By Mary Lackie

“I think the churches have been asleep. I have been an active church woman for 50 years. I used to think when we took baskets to the needy at Thanksgiving and Christmas that this was good work -- well, it was but I never knew until now just how much there is to be done.” Speaking was Mrs. Emma Rosier, 73, a member of the Peachtree Christian Church and a resident of the Palmer House Center. “She can still out walk any 16-year-old,” remarked a friend. In addition to her church activities, Mrs. Rosier has found a new outlet for her energy and devotion.

As president of the Foster Grandparent Project, she explains the program, “Our purpose is to give children tender, loving care. ‘TLC’ is our slogan. Thirty of us work at Grady Hospital, four at the Fulton County Juvenile Court Shelter, and one at Carrie Steele-Pitts Home. In order to qualify for our program, you must be 60 years of age or older, have an interest in children, and be able to work 23 hours a week five days a week.” Mr. Rosier views the hospital through the children’s eyes: “When a little child enters the hospital, he is filled with fears. His parents leave; he is put in a bed with iron bars, and hasn’t a friend. I always tell the child, ‘I’m your grandmother.’ We are just thrilled when they call us ‘Grandma.’ We feed them, change their diapers, take them for walks down the hall, and rock them to sleep with lullabies.” “When the child wakes up, there we are, sitting beside the bed. Some of the children are suffering from malnutrition, and all of them are starved for love. That is what we can give them -- after all Christ loved children. So we hug them, cuddle them, and rock them to sleep. The hardest part isn’t the work. It is seeing them leave us. We get to feeling that they are really our children. But the mothers call us and visit with us, and the children get on the phone to ask how ‘Grandma’ is.”

At Grady Hospital, the Foster Grandparent cares for children between 3-12 under the supervision of Mrs. George Miller. Atlanta is linked with 32 cities across the country that participates in the National Foster Grandparent Project. Prospective grandparents must complete a two-week training program before they begin work. Though the grandparents administer no medicine to the children, their affection and care is reflected in the child’s marked improvement.

“We don’t know what we did before you came down here to help us,” say the nurses and doctors. But the satisfaction of coaxing a child back to health is worth more than the compliments. And sometimes the task is difficult. Mrs. Rosier cited an example: “One little fellow came to the hospital and just stood in a corner. He was afraid of grown-ups. It was his foster grandfather who conquered his fear.” Mrs. Rosier, like many of the 250 residents at the Palmer House, has little time to spend at the center. “At first,” said one resident, “you could walk through the lobby and it was funny to see all the little old ladies get together to jibberjabber -- and of course, I’m a little old lady, myself.” But since the Palmer House opened in June 1966, the lobby has been emptied.

The senior citizens in the building are too busy to find time for chatting in the lobby. “It is simply not necessary for anyone to feel lonely here,” said Mrs. Lester Hasty, “and by the way, Lester is my name -- it’s a girl’s name -- when I retired I thought I would have lots of time on my hands, but I have never been so busy.” Mrs. Hasty is a part-time receptionist at Crawford Long Hospital and an active member of the Baptist Tabernacle. “This location is wonderful. We are so close to everything here.”

Mrs. Ethel Dilts sat in the living room of her sunny apartment overlooking the Georgia Tech campus, “Isn’t this a lovely place?” she remarked. Then her large blue eyes grew wide and serious. She shook her head and sighed. “Oh, I wish I could take you on a tour of this building and introduce you to all my neighbors and the wonderful people on the staff -- that nice Mr. Herron he’s our superintendent, and all the others -- but I just can’t. I’m waiting for an important phone call from the stage director. We might have a rehearsal tonight. I’m ‘Granny’ in ‘Tobacco Road.’ Everybody at Theater Atlanta, bless their little old hearts, says, ‘Here comes Granny!’ when I walk in.” Mrs. Dilts is resuming her stage career at the age of 81.

“The volunteer task force had a meeting here in the building,” reported Mrs. Evelyn Brown, “but I was too busy to go. I do the bookkeeping for the Notre Dame Book Shop, and with everything else going on, we thought it might just be too confining for me.”

Kennie Mayson and his wife are also residents of the Palmer House. He is busy helping to catalogue books for the library at the center. “We have between 3,000 and 4,000 books here, donated by people who moved in -- and it’s a big job. He enjoys the bingo parties.”

“For one bingo game, some of the women in the building decided we should have a prize. So they got together and made a quilt. That was the prize for the evening. Now, I guess they’re working on another one -- it will have all the names of the charter residents embroidered on it. I don’t know what they’ll do with when it’s finished. And we have some mighty fine cooks here. There was a covered dish dinner one night so we could all get acquainted, and we had enough food to feed an army.”

Although the Palmer House Center is not eligible now for funds from the United Appeal, 30 residents found time to work at the headquarters office for two weeks stuffing envelopes and helping to organize the campaign.

“We hope to eventually get funds from the United Appeal,” explained Mrs. Carolyn French, director of the Senior Citizens’ Services at the Palmer House, 430 Techwood Dr. “Right now, most of our funds come from the Economic Opportunity Program.” Also receiving funds from the program are the two other high-rise apartments in Atlanta: John O. Chiles and Antonie Graves. All three buildings are under the supervision of the Atlanta Housing Authority.

In charge of arts and crafts at the Palmer House Center is Mrs. Donna Benice. She smiled, “I have never been so surprised in my life since I started working with senior citizens -- so many of them have so much get up and go! Our goal is to channel some of this vitality and interest by involving the people in their own programs and in community work. We hope to have a building where people from all three centers can sell some their work -- baskets, ceramics, Christmas decorations.

Chuck Early, counselor from Project HIRE (Help Initiate Renewed Employment) travels the circuit of high-rises counseling and interviewing residents interested in jobs. “I told Mr. Early,” said Mrs. Daisy Bell, “that I just hoped he was proud of what he was doing, because he is a wonderful young man.” Mrs. Bell, a seamstress, has found work with his assistance. “I don’t really know where he takes all the clothes I make, but he takes them somewhere and sells them for me.” The Palmer House Center publishes a weekly newsletter crammed with events; choral group sessions, health programs, arts and crafts meetings, the Sunday afternoon interdenominational services at 4 p.m.; and recently, a planning session for a fishing trip: “Attention Gentlemen, Would you like to go fishing?”

But nobody will be going fishing on Oct. 27 or Nov. 3. The Palmer House Center has become a hive of political activity. Elections are planned to form a Senior Citizens’ Council which will represent residents of the building and include three members from the Senior Citizens’ Center in the Howell-Techwood area. Already 30 names have been entered as nominees for council president. So what is important about Nov. 3? It’s the date of the run-off election, of course.