When Virginia Reichel, 102, got married 79 years ago during World War II, the Great Depression forced her to get a little creative when it came to her dress. In the present, the dress was part of a display of wedding dresses at Good Samaritan Society– Water Valley Senior Living Resort, Windsor, CO.
“My dress was the oldest one there. There was a shortage of fabric, everything except making things for dresses. My mother was a seamstress, and we did shopping in Sioux City, IA,” Reichel said. “And my mama, being very innovative and creative, went to the drapery department and found this fabric called curtain scrim. I’m not sure how many yards she got, but I would guess in 1945, she probably paid $4 or $5 for the entire fabric. My husband was in England for three years [during] the war, and he came home Dec. 8. After three years, we were married on the Dec. 16” with Reichel wearing “that beautiful dress.”
The display at the senior living community was the brainchild of GSS Water Valley’s activities manager, Jennifer French, inspired by a simple scroll through Facebook. From there, the project took off and French found six dresses used by residents in the community.
“I’m in a couple groups with some other activity directors, and everyone just shares different ideas that they’ve had or things that they have done in their facilities,” French said. “So I thought this would be special for our residents to do something like this, and so we just went for it.”
Each display showed a wedding photograph with an identifying name tag, so everyone was able to get a glimpse into the past lives of their neighbors. Reminiscing about the past brought out some fond memories from residents, according to French. She also relished the opportunity to further solidify the friendships she has made with her surrogate “grandmas.”
“Pretty much all of our staff spends more time with our residents than our own family here at work. We just have such a special bond with quite a few of the residents. We want to dive deeper in with them,” French said. “For some of the residents, they see us more than their family as well, so I just think since I’ve been working here, this has just been such a wonderful experience of being able to be so close. I don’t have any grandparents anymore; they’ve all passed, so it’s good to have all these ‘grandmas’ here. I love listening to all their stories that they have and how they grew up and just any advice they offer. We’re always so happy to just listen.”
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