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When you come to work at St. Simeon’s you automatically become a part of the
St. Simeon’s family. Some folks even take it a step further and bring their
“real family” with them. Karen and Ronnie, married 29 years in May (met on a
blind date), are some of those folks. Even Ronnie’s Mother, Ollie Ferguson,
used to work here at St. Simeon’s. She once was the Medication Nurse on the
3-11 shift.
This past April Ronnie celebrated his 20th anniversary working at St.
Simeon’s and this month it will be ten years for Karen.
We also have four other couples working here: Dennis and Barbara Roberts
(Maintenance and Nursing), Buddie and Julie Wood (both in Nursing), Kim and
Donnie Chapman (both in Housekeeping) and Tonya and Manfred Renner (both in
Nursing).
Karen is our Purchasing Clerk. Her job is to assist
the Purchasing Manager (Betty Minton) by: taking
supplies to various parts of the building, checking in deliveries when the
trucks pull up at the loading dock, helping put up the tons of groceries we get,
helping people find the things they need, preparing orders, working at the
computer, keeping inventory up to date, keeping track of unaccounted for
supplies, helping with the MSDS book, gathering data for CQI. In other words a
“jack-of –all-trades”…
Which, interestingly enough, is how husband Ronnie also describes himself,
though he adds “master of none”. I guess that’s why they are a good match
for each other. That and their similar wry sense of humor.
Ronnie is one of our Maintenance men. He works “inside, outside,
underneath, in the attic, on the roof, etc”. This can be all the unusual
things maintenance has to deal with to keep a facility of this size and
complexity running smoothly and then the occasional “odd job”. Like the time
the deer was inside the fence and some kids were petting it but it started
butting them and Ronnie had to lasso it and tie it up (also getting butted)
until the Animal Control Officer could get here. Ronnie talks tough but when he
has to get “varmints” out of here he doesn’t kill them but puts them
outside the fence where they belong. St. Simeon’s used to have some peacocks
who “hollered all the time” and wild turkeys who would take off to the woods
when a storm came.
Before Ronnie ever came, Karen had worked here on two different occasions,
(interrupted by children),as a CNA (eight years) and as a Housekeeper. She feels
like in some ways her job now makes her a part of Dietary. She is probably one
of the few people who has received two five year awards-first in Nursing
and then in Housekeeping. Karen is “busy all the time” in her job but really
enjoys it because “there is so much variety in the things I do.”
Ronnie was first hired just for the summer. Back then Mr. Pinson was the
Administrator, Mrs. Gore was the Director of Nursing and John Gilliam was the
Maintenance Supervisor. The extra summer person was always let go when “the
grass quit growing” but a fellow employee named Raymond quit so that Ronnie
could stay on, since by then Ronnie and Karen had kids and Raymond didn’t.
Before coming to St. Simeon’s, Ronnie had worked five years in Tulsa’s
Safety Engineering Department. Jobs were hard to come by then. There were
licensed plumbers working “on shovels” for the city. He helped paint the
stripes on roads, install stop signs and traffic lights and even striped the
Skiatook airport runway. That job earned Karen and Ronnie a free ride up in a
Cessna airplane. He also was an apprentice butcher for a while and frustrated
Karen, who was trying to learn how to cut up a chicken, by “teaching” her to
do it a different way every time! Karen also worked as a cook at a Ken’s Pizza
Parlor for three years.
Ronnie thinks his job has its good points and its bad points. He was taught to,
“Do whatever the residents request, if reasonable. If not reasonable- like “please-tear-down-that-building”-then
check with the supervisor!” He remembers the day he helped a resident who had
fallen outside and she was much more concerned about chasing her wig that had
fallen off than whether or not she was hurt. He used to have more time to spend
with the residents. They are like grandmothers to him, not a paycheck. He
remembers regularly going to inspect flowers with Mrs. Morey,
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