Maxwells hang out with the elderly

[sparkles]

 

And some of them quite literally can't escape his "preaching" - the Maxwell kids wheel them in then they're stuck there til they are assisted back out.

To be fair, I don't think anyone is dragged to any social event in a nursing home against his or her will, especially when that event is a religious service. The Maxwells have mentioned that they do ASK if residents want to attend, and they'll take them to the room if they do, but neither the Maxwells nor the staff have ever forced anyone to attend. Let's be honest—there are many nursing home residents who are pretty much abandoned by their families and are quite lonely, so I'm pretty sure the residents who do attend—and the numbers aren't overwhelming—are happy to be there, if only for the company. How often do you think some of them get to see young people, especially small children, even more especially people who are there willingly, even if those people have an agenda? I'd also imagine that most of the attendees share the Maxwells' beliefs, although maybe not to the same extremes. So my issue isn't so much that the Maxwells preach to and interact with the residents, it's the way they marginalize and condescend by lumping them all in as "the elderly." And the way they're considered the only "safe" social contacts for the chidults.

[salex]

Does the elderly ever get sick of these people?  I mean seriously I wouldn't be able to stomach Maxwells for more than a few minutes. 

Given that there are at probably over 100 relatively mobile independent living and assisted living residents and 80 in the nursing facility at this place , and we never see more than 6-10 attendees to the Maxwell special events, I'd say that many people are finding other ways to spend their Friday nights. My guess is Steve cares more about having his own private church, with no other men his age or younger to challenge him than he does about large numbers of attendees, and it sounds more legit to people on his traveling show circuit than home churching. 

I suspect also it is sort of like John Scrader... food brings them in-- 

[Justme]

From the pictures they have posted of their "services", it doesn't look like may residents attend. Maybe a dozen or so average. Most homes have many more residents. So, that's a lot saying "no thanks".

 

[anjulibai]

That's a good point about the number of people in that facility. They really don't have a lot of people show up to either the Friday get-togethers or the Sunday services. 

I'm sure Steve would prefer more women there, but is probably glad there aren't that many men. He's got a thing about widows. 

[Handmaiden of Dog]

My hope is that the ones who do show up are a little bit deaf and a little bit forgetful so that they can just enjoy an old fashioned family who sings old fashioned hymns and don't mind a bit of hell fire and damnation as long as it comes with cookies and a smiling four year old.

[Iamhispurity]

Is this the girls only social event of the week? I never see any young friends of theirs...

[Naga Viper]

I'd like to imagine the residents who aren't attending Mobile Maxhell in an adjacent room whooping it up with big band music and vintage rock n' roll while the staff keep the Pepsi flowing freely.

[nastyhobbitses]

I'd like to imagine the residents who aren't attending Mobile Maxhell in an adjacent room whooping it up with big band music and vintage rock n' roll while the staff keep the Pepsi flowing freely.

Hopefully they'd add something stronger when the Maxhell hostages return.

[twin2]

To be fair, I don't think anyone is dragged to any social event in a nursing home against his or her will, especially when that event is a religious service. The Maxwells have mentioned that they do ASK if residents want to attend, and they'll take them to the room if they do, but neither the Maxwells nor the staff have ever forced anyone to attend. Let's be honest—there are many nursing home residents who are pretty much abandoned by their families and are quite lonely, so I'm pretty sure the residents who do attend—and the numbers aren't overwhelming—are happy to be there, if only for the company. How often do you think some of them get to see young people, especially small children, even more especially people who are there willingly, even if those people have an agenda? I'd also imagine that most of the attendees share the Maxwells' beliefs, although maybe not to the same extremes. So my issue isn't so much that the Maxwells preach to and interact with the residents, it's the way they marginalize and condescend by lumping them all in as "the elderly." And the way they're considered the only "safe" social contacts for the chidults.

The problem is not what the Maxwells are doing, it is a very nice thing to do for all the reasons you stated.  It is why they are doing it, which is for selfish reasons.  They have the church services because it gives Steve and excuse to have his own church and further shelter his family.  The do the 'fun' nights not so much to bring cheer to 'the elderly' but because they have to demonstrate to the world they are The Best Christians and taking care of the elderly shows that.

[Jana814]

I think Steve gets mad when some of the residence in the nursing home don't come to church.  

[anjulibai]

Is this the girls only social event of the week? I never see any young friends of theirs...

Pretty much.

Maxwells don't have friends. 

[Naga Viper]

Pretty much.

Maxwells don't have friends. 

Yes, they do. They're just called siblings instead.

