Visiting grandparents at Prairie Ridge Care Center isn’t like visiting at your average nursing home. The free ice cream, popcorn and drinks … the sidewalk café … indoor playground … private resident rooms with space to visit easily … family rooms … and each cottage’s patio area stocked with farm animals … all make Prairie Ridge different from other care centers. But this past Sunday, a visit took an unexpected turn for one teenager.
14-year-old Macy and her brother Owen, along with their parents Tim and Heather Weiss from Waukee, were in Orange City visiting Tim’s parents, Ray and Dorothy Weiss, residents at Prairie Ridge.
Char Ten Clay, Prairie Ridge administrator and Director of Senior Care for Orange City Area Health System, had just arrived in the patio area of Countryside Cottage (Ray and Dorothy’s cottage) after receiving a phone call from the cottage Hostess that one of the goats was in labor and seemed to be struggling. When Char entered the pen she saw that the delivery was not progressing properly. She cleaned up and attempted to reach into the doe to size up the situation.
Macy and Owen were watching. Char asked if one of them was willing to lend a hand — since they had smaller hands. Macy stepped forward, prepared herself, and entered the pen. With Char guiding her, Macy was able to reach in, grasp the kid (who was breach), and with each contraction inched it out. It was a boy (buck)! As the mother began cleaning him, Char predicted one or two more kids to come. Shortly, out slid a second buck and then the third kid, a doe — which everyone who had gathered to watch promptly named Macy.
“Had Macy not been there and ready to help deliver that first kid there is a high probability that we would have lost all three kids and the doe herself,” explained Char. “Macy was marvelous in that any fear or trepidation she may have had, she overcame and she calmly and carefully was able to safely deliver that kid. It was so fun to help her, and to see her pitch in and willingly do something so foreign to her.”
It will be hard to top this visit to Grandpa and Grandma Weiss!
(We wonder if there is a medical profession in Macy’s future…)