"look john, we're on here." -- pauline phillips to john heck, residents of hearthstone at maidencreek.

this afternoon, a call came in from kathy moore, the activities coordinator for hearthstone at maidencreek near the blandon area. she'd called to confirm that the package of six copies of the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history in berks county arrived there today for residents there who helped to tell their stories for this project: helen mengel, pauline phillips, erma merkel, irene schappell, john heck, and edna machemer.

moore noted that she loved seeing the personalized letters written to each of them and how a detail about what audiences loved most about their particular poems at poetry readings fit into the final words of each, as a way to help these seniors see that they are known, valued, and appreciated even by strangers who they'll never meet.

but the best part involved interruptions in trivia time.

moore said as she hosted the game a few hours ago, phillips talked to heck and said, "look, john, we're on here," in referencing the cover of the labors of our fingertips: poems from manufacturing history in berks county.

heck's picture is at the bottom right corner of the front cover of the book, and the photograph of phillips is to the left of his. above phillips' picture is that of another fellow resident of theirs, machamer, who is getting famous at poetry readings for her wonderful underwear joke-ish story poem. 

here are links to the excerpts of their poems on the blog, for anyone who hasn't seen them yet or might want to eye-peruse them again.

john heck

pauline phillips

edna machemer

and more good news here is that a poetry reading exclusively for residents of hearthstone at maidencreek is in planning stages, to help honor the residents whose stories were captured in poem-form and to nudge other residents and the staff to appreciate these individuals even more. the world only moves toward progress when poems are involved !