By Fred Steiner

In a manner of speaking, the Mennonite Home officially gained senior citizen status this summer. It's 55 years old. It may now join AARP.

My connection to 410 W. Elm St. is unusual: I've never lived there, but know it pretty well. My mother worked there for over a quarter of a century, first in the laundry, next as a nurse's aide, then as an LPN and finally as a resident herself.

Most of you don't realize that before the Mennonite Home existed another worthy enterprise operated at the bend on Elm Street many years before 1955. That business was a silver fox farm, and, no, I'm not making this up.

In the 1930s fox furs were in fashion. Silver fox furs were a couple notches up the fashion ladder. So, some guys with Swiss ingenuity set up raising foxes in hopes of preparing for their own golden years. Eventually the fox fur phase fell from fashion. The farm closed its doors and that was that.

Once mom told me that Bluffton was never the same when the farm closed: "Imagine the sound at night of foxes 'in heat' inside the village limits." (Her statement, not mine.)

Anyway, the Mennonite Memorial Home replaced the foxes and, in the long run, Bluffton became a better place because of it.

As a grade schooler I often visited Home when my mother was on duty. Several very interesting residents living there at the time. One was a woman who had worked on the Lima radio station with Hugh Downs.

Another was a man from Germany who had lots of German paper money from the pre-World War II days. These bills became so inflated that one needed to haul a wheel-barrel full of them to the store just to buy a candy bar. He told me this. I believed him.

There was also a woman with Alzheimer's disease (we called it hardening of the arteries) who made very little sense in conversations. But, when the aide set her down on the Home's piano, you thought you were in a concert hall.

There are lot's more interesting stories to tell, but patient privacy won't allow it. Moving to the winter of my mother's time at MMH, I'll leave you with this one.

When she moved in as a resident her room was near the nurse's station. I asked if she'd prefer to be near the end of the hall because it might be quieter.

No way, she said. "You see, it's the night crew I enjoy the most." Okay, this is a paraphrase, but you'll get the point soon.

"I like to hear them talk. They have such interesting stories." I asked for a snippet. She supplied one. She was correct. Interesting stories.

Terminology has changed since 1955. It's no longer an old folks home on Elm Street. It's not even "the Mennonite Home." It's Mennonite Home Communities of Ohio. That title encompasses several opportunities and features for senior citizens.

Whatever you chose to call it, it's now so much of the fabric of our community that it's mentioned in the same breath as several other outstanding features of our small community...Bluffton University, Bluffton Hospital, an excellent public school system, a vibrant Main Street and... "a great retirement community."

I can't imagine Bluffton without it.