St. Anthony Hospital is pleased to welcome Shoaib Ahmad, M.D., to St. Anthony Physicians Group Pulmonary Medicine.
Dr. Ahmad is board certified in pulmonary medicine. He earned his medical degree from Nishtar Medical College in Pakistan, and completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine, at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.
Dr. Ahmad’s office is located at 608 N.W. 9th St., Suite 3110, in Oklahoma City. To schedule an appointment please call 405-772-4400.

The new Stone Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care land was once a farm.

Almost every footstep brings a memory for Larry Griffin, who was raised on the bygone Griffin Farm. He had chores before and after school.
Griffin is pleased that Stone Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care is now on the southwest corner of NW 178th Street and Western in Oklahoma City because the old farm site continues the compassionate legacy of his family.
Stone Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care opened in late June. The grand opening is set for August 10th from 5-7 p.m. at the complex nearby Edmond.
“We’d love for folks to stop in and see us then, enjoy some entertainment and free food and a chance to look around,” Kelley said.
As an assisted living and licensed community, they are able to help people with bathing, dressing, activities of daily living and medications, said Anita Kelley, community relations director. The complex has 56 rooms in assisted living and 36 in memory care.
The 183-acre Griffin Farm was built in 1905 and was later owned by Griffin’s parents, Melvin and Anna Mae Griffin. Larry still lives nearby the Stone Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care where he is a frequent visitor. The original white two-story farm house was removed in 1958, Griffin said.
“We tore down that house and it had square nails in it,” Griffin said.
His parents bought the farm in the late 1920s and Larry, two sisters and his parents lived in the house until 1958.
“My dad taught me responsibility. He taught me a work ethic,” Griffin said.
If he did something wrong, his dad would ask him what he learned from his mistake.
Two productive oil wells were constructed on the property in 1958 and the family built another house.
“But my dad was such a giver he used money to help people,” Griffin continued. “He helped his two brothers through college and helped his mom and his sister. He used all that money he got every month to help people out.”
“In fact when he died, people came to me and told me — some of them were crying with tears and said, ‘Your dad helped us out when we were in trouble,’” Griffin said.
A few years following 1958 Griffin brought his dad a royalty check, but Melvin tore it up and said, “No. God gave me those wells. I didn’t have to work for them. You keep that money and keep going,” Griffin recalled.
“He was a giver,” Griffin said.
Fifty acres of the farm was wheat. Griffin helped plow the fields, helping his dad. The land under the footprint of Stone Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care was once one of two pastures.
“We had dairy cattle, beef cattle; we had a couple of horses, and I had 35 head of sheep,” Griffin said.
Before July 4 would come, he would help his dad fill buckets of water to place in the back of the family pick-up. Always at the corner people would shoot rockets and fireworks.
“They’d set the grass on fire,” Griffin said. “So we’d have to go down there and beat it up. And if it got out of hand we’d have to call the fire department.”
His dad always plowed back for or five feet to ward off grass fires at one side of the pasture.
Stone Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care now has neighborhoods nearby where Griffin would run around as a boy.
“I got to talking to my dad for a month and a half before he died. He had cancer and was 90,” Griffin said. “He gave my sister and I this farm. I tried to get him to sell it years ago and move to Edmond. He wouldn’t do it. He said, ‘I’m going to die here on this farm.’”
Griffin told his dad they would do something nice with the farm. Twenty acres at the corner was already zoned for commercial use. His dad always prepared for the future. His dad gave three acres to Trinity Christian Church to build the church on Edmond Road before he died in 2004. Griffin’s mom died 11 months later.
Larry Griffin is retired now. After leaving the farm he attended the University of Oklahoma for two years, but was drafted to join the war effort in Vietnam. He was gone for a year and returned to work on the farm. And he continued his education at then-Central State College (UCO) and earned a marketing degree. He worked at a medical company for three years before he was hired to be a hospital manager. Soon Griffin became a regional hospital manager over five states for 29 years before he retired in 2008.
His wife Sharla passed away ten years ago, but he still has three adult children. His daughter is 30 and his two sons are 40 and 43.
Today, he says the Stone Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care is a beautiful place.
“Like I said, My sister and I were going to have nice things along here along these 20 acres,” he said. “This will be very nice.”

