At Woodstone, we want to hear about your life before moving into our community. Every single one of our residents are so special to us. We truly enjoy getting to learn more about their lives and hobbies. Understanding their background and what makes them who they are today is crucial to us, as everyone has a different story and we can all learn something from one another. We are here to listen and spread their story. Here’s Margery Bailey Severson’s story…
Marge grew up in Saint Paul right next to the fairgrounds, near Bethel University. She grew up with her mother, father, brother, and sister. Marge was very involved in sports starting from a young age. There were hockey rinks and open areas to play different sports right next to her childhood home. Her and all of her friends in the neighborhood spent hours upon hours each day playing different sports. She grew up more of a tomboy considering that their neighborhood friend group consisted of all boys besides her and one other girl. Learning about sports from a young age taught her many things. Marge played almost all of the sports and loved every single one. Her softball team made it to nationals which took place in Cleveland. They even took their softball team and went to Canada to play competitively. When she wasn’t playing softball in the summer, she played volleyball in the fall. Instead of the term “volleyball” they called it “Powerball”. Just like softball, she traveled all over the United States playing Powerball! In the winter, she was constantly playing hockey. They had a rink right next to their house which always gave them the opportunity and winter to go out and play some good games! In addition to those sports, she also loves to play golf and found it to be a great hobby of hers as she continued to grow older.
“Each of the sports that I was involved in had something unique and special about them which makes it really hard for me to pick just one that I enjoyed playing the most!”
Later on in life, about 23–24 years old she had her twin boys and then two girls! Since sports played such an incredible role in her life, she wanted to make sure that her kids were involved in sports right away! Aside from sports, Marge was very busy working all sorts of jobs! One of her jobs was working at movie theaters. Her specific role was putting together the ads that were played before the movies. She said, “That was one of my favorite jobs because I love working with people and it’s so much fun to learn about others and interact with them all day long”. In addition to that job she was also the head cashier at one of their grocery stores. She was a hard worker and a lot of her family members helped her out and stepped up to take care of her kids when she was not able to.
Something that Marge loved doing was keeping all of her classmates in touch. She was the person that would always coordinate events and make sure that they all got together every couple of months. There was a man named Don that was in her kindergarten class (Tilden Grade School, Murray High School). They went to school together all the way up until they couldn’t anymore! After Marge’s first husband had passed, she found herself going to more of these events. Her and Don reconnected after all of these years which sparked a real connection between these two. They ended up getting married and traveled all over the world together! One of their biggest trips was when they went to England and rented a car and drove all over the place. This brought them to Ireland, Germany, France, and many different boat adventures. Marge said, “We both found traveling to be so much fun and it was so interesting to see where all of our relatives had come from.” Traveling is something that they both absolutely love to do because they got to spend time with one another and truly soak in all of the beauty that this world has to offer for us. As pictured below, at Marge and Don’s wedding they had put up their class picture from kindergarten and had everyone that was pictured in that class sign the frame. They had such a special group of friends that supported each other no matter what.
As time went on, it became time for Marge to move into a community. She said that her and Don had seen the facility before it was ready for people to move in. This was a big step for her to personally move in by herself after Don had passed. Her family felt that it was the right time and place for her to move into Woodstone Active Living. One thing that she absolutely loves about being here is that she’s never alone. She always feels like she’s safe and that there are always people around no matter what. She thinks it’s very important that you surround yourself with people that care about you. She feels very comfortable where she is staying but it’s just looking for one thing. The one thing that she is looking for is someone to play cribbage or card games with her! She even goes as far as writing on peoples doors to try to get them to come play with her! She’s hoping that the residents that are moving in the next upcoming months will play with her!
Best,
Danielle Morrow
Marketing Specialist
