Assuming you may reach your 100th birthday, how would you like to celebrate it? Whatever your answer, you will have difficulty matching the wish that Carolina Meadows Health Center resident Doris Jones not only expressed, but came very close to fulfilling on her 100th birthday.

   Doris wished she could ride a horse on that day. Faye Culberson, Carolina Meadows Activities Assistant, decided that she would come as close as possible to making that wish come true. Faye lives on a farm near Siler City, owns four horses, and is responsible for the activity program in the Health Center. Her job requires, among other things, a high degree of creative imagination and sensitivity to the needs of each of the residents there. Where many people would have merely smiled benignly at Doris' ride-a-horse request, Faye said, "Ok, let's have a birthday party with horses."

   What then transpired is, to this writer at least, utterly amazing. Seven Health Center residents, five of them in wheelchairs, were loaded aboard a CM bus. With the assistance of Jody Hite and Karen Wolfe, the whole crew, including Doris' daughter Alice, son Don and his wife Sally, who also live at Carolina Meadows, made the 45-minute journey to Fay's farm. So did Charlotte Adams, whose age is 101.

   Faye had prearranged with a neighbor to have all four horses prepared for the visit. While riding them was a miracle that even Faye couldn't arrange, petting and a bit of judicious hugging was OK; in fact, the horses responded warmly, even including a wet kiss or two on Doris' cheek in honor of her birthday.

   Faye's description of the reaction of the residents to the trip, and to the horses, and the response of the horses, would make a delightful fairy tale. But this event really happened, and it happened because a member of the staff was willing and able to extend the boundaries of her usual "activity" responsibility.

   Contact:
   Michelle Westrom
   Marketing Director
   (919) 370 - 7160