Recently, Anne Sunday, Independent Living Activities Coordinator for The Mayflower Community, said, “At Mayflower we learn something new every day from our diverse and interesting friends and neighbors.”
What generated this comment was a photograph that resident Beryl Clotfelter shared one day at the Dining Room table. See above.
Beryl is Grinnell College Professor Emeritus of physics. He says of the photograph, “This was taken while flying above Oregon in 1956. You can see the shadow of the plane in the clouds surrounded by two and parts of the third halo ring.”
“I had forgotten the technical term for this particular phenomenon, but I have looked it up, and it is called a “glory.” If you google that word, you will find a description. In terms of actual light paths and size of the rings, it is not the same as a rainbow, but it still is produced by refraction and dispersion within water droplets.”
Now, not everyone at Mayflower fully comprehends this concept, but enough of it resonates from this former teacher to lead to further interesting conversations.
Anne Sunday observes, “Beryl sends a photo from his past to his son and two daughters every week and often shows it to everyone at the Dining Room table. As a retired professor of physics, what he shares usually has to do with science, and it occurred to me that we at Mayflower get to learn so many different things in informal settings as well as the planned lifelong learning opportunities. We really do have an incredible mix of people, and I, for one, am grateful for Beryl and others. Some have passed on since I moved here, but what I learned from them is still with me. In fact, I often use the learning experiences from folks with disabilities as examples in teaching A Matter of Balance.”
A Matter of Balance is an eight-week falls prevention and safe activity program offered to older adults through the auspices of the local Area Agency on Aging. Anne and Kayley Thompson, wellness specialist with the UPH-Grinnell Regional Medical Center, teach this class at regular intervals at Mayflower.
The learning never stops in human beings….nor at Mayflower!
— Bob Mann, Sales & Marketing Director