Sending love to seniors
Brothers who are legally deaf, blind reaching out to those who are sequestered
This fall, two brothers who are blind and deaf created colorful paintings carrying special messages for residents at Grace Point Place in Oak Lawn.
“No visitors have been allowed here due to COVID, so this really was a welcome surprise for our residents,” said Shannon Dahlman, community relations director for the memory care community at 5701W101st St.
Under the guidance of their mother, Eva Savickas, the young men, both graduates of the LaGrange Area Department of Special Education’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing program at Hinsdale South High School, spent one to two hours on weekdays for about two months painting 8-by-10-inch canvases.
Austin Savickas, 18, and Zachary Savickas, 20, are both severely hearing impaired. They know how to use sign language and read lips. Though their vision prevents them from driving and they require large print and magnifiers for reading, they do see color.
The brothers mixed paints, made shapes, created textures, and painted the canvases at an art studio at The Cognitive Clinic in Palos Hills, where their mother works as a business manager.
One by one, the canvases took on brilliant hues of yellow, blue, orange, purple, pink, and light green. In all, the young men painted 50 canvases — one
for each Grace Point Place resident. Their mother applied lettering for uplifting messages such as ‘You are loved” and “You are cherished.”
“No two canvases were alike,” said Carla Carter, certified director and owner of The Cognitive Clinic, a private mental health care practice in Palos Hills. “Each one was unique.”
The Cognitive Clinic normally sends college interns to visit and play games with Grace Point Place residents, but “that all stopped with COVID-19,” Carter said. “We didn’t expect the pandemic to last this long. It’s been terribly isolating to seniors, even for those with very devoted families, so our goal became to make sure the residents would see and know they are loved and cherished.”
Carter said she and the young men’s mother are longtime friends, “practically sisters.” For the painting project, itmadesense to bothwomento involve Savickas’ sons, who are no strangers to helping and volunteering.
Right now, Eva Savickas is recently home from the hospital recovering from COVID-19, so she asked Carter to talk about her sons’ involvement. They often help take out the trash and tidy up at The Cognitive Clinic, and they have made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as part of a service project, Carter said.
“They took this on, asking questions each step of the way, like, ‘So what are we doing to do now?’” Carter said. “They did this with a happy heart, and they wanted to make sure it was well received. When it came time to wrap the canvases as gifts, (that) was when they realized just how special thiswas.
“They were all in, heavy on the tape, and very enthusiastic about getting things right with wraps and ribbons.”
Austin works full-time as a custodian and Zachary is enrolled in a post-high school education program offered through LADSE. Carter and Savickas didn’t want to disrupt the young men’s schedules so thewomen delivered the packages Grace Point Place in November.
To make the occasion special, they picked a warm sunny warm day when Grace Point Place residents were enjoying the outdoors.
One of the residents who received a special package was Artist Brewer, 70, a father of three who once delivered hair products and lived on Chicago’s South Side.
“I think it’s very nice that someone did this for me,” Brewer said in a recent phone interview. Much like his first name implies, he considers himself a bit of an artist. “This reminds of a picture I did on my own inmy craft class here,” he said.
Some residents placed the canvases on their dressers and on ledges in their rooms. “A few even requested we hang them on the wall with their other artwork,” said Dahlman, Grace Point Place’s community relations coordinator.
Marie Fadden, 92, spent most of her life in Oak Lawn as a homemaker. The mother of three sons and two daughters, grandmother of six, and great grandmother of five seemed to appreciate her canvas, which is bright orange and says, “I am Loved.”
“Marie placed it on the nightstand next to her bed, so it would be the first thing she sees in the morning,” Dahlman said. “She says it makes her smile and starts her day off just right.”
MargaretMartinez, 82, grew up in Chicago and raised seven children. Her canvas is pastel green and white with a butterfly. She asked that it be on the wall by an entryway at Grace Point Place for staff and other residents to see.
“She also enjoyed opening the wrapped box,” Dahlman said. “She said itwas nice to get a gift, ‘a nice surprise.’”