Retired farmer harvesting good times at Kentwood Park

Resident takes a spin on new combine, loved the experience

July 30, 2010 -- Deron Hamel

PICTON, Ont. - Charles Matthias says riding around a farm on a brand-new combine isn't exactly how he would have once pictured life to be like in long-term care, but staff members at Kentwood Park proved him wrong.

Matthias, a retired farmer from Brant County, who now lives at the Picton long-term care home, was recently invited to the farm owned by restorative-care aide Wanda Parks and her husband Steven.

Since Parks comes from a farming background and knew Matthias had been a farmer, she approached the resident and asked if he'd be interested in checking out her husband's new combine.

Eager to see the top-of-the-line farm machinery, Matthias jumped at the opportunity, he tells the OMNIway.

"I never had a combine like that — I had a small farm. I used to have the combines that dragged behind the tractor," laughs Matthias, who moved into the Picton long-term care home in February to be with his wife.

"I never thought I'd be doing that when (I moved into Kentwood Park)."

Matthias adds that it's this type of experience that has changed his mind about what living in a long-term care home is all about.

Parks says Matthias had an ear-to-ear smile during his afternoon trip to the farm. She notes that when they arrived Matthias was right at home inside the combine's cabin while her husband drove the machinery.

"He got right in there and was loving it," she says.

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