[Screamapillar]

Pretty much.

Maxwells don't have friends. 

They only refer to unrelated people as friends if they provide them with a free meal when they're on the road. 

[Jana814]

Everyone is right. The grandchildren don have any friends outside the family. I think the reason why they got the "auntie's park" was so they would go to an actual park or playground & meet other kids. 

 

 

 

[Curious]

I've been in 4 different skilled nursing facilities and every one of them had protocols for people with communicable diseases/infections.   There are big notices near their doors about precautions required to enter the room and IME those folks are basically kept in their rooms, they are not paraded around the facility to spread whatever they have to other residents.   I would guess there are actual regulations about this kind of thing, again based on my experience.

I tested positive for MRSA (nasally), but not in any of my wounds, so the staff had protocols when doing personal care for me, but I was allowed to go where ever I wanted/interact with people because I was not contagious to the average person.    The person in the room next to me was under strict precautions of some type and I never even saw that person the entire time I was there.

I'd venture to guess that the "non-elderly" people/objects the kids come in contact with and put their hands in their mouths are more likely to make the kids sick than people in a nursing facility.

[Coconut Flan]

We took grandson to see his great-grandfather in the SNF and the staff was much more concerned about whether he had sniffles than anything else.  We washed his hands thoroughly before he had contact with any residents (and after).  Although if they had anyone who was out and about who was sick he probably was a little germ vector.  Almost all the residents wanted to touch him or high five or something and ham that he is he was happy to comply.  He toured the entire facility gladly hugging, giving high fives, and saying hi to everyone out of their rooms or in their doors.  I'm sure to many of the residents are thrilled to see the little kids visit. 

[blessalessi]

The Maxwell church is no longer held in a nursing home.  It is a retirement alartment complex with housekeeping and support services.  

For some reason they changed location but didn't disclose why on the blog.  The wayback archive has their church location as the Golden Living Centre a couple of years back.  Now the same About Us page has the same text, but with Twin Oaks Retirement Community as the location.

The photos show far fewer "elderly" at the meetings than when the Maxkids used to be allowed to knock doors and bring people from their rooms down to the meeting area of the communal home.

[Jana814]

Are you sure they switch places. Could they just be at another place "sharing". 

[blessalessi]

Yes, they switched. 

See this thread.http://www.freejinger.org/topic/21881-so-the-maxwell-church-has-moved/#comment-832986

[Jana814]

I wonder why they switched places. Did Steve piss off to many people at the other home. 

[Justme]

I believe this is their 3rd location.

[blessalessi]

I believe this is their 3rd location.

Yes, if I'm reading it correctly, the first place closed.

As well as the moves to the three "elderly"  homes, I think they also left a few previous churches at Steve's bidding. Teri spoke in a Corner about how she didn't want to move at the time, but that Steve was right in the end, blah, blah.

[Walking Cat Bed]

My great-grandmother lived in a retirees' apartment complex for a good decade, and she enjoyed it -- they had a common room for events (and guests), and she had friends to visit with. They ALSO had emergency buttons in each apartment for medical needs and a nurse on-site. She hosted a huge family holiday gathering every year until she passed.

I'm assuming the Maxwell Church is somewhere like that, rather than an elder care facility. Because anywhere that requires constant care is more likely to have stricter standards.

[Trynn]

My grandma lives in one of those places. It's depressing as hell.

[nastyhobbitses]

Both sets of grandparents live in assisted living. One set had already lived in a more autonomous retirement community for 20-odd years, but needed more "adult supervision" as they put it, due to their advancing age -- their old apartment was up a flight of stairs, and that was just a broken hip or head injury waiting to happen (in fact, my grandpa falling and busting up his forehead was what convinced them it was time to move). The place where they live really makes an effort to have lots of activities and keep people involved in the community, so they're happy. The other set was very, very reluctant to leave their historic house, but again, stairs. And they could only retrofit so much because they lived in a listed building. When my grandpa was diagnosed with dementia and my grandma had a fall, they finally agreed to sell the house and move to an assisted living place nearby. At first they hated it because they lost a lot of autonomy (and state law doesn't let them have a very big or well-equipped kitchen), but now my grandma runs a poetry club and we make sure to visit as often as we can (and hire a guy to drive them up to our house so my grandma can do some proper cooking).

I've seen some truly horrid nursing homes and assisted living facilities that treat their residents like lumps of meat; I'm really glad that my grandparents live in places that aren't too bad and make an effort to acknowledge the humanity and dignity of their residents.