I had the pleasure of spending a Monday afternoon visiting with Myralene Tunis, a Meals on Wheels client of five years.
“My greatest accomplishment is having made a lot of friends here in Lancaster. When I moved here, I did not know one person.”
Myralene and her late husband moved to Lancaster after meeting at college in Fort Wayne, Indiana and soon after got married in 1950. She has lived in her West Lancaster City home beautifully decorated with portrait paintings done by family artists and collectable pig figurines for 65 years. When it came time for Myralene to stop driving, she and her daughter spent some time grocery shopping and cooking meals together. Soon after, they discovered Meals on Wheels of Lancaster.
“It’s just so much more convenient this way, and the food is always great.” she said with a great big smile. While Meals on Wheels offers meals 5 days a week Mon-Fri, Myralene chose a 3-day meal plan Mon, Wed, Fri because she says the portions are very large and she always ends up having leftovers.
“My husband loved buckwheat cakes. For that reason, it was a family ritual to have buckwheat cake parties every Saturday. We even had a dog named buckwheat.”
As we reminisced on past pets, favorite foods, and family members, Myralene and I looked through her coin collection. She has started a collection for all four of her grandchildren to have each coin of the year that they were born. When I asked her where she had found all of the coins, she said the bank. But she does not ask for the coins manufactured during the specific years.
“I go in to the bank, and I ask for rolls of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters and then I look through them myself and save the years that I am looking for. I enjoy the process, and it will make the gift more special for my grandchildren.”
Myralene is blessed with a family full of artists. On her walls hangs portrait paintings crafted by her sister-in-law as well as her oldest grandchild who is away at an art college in New York City.
She assures me that although she may live alone, she is thankful to be surrounded by the things that she loves and has many family members and friends who call very frequently.
“A lot of people don’t have anyone to take care o them, and I just feel bad for people like that.”
We are happy to be reaching out with a helping hand to clients such as Mrs. Tunis as well as the hundreds of clients we serve each month.
