Council on Aging update to parish council

St. Mary Council on Aging Executive Director Beverly Domengeaux reported to the St. Mary Parish Council on the status of the agency Wednesday.
In a recent audit, which she presented to the council, she said, “I’m proud to say that in 16 years we’ve never had a finding on our audits, and this one’s clean too,” Domengeaux said.
The organization was chartered 47 years ago, by appointment of the governor, to oversee the activities of seniors for St. Mary Parish. “That’s us, that’s what we are,” she said. “We’re seniors. We’re the foundation but we’re still here. We live here, we shop here, we care.”
For instance, that very day, 258 “well seniors” gathered for lunch at the center. “But we have over 400 that we service, that cannot come to things like that. They can’t come to the monthly luncheons. They don’t leave their homes. Sev-enty-two percent of them live by them-selves.”
Domengeaux gave a presentation of the food items clients get in what the called a “show-and-tell.”
She showed the council and audience that the packages are “things that a senior can open, it’s nourishing for them. They love things like a cup of Ramen noodles, they can just pour a little hot water in and it’s a good meal.
“They like anything that that they can open and they can manage. Some of them have mi-crowaves or toaster ov-ens.”
Domengeaux indicated a plastic storage container. “This box will feed them for three days,” she said of the contents. “It runs about $9 at any dollar store. So as we’re going through this season and we’re hearing about Toys for Tots, Food for Families, just remember: Nine dollars will take care of grandma…they can make a meal on peanut butter crackers. And I’m going to shock you: They love juice, they won’t drink milk. They like water. And the thing is, I know the future’s coming, but the past is part of St. Mary Parish, and we deserve to say thank you to some of these people that can’t come to the luncheons and activi-ties.”
An emotional Domengeaux asked the council, “How would you feel if a 92-year-old lady living in a house that she shouldn’t be living in, but it’s her home? Our pledge is to let them age the way they want to age, where they want to age.”
She said when she de-livered a meal to that 92-year-old, the client said, “Miss Beverly, thank you very much, but the gentleman next door he needs it more than I do. I took him a meal too, and now he’s on too. And they’re the cutest things because now they eat lunch together, and they’re socializing.”
Domengeaux said, “We’re a hand to hold, an ear to listen, and a heart that cares.”
Chairman Gabriel Beadle commended COA’s work, and the fact that she had never had a negative audit finding.
“It’s more important in what you do,” Beadle said. “With 72% of those 400 people are living by themselves and can’t get out. I remember two years ago, you had a massive waiting list…is there any problem with that now?”
Domengeaux said there is no waiting list now. “Thanks to ya’ll for upping my (funding). But unfortunately we’ve lost a lot of clients to either nursing homes or to heaven. We’ve been able to replace them (from the list) and we have family members who are coming forward and helping us take care of their family members. It’s gotten to be a chore to explain to younger people what it is to age. Yeah, we’re cantankerous, we’re stubborn, we have our own minds and we want to do it our way, the way we’ve always done it. So it’s harder to edu-cate.”
She also quoted assis-tance from grants, the H.B. Young Foundation, United Way, and all the municipalities in the parish.
“This is the first year I didn’t have to send out letters and ask for it, the checks came in before I sent them out!” she laughed.
Then she pleaded with the audience members that, if they have an elderly neighbor, to check on them, especially in cold weather.
“Seventeen years ago my husband told me to take this job before he died,” she said. “And sometimes I sit out by pool and I say, ‘Why did you give me this job?’ Then I say, thank God. Because I don’t have a big family, but right now, I’ve got 10,692 kin-folks, and they all know me, and I do appreciate it.”