Article by Nikki Buckelew, Buckelew Realty Group’s Mature Moves Division with Keller Williams Realty. www.okcmaturemoves.com

In generations past, there simply weren’t many options when it came to where one would live out their retirement years. In fact, there were basically three choices: 1) Stay put in your own home, 2) live with your kids, or 3) move to a nursing home when “it was time.”
The landscape has certainly changed significantly in the last decade. Not only are people living longer, but retirees have more options than ever before as it relates to housing options. So many choices it can make your head spin!
Fewer people as of late are opting to stay in a home that is too large, too costly, or losing value due to neighborhood decline. Even fewer are electing to move in with their adult children. More and more seniors are taking a proactive approach concerning their retirement lifestyle, with the trend toward community living designed to support and encourage the independent lifestyle they value.
The new normal
Included in the available stock of senior living options are upscale luxury apartments catering to the active 55 and older crowd, as well as all-inclusive resort style properties resembling a cross between 5-star hotels and country clubs. Private residences including duplexes, cottages, garden homes, and villas are also on the rise, boasting neighborhood club houses with fitness and media rooms, walking paths, organized activities and trips, and more. All this and they even take care of your yard and maintenance.
For those needing a bit slower pace and maybe even a little help from time to time, there are supportive housing communities designed to help people remain autonomous and independent by providing non-medical assistance. Key attractors to these communities include 2-3 prepared meals a day, housekeeping services, rides to the doctor and local retail and grocery stores, and 24-hour concierge access. When needed, many of these communities can provide or arrange for assistance with dressing, bathing, and medications.
Of course there are still the communities equipped to care for those with chronic medical or mental illnesses or degenerative diseases. Unlike the independent and assisted living communities mentioned above, however, these longterm care facilities are ‘chosen’ by default only after other options have been ruled out.
Comparing options can be complicated
With all these options, especially the all-inclusive ones, the challenge is figuring out which communities have what you are looking for. More importantly, what services are offered and what the fees include. Each development has varied unit sizes and meal options, as well as ever-changing, healthcare options and activity programming.
Ownership may belong to a for-profit enterprise or operated by a not-for-profit organization. Some are affiliated with churches, universities, and local municipalities and each has it’s own unique philosophy of property management.
Taking proactive steps
The key to finding the right fit is investigating the various options available well in advance – long before you are ready to make a change. By doing so, you remain in the driver’s seat when it comes to your lifestyle choices, rather than leaving it to chance (or up to your kids).
Fortunately, senior adults have a variety of free educational opportunities in the metro area to choose from when it comes to learning the ins and outs of 55+ living options. Some events are hosted by senior living communities who offer optional campus tours directly following the educational program and others are held in event centers. The goal of these organizations and associated expert speakers is to help older adults and their trusted advisors navigate the sea of information related to senior living.

Below is a list of a few upcoming events (advanced registration required):

Candid Conversations: Senior Living Options – Epworth Villa Retirement Community – August 15th at 10am RSVP: 405-752-1200
How to Pay for Senior Living – Spanish Cove Retirement Village – August 31st at 10am RSVP: 405-354-5906
The Truth About Senior Living – OptionsMAPS3 Health & Wellness Center – September 14th at 10am & 2pm RSVP: 405-563-7501
Getting Real About Real Estate after Retirement – Concordia Life Care Community – October 24th at 2:30pm RSVP: 405-437-1414

A special day long seminar will help persons losing their sight or blind and their families and friends. The Heartland Council of the Blind will present the Coping with Vision Loss Seminar on Saturday, August 19, 2017 in Oklahoma City.
Vice President of the Heartland Council of the Blind is Sandi Webster of Oklahoma City who lost her vision in 2002. Sandi said the seminar will provide essential tools and encouragement for persons losing their vision and their families and friends. “These people go through the stages of grief, but there is help,” Sandi said.
A previous seminar participant says she used the provided helps right away. “It was like attending a one stop shop. We met Vision, Mobility and Technology Specialists and were introduced to Support Systems. Break-out sessions are: Advocacy, Training for Family/Friends, Just for Men, Just for Women, Technology, Deaf/Blind Information and Visual Services Information. Cost of $20 for the seminar includes lunch, a Resources Notebook and a CD. Registration forms are available at www.hcbokc.org. Or register by calling Heartland Council of the Blind President Frances Poindexter at 405-642-1068. Registration must be received by Wednesday, August 16th. The seminar will be at the New Hope United Methodist Church at 11600 N. Council Rd., OKC, from 9 AM to 4 PM. Check-in begins at 8:30 AM.

