The 16-passenger Naperville Park District bus moves down a gravel road at the Morton Arboretum. The vehicle`s speed is deliberately slowed.
Driver Cathy Trent is making sure that her 11 passengers–3 staff members and 8 elderly residents from the Americana Health Care Center in Naperville
–feel unhurried. On this mellow morning they are out to smell the flowers, cluck over ducks and plumb the pleasure of seeing hundreds of trees in flower. ”At home we have a flowering crabapple like that outside our windows,”
says Florence Hansler, 68, a former school cook who is recovering from a stroke.
”Will you look at how that baby`s being carried!” exclaims retiree Ernie Miller, 77, pointing to a small child nestled in a bag on a hiker`s back.
From the front of the bus, above the hum of the engine, Trent pipes up:
”Check out that field of dandelions to the right. It looks like my back yard.”
The comment gets a chuckle and induces conversation about hometowns. Trent catches a familiar name. ”Ernie, you`re from Plainfield? Oh, wow, so am I.”
Trent, 27, continues to stay involved throughout the hour-long excursion. Eyes fixed on the road, she tunes her ears to the needs of an age group she has been taking places for five days a week since 1985.
The PACE bus, white with blue and yellow stripes, is used to transport seniors within Naperville city limits.
Trent, who is a single parent, sometimes brings her daughter, Laurie Beth, 4, if she can`t find a sitter. She says the seniors look forward to having the child on the bus, and they all act like a bunch of grandparents.
During a refreshment stop amid trees filled with birds bursting into song, Trent expands her job description–bus driver–to help distribute cakes and fruit drinks.
”Here, let me take off your Twinkie wrapper,” she says to former telegraph operator Helen Chemelewski, 89, who sits in a wheelchair behind the driver`s seat.
”I`ll insert the straw for you,” she tells Jeannette Taich, 84, who is struggling with the juice carton. Her unsolicited cooperation doesn`t escape Americana`s activity director, Madge Miller, 49, a La Grange resident.
”Cathy`s great with people. She comes across as `Whatever you want is okay with me.”`
Muriel Skarin, 59, Americana`s assistant activity director and a Naperville resident, finds Trent different from ”most other bus drivers. They usually keep themselves removed and hurry us along if we`re slow coming or going. Not Cathy. She understands that getting wheelchairs on and off lifts can delay us. ”
Back at the Naperville Senior Drop-In Center, radio dispatcher Diane Squires usually answers all incoming phone calls for the Dial-A-Ride bus service to seniors. On average, she receives up to 25 calls daily. But late that morning, with Trent on her special assignment, Squires, 42, is out of the storefront facility doing Trent`s usual job. ”I`m taking people 55 and older, or handicapped, door-to-door on personal business until 4 p.m.,” Squires says over a citizen band radio the center uses to keep in touch with its drivers.
Program assistant Ginger Jarris, 51, meanwhile, is at Squires` desk, scheduling activities and answering an incessantly ringing telephone. All the callers want to make bus reservations for the following day`s weekly shopping trip to Fox Valley. This trip attracts the most passengers, Squires says. ”We make at least 40 pick-ups that day.”
”Church and Brunch” is among the programs Jarris is scheduling. One random Sunday a month, the Naperville resident drives a group of seniors to a house of worship and to eat afterwards. The seniors make a joint decision on where to worship, with the selections often made on sentiment.
”For example, Hattie Englehardt, who will be 101 this month, likes to be fussed over at an uptown church where she used to go regularly. So we`ve gone back there more than once,” Jarris says.
Preparation of lasagna, pepper steak and roast turkey–not transportation –is dining center director Janice Ries` concern. An average of 15 seniors usually drop in to lunch, which is served at 11:30 a.m. on Mondays.
Presently, 18 seniors receive Homebound Meals, delivered weekdays; they pay according to their income. ”Numbers (served) go up and down according to seasons,” Ries says. ”Right now we`re at a low.”
Angela Salzer, 46, of Naperville coordinates all the senior activities, each of which attracts from 15 people on a daily basis to 100 people at a holiday event. From her 12-year perspective with this program, she says the daytime trips are the most popular offering.
”We go everywhere and anywhere seniors want to go–cultural events, theater, parks, boat rides, local city tours,” she says.
The means of transportation depends on the turnout. For a large sign-up
(more than 20 people), Salzer hires a luxury motor coach. For a smaller turnout, she uses the PACE van, driven by Trent.
She says a travel agency is used for overnight trips, which can be 1 night in Louisville or 10 days in Europe or Tahiti.
The second most-popular program, Salzer says, is the Thursday walking group.
Even so, Trent`s services are required to take the walkers to and from local forest preserves and parks for their exercise. ”All of our jobs mesh to keep seniors independent,” says Salzer, sitting at her desk in the Drop-In Center. ”Our programs give them a place to go, and the Dial-A-Ride gives them a way to get here.”
Program participants include people such as Blanche Labedz , 70, who always wanted to take painting lessons and has been coming to the Tuesday class for three years; retired telephone company coilwinder Margaret Pistono, 86, who invariably plays a pinochle game with retired Colorado seamstress Evelyn Geary, 76, on days when neither are on daytime trips to such nearby places as Bolingbrook, Yorktown and Oak Brook shopping centers; and retired homemaker Wille Wagner, 90, who enjoys knitting and crocheting booties, caps and shawls in the Monday craft group.
No matter what time Trent returns to the center, people there for other programs but who use the Dial-A-Ride service invariably check a clock. ”They assume I`m there to drive them home. Sometimes I`m just there during a lull to say `hello.` They`re my friends, and with some I even feel like a relative.” People using Dial-A-Ride should call 420-4210 a day in advance for reservations, which are accepted from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday. Service is door-to-door; and round-trip costs run from 35 cents to $3, depending on the destination.
SERVICES ARE JUST A PHONE CALL AWAY
If you`re going to grow old, Naperville seems like the place to do it.
The city`s population of citizens 62 and over is increasing; it rose to 4,488 in 1986 (6.6 percent of the population) from 2,828 in 1980 (6.1 percent of the total).
And there are plenty of services to meet the need, including:
— The park district`s senior center and its programs, from the Dial-A-Ride service to lunches at the center and Homebound Meals, to craft days and card games.
The park district currently sends out 2,300 newsletters to seniors, roughly 10 times more than it did in 1977.
— Government-subsidized senior housing developments, such as Charles Court, Martin Manor, Ogden Manor and Fairway Apartments.
Independence Village is privately owned.
— Catherine Court, under construction by the city, for disabled residents, including the elderly disabled.
— Adult day care available through the Ecumenical Adult Care Of Naperville (357-8166).
— The American Association for Retired People (357-3874) and the YMCA of Naperville (420-6270) programs for seniors, along with those of various religious groups.
More information on senior services can be obtained through the Department of Human Resources, 682-7586.
