I like this kid.’ I met a lot of politicians and different people in my time […]

Question: What has been one of your primary interests? Answer: “Theatre was the most important thing to me. I ran the theatre program while I was teaching at the high school and when I got to Kentucky they were restarting a community theatre program so I went to a meeting, then they asked me if I’d be on a playwriting committee, and the next thing I know they asked me if I could direct the first show so I directed the first one and then a number of shows after […]