What’s your favorite summertime memory? Village on the Park

I’ve got a lot but it would be the day I got married when I was 18. Kathy Ream

Going fishing about anywhere. I fished Texhoma and Eufaula when they were coming in. Raymond Leetrammell

I rode my horse every afternoon around our ranch. Evelyn Wilcoxson

Visiting my grandfather in Chandler. We would hitch the horse to the wagon and he would give us a quarter for a movie, popcorn, and a coke in town. Helen LaFevers

Victoria Burdine was not raised with her grandparents. They were deceased, she said, regarding her childhood in Louisiana. Burdine always was the family member who cleaned house and cared for elderly people in her neighborhood in a little town named Rayne.
“I enjoyed it,” said Burdine, LPN, ADON and wound care nurse at Tuscany Nursing Center in Oklahoma City.
Burdine has been a nurse since 2009 and has always served in long-term care. She was a proud CNA for 15 years. Becoming a CNA was a smooth adjustment for Burdine after cleaning neighbors’ homes and running errands at the store for them.
“That’s my passion. A grandmother I could talk to and a grandmother — I didn’t have that,” she said. “So I take these residents here as my grandparents.”
She began working at Tuscany Nursing Center on the day it opened. There was one resident and Burdine was working the night shift, she said. Burdine was the LPN on the floor, and four months later she was asked to become the wound nurse. In early July she added the credential of certified wound nurse to her resume. Certification required rigorous study and taking a test.
“I started at 7 p.m. Sunday night and finished at 3 a.m. in the morning,” Burdine said. “So I am a board certified wound nurse.”
There were a lot of things she was already doing as a wound nurse, but she also learned a lot, she said. The extra education was valuable for her and also added job security to her career, she said.
Burdine said she admires that the nursing staff works well together as a team. At 3 p.m. everyday a few of the residents join her in her office for coffee and cookies. She loves it and said there is something about them that reflects her passion for the elderly.
Residents are of all ages. Some of them are in their 30s and 40s and she loves them, too. Some have been in accidents.
“You never know. It’s sad. I have a few that’s younger than me,” she said. “It is true that back in the day our grandparents would be in a nursing home, but these days it’s really young people, too.”
Burdine said it’s important to let the residents have choices. If they don’t feel like taking a bath at a certain time they can choose a later time.
“If there are certain things they want to eat – let them do it,” she said. “Just give them that freedom of choice. That plays an important role.”
Every once in a while Burdine will work in the skilled nursing unit when needed. Skilled nurses need to pay attention to detail and understand their role as a nurse, she said.
“There’s some hard work back there,” she said.
For long-term care a nurse needs to be compassionate, Burdinecontinued. Nurses without compassion and a love for their job will burnout and not make it in the industry.
“I love my job and I’m very compassionate,” Burdine said. “There’s things I do for a couple of people out of my pocket. Ladies like wigs. They like makeup. Some of them do have family and their family does not come. So I take out of my money and I buy them what they want.”
“If you’re here for the money it’s the wrong place to be.”
One of the residents has a 90-year-old mom that called Burdine from Las Vegas. She wanted to say how appreciative she is of Burdine for taking the time for her daughter to pay attention to small things.
“That means a lot,” Burdine said. “In my mind, the one thing I keep saying is, ‘This may be me one day.’ You know I wish somebody would take the time out if that happens to be me.”
“I want that same person like I am today to be caring. Take a little minute and just listen.”
Burdine tells the CNAs that the residents could be their kids. Across the U.S. nurses and CNAs need to stop what they’re caught up in life and pay more attention to detail, she said.
“Just listen because really that’s all they want you to do,” Burdine said. “So I always say this could be me.”
Currently Burdine is also caring for her mother who came to Oklahoma from Louisiana. She visits Burdine in the summertime.
When returning to Tuscany Village her residents are glad to see her. One of the residents called her at home and Burdine was happy to bring her a hamburger.

