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Community Corner

Bethel's Home Care Program Celebrates 100th Birthday of Theodosia Green, Program Participant for 20 years!

PEEKSKILL - Don’t let her 100 years fool you. Ms. Theodosia Green was getting ready to party through the weekend to celebrate her centennial milestone on July 22, 2013. “We have family coming from all over,” said Ms. Green. “The party starts Saturday and will continue into Sunday!” The Peekskill resident shared party plans and reminisced about moving to Peekskill 66 years ago, her supportive family, church involvement and more, as she sat in her apartment surrounded by five generations of a six-generation family, who had stopped in to visit with the matriarch, one recent afternoon.

Also in attendance were two members of Bethel’s Home Care Staff, Leeada Durant, R.N, and Jamie Zhang, Home Health Aide, who were continuing the services started 20 years earlier when Ms. Green first became a client of Bethel’s Long-Term Home Health Care Program.

Ms. Durant visits with Ms. Green once a week to manage her medications and assess her clinical needs as well as to confer with Ms. Zhang on Ms. Green’s general well-being and if there are any notable changes in her day to day activities.

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And Ms. Zhang would know - she has been caring for Ms. Green for about five years now, seven hours a day, six days a week, assisting her with shopping, cleaning, food preparation and other needed tasks!

Another long-time member of the Home Care team supporting Ms. Green is Bethel’s Social Worker, Barbara Passick, who coordinates Ms. Green’s services to ensure all medical and social needs are met.

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“I am very satisfied with the care I receive from Bethel,” says Ms. Green. She first heard about Bethel’s Home Care program when she was going to her church’s nutrition center. “A friend mentioned it to me and that’s how I found out about the home care,” she said. Two decades later, Ms. Green says she would recommend the program to others who need at-home assistance.

Born in Belzoni, Mississippi, Ms. Green and her husband, Albert, came to Peekskill in 1947, where her mother had already relocated. The couple had five children, three sons and two daughters. She recalls Peekskill in those early days. “It was very beautiful. Long years ago, we would go down to the river.

There were more stores and factories here then. Now with the malls, many of those little stores are gone,” she says.  

Ms. Green joined the Refuge Church of Christ in 1948 and was a very active member.  She spoke of the missionary services, youth services and events she participated in over the decades.

The Greens had been married for over 40 years when Albert Green passed away in 1976. In the years that followed, though, the couple’s legacy continued to grow. Today, six generations later, Albert and Theodosia’s family includes: five children; 29 grandchildren; 90 great-grandchildren; 110 great-great grandchildren and four great-great-great grandchildren!

This explains the need for a two-day birthday party! Ms. Doretha McLeod, one of Ms. Green’s grand-daughters said, “We have family coming in from all over. There are 70 relatives coming from Mississippi alone! We also have family coming from Florida, Las Vegas, Texas, New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts.”

Susie Daniels, another grand-daughter, says that her grandmother likes to be kept in the loop about everything that is going on. “She wants to know about it before it happens!” she says. “Doretha is the one who tells her everything – she is the family reporter.”

Ms. Green laughed and said, “They maybe think I am too nosy!”

Today, Ms. Green enjoys listening to Christian services on the television and keeps up with current events by listening to the news. “Times are changing,” she says.

As the conversation turned back to Ms. Green’s 100th birthday and her life’s continuing achievements, Ms. Daniel’s says, “Even though she is partially blind and 100 years old, my grandmother is able function on her own, with help from Bethel. She certainly is an inspiration to all of us!”

Bethel’s Long Term Home Health Care Program is pleased to be part of Ms. Green’s story by providing her with clinical and home help for two decades. The Long Tern Home Health Program has helped patients maintain their health and well being in the community by providing consistent and continuous services and interventions to promote patients health and aid in preventing disease.

Bethel Home Care salutes Ms. Green and wishes her  a wonderful birthday!

 

 




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