By Malerie Allen, Sand Mountain Reporter
Boaz resident Kathleen Mason learned early from her parents to love reading. Today, she believes there’s no reason everyone can’t enjoy books, even after they move into a nursing home.
Mason’s mother, Dorothy Culbert, lived at Albertville Health and Rehab Select during the last three and a half years of her life. During that time, Mason became an environmental services employee at the facility, where she got to know many of the staff and residents.
After her mother died, Mason developed and donated a library earlier this year to the facility in her mother’s memory.
“I thought that would make her happy,” Mason said.
Mason transformed an awkward corner of the facility’s activity room into a bustling library with more than 1,000 books for residents to enjoy. Most of the books are large print. They span the genres of romance, mystery, western and more.
“I think it’s great,” administrator Mary Meeks said. “The residents really do enjoy it.”
When someone suggested Mason purchase a special plaque honoring her mother to hang in the library, she decided to make her own out of paint and marker.
“(Mom) would get a kick out of it,” Mason said. “She always said I never got out of my second childhood.”
Word puzzle books lay on two large tables near the book-shelves, and a magazine rack contains a number of periodicals. Mason even provided a small chest of children’s books so residents can read with grandchildren and other young visitors.
Those who have trouble seeing even large print can use the closed circuit reader or attend a regular reading session, where the activities director reads a book aloud to residents.
Nursing home resident Mildred Goss is proud of the library and is one of its most loyal patrons.
“It gives you good hours when you don’t have anything else to do,” she said. “I wouldn’t take anything for it.”
Where it all began
Albertville Health and Rehab Select resident Mildred Goss, left, enjoys a crossword puzzle book with
Kathleen Mason at the nursing home’s new library. Photo credit: Malarie Allen, Sand Mountain Reporter.
Both of Mason’s parents were avid readers and instrumental in developing Mason’s love for books. Mason said she can still hear her mother reading to her and her siblings on the front porch of their child-hood country home.
With little money and few neighbors to interact with, Culbert taught her children to see the world through the pages of books.
“My mother taught us that a book can be your best friend, and you can travel the world through books,” Mason said. “We were poor everywhere we went, but we always had a library.”
Mason still has one of her favorite childhood books. The pages are aged and tattered, many threatening to release themselves from the worn binding. Still, the 65-year-old book of children’s tales, called “American Childhood’s Best Books,” is one of Mason’s most treasured possessions.
Caring for the heart
Mason retired from the nursing home after her mother died, but she couldn’t let go of the place. Now, she volunteers every week as the unofficial librarian. She interacts regularly with the residents, keeps the library organized and even helps people pick out books when needed.
It is the realization of one of Mason’s lifelong dreams. She always wanted to be a librarian, but she wasn’t able to go to college to receive the proper training. Today, she feels “blessed” to serve in this capacity.
“I like coming back to visit the residents, too,” Mason said. “I want to get my hugs and kisses. They’re like family here.”
Mason is now trying to replace all remaining regular sized print books with large print versions and hopes the library continues to grow. She even intends to add greeting cards to her list of library services, providing cards for residents to fill out at no cost and give to loved ones for birthdays and other special events.
Libby Alford, vice president of operations for Rehab Select, praised Mason’s work and said the library just adds another way for the nursing home to care for the residents’ hearts, as well as their physical needs.
“You’ve got to take care of the total person, and the heart is in that,” she said. “(The library) really adds something to the room. It gives it life and makes it happy.”
Editor’s Note:
This article was first published in the May 28, 2015, edition of the Sand Mountain Reporter. It is republished here with permission. Click here to download a PDF of the article as it was printed in the Sand Mountain Reporter.
The Alabama Nursing Home Association thanks Kathleen Mason for making a difference in the lives of the residents at Albertville Health and Rehab Select, and the Sand Mountain Reporter for telling her story.