Photography and Text by Terry “Travels with Terry” Zinn t4z@aol.com

Having recently returned from a trip of a lifetime, in 1980 touring of ancient Egypt icons, I found exotic culture back home in Colony, Oklahoma at the annual Cheyenne and Arapaho Labor Day Powwow.
As I reported in 1981, “Faces of men painted red and yellow, and brown bodies clad in numerous combinations of colors, feathers, and animal skins rhythmically dance out of the dark and into a dimly lit clearing beneath a giant canopy of cottonwoods.”
“Ladies in pure white buckskin proudly keeping in step as their shawls and fringe swing hypnotically in the moon light. Very young braves of 7 or 8 years, dressed in colorful fancy dance dress feathers join in the ways of their elders.”
As a result, I humbly photographically documented the weekend, and returned two more Labor Day weekends to try and capture the thrill and unique authentic Cheyenne Arapaho offering. While most of the dances are held at night, and with the movement of the dancers I could not use dim available light but had to use flash for my black and white negative exposures. The challenge was not to invade or disturbed the reverential dance with the bright flash in the darkness of night, but it was the only way to get an acceptable photograph. I guess I accomplished my goal as I was not admonished for my flash.
This Labor Day Colony’s Native American powwow homecoming continues as it has each year since the end of World War II with added interests. This year the Colony Gallery of the Plains Indian will host two photographic exhibitions of Native Americans proud of their heritage. The Gallery has always encouraged Native American art and artists. The Gallery is reborn with the showing of The Last Powwow ~ the result of my three-year visits ~ and Red Earth Spirit, ~ formal double exposure color photographs made during the Oklahoma City Red Earth Festival. While many of these images have been in exhibitions during the 1980s this is the first time since then that some are on public view. Some have never been seen before as the complete portfolios are too large to mount in one exhibition.
After seeing The Last Powwow exhibition at the Center of the American Indian back in 1983, the then Director of Photography, L.L. Smith, at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center, endorsed the exhibit when he wrote, “I was most impressed with the quality of your work and the dignity of your subjects. Your devotion over the years to this event is quite evident in your work. As a cultural document, I believe certain prints will stand the test of time.”
The renovated petite Gallery of the Plains Indian and the historic town of Colony is a treat to those travelers willing to turn off Interstate 40 at Weatherford and head south.
Justice Yvonne Kauger, a native of Colony, had long wanted a small gallery in Colony to exhibit Indian art and in particular Cheyenne Arapaho artists which would coincide with the annual powwow. The gallery building on the main street was built by her Grandfather, Fred Kauger in 1923 and served as post office until 1960 when it was used for storage..
Through the efforts of Yvonne’s parents, John and Alice Kauger, and family and friends, the old stucco structure was remodeled into a functional art gallery. The gallery had its first showing in 1981. Both exhibits this year are dedicated to Yvonne, John and Alice Kauger and all who help preserve and promote Indian heritage.
“I grew up to the sound of the powwows as a little girl,” Yvonne Kauger explains, “My father was raised by Cheyenne nannies and had a very deep respect for the Cheyenne which he passed on. In fact, until the sixth grade I thought I was Indian.”
In 1984, the Cheyenne-Arapaho adopted Yvonne Kauger as a member of the Standing Bird Clan.
Since the late 1880’s this area has been the tribal land of the Cheyenne-Arapaho Indians. Just west of Cobb Creek, teepees were first erected in a hardy grove and became home and gathering place for the Cheyenne-Arapaho powwow.
Colony’s Mayor Lonnie Yearwood is an active member of the community and an integral part in the rebirth of Colony with restoration projects. One project is the corner building in Colony which is destined to become a museum, and another is the Church Parsonage, a two-story stone structure from 1897.
Mayor Yearwood’s great grandfather John Seger, brought the Cheyenne-Arapahos to Colony to establish an Indian school.
“My great grandfather wanted a post office in Colony in 1896,” says the Mayor, “But there already was a post office west of here, and it was called Seger. If that was not already established the town might have been called Seger instead of Colony, as it was known as John Seger’s Colony.”
The Mayor continues, “Colony has more history than any other town in the county, as Colony started before there was an official county.”
Colony is in a renaissance with not only the Mayors projects but some homes are also being restored, upgraded and preserved. Someday the restoration projects may be on a town tour. The Mayor may be reached by email for more information on the town and the gallery accessibly during the Labor Day Weekend powwow.
Mayor Lonnie Yearwood: yrwd19@gmail.com
Since the authentic powwow activities, dance and singing, continues deep into the night, a planned overnight stay in Weatherford, Oklahoma is recommended.
I plan to be in attendance, not only at the gallery but at the powwow grounds. For a gallery appointment time email me before August 29. I continue my enthusiasm as I reported in my 1981 article, “Had I secretly crept upon this trial meeting on the great western plains of Oklahoma some hundred years ago, I could not have been more excited!”

Mr. Terry Zinn – Travel Editor
Past President: International Food Wine and Travel Writers Association
http://realtraveladventures.com/author/zinn/
http://www.examiner.com/travel-in-oklahoma-city/terry-zinn
www.new.okveterannews.com – www.martinitravels.com