Traverse City Record-Eagle

Kathleen Gest: Senior Focus

Related Photos

  • Kathleen Gest

    CSSC93B.jpg
June 18, 2011

Senior Focus: Thompson made us laugh

By Kathleen Gest, Local columnist ----

Have any of you noticed the bright yellow Volkswagen "bug" scooting around town? It's painted with flowers and ladybugs, and has the inscription on the back "May the Lord bless you in a special way." It's usually parked in front of the Traverse City Senior Center.

This car should give you some insight behind the personality of the car's owner -- dramatic, attractive, friendly, energetic, welcoming, helpful, knowledgeable, good sense of humor, compassionate, outgoing, travel savvy and wisecracking. These are some of the words friends use to describe Pat Thompson, past travel and program coordinator at the Senior Center.

Oops, I forgot hardworking.

Unfortunately for those seniors whose lives she has touched, Pat is no longer at the Senior Center. She left at the beginning of June to spend more time with family and friends. (Pat, I didn't say "retired.")

Pat didn't want any fanfare or recognition when she left, but we all found it hard to ignore the joy she brought and the concern she conveyed to seniors in the Traverse City area.

She answered the phone, "How can I make your day?" She wore a chicken costume at each Cottage Café chicken dinner fundraiser. She had empathy for troubled seniors and her upbeat demeanor always was present at Senior Center event. Her example of a well-packed suitcase helped guide seniors on one of the many trips she had put together.

"Pat had a way of injecting humor and entertainment into every thing we did here at the Senior Center," said Lori Wells, Senior Center director.

"Pat always made a point of getting people connected," said Shirley Delaney, a tennis facilitator and bridge instructor at the Senior Center.

The travel program was a huge part of the footprint Pat left on the Senior Center. When she was acting as tour director on any of the trips she put together, she always stood out in a crowd -- perhaps it was the large green umbrella she carried with a big green frog sitting on top. No one could ever lose sight of her.

"She had games prepared," Delaney said. "She had snacks on hand and she had a handout that had the history of the place we were going to. After reading all of the historical information, she even made us take a quiz. Pat made us think."

Pat is also a good role model when it comes to technology. She always has the latest gadget -- an iPad, a smartphone, laptop computer, digital camera -- showing seniors that they can be tech-savvy too.

Yet, perhaps most memorable is Pat's sense of humor.

"For me, Pat's 50th birthday is one day I will always remember," Wells reminisced. "We had just started working together and I thought it would be fun to get Pat ... by wearing black bands around our arms. Little did I know, it would be a glimpse of my future association with her."

There was a group of individuals anticipating her arrival at the Senior Center, when a public bus pulled up on its normal stop in front of the Senior Center and discharged a lone passenger. The old woman who got off the bus was bent over, walking with a cane, barely able to negotiate the distance to the front door. She looked downtrodden, with blackened teeth and unkempt clothes and hair. In a rasping voice, she asked what the Senior Center could do for her.

It took awhile for everyone to realize the "old woman" was actually Pat.

Kathleen Bellaw Gest is a local freelance writer. For more about the Traverse City Senior Center, go to www.tcseniorcenter.com.

Text Only