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From the latest community news to our recent blog posts, we’ll keep you up to date on all the happenings at our active retirement community and more.

The Informer Newsletter
March 19, 2021
Cedarfield Mentors Program

Throughout Pandemic, Cedarfield Mentors Program Connects With Local Elementary Students Through “Virtual Storytime” Sessions Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, several residents at Cedarfield, a premier senior living retirement community in Henrico County, have embraced technology to both connect with the outside world and combine their love of books and volunteering. Since November 2020, the Cedarfield Mentors …

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December 25, 2020
A Memory That Always Brings a Smile

In the mid 70’s Louisa and I lived in Northern Virginia with our three wonderful youngsters: Josh, Jonathan, and Mollie. At the time, the boys were ages five and three. As Christmas approached, our neighbors had told us that the “real” Santa greeted children at a local plant nursery, but that we must be prepared …

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December 24, 2020
Advent reflection – 2020

The Advent our grandson was four years old, he was with his family for the weekly Sunday Mass. They were sitting in the balcony and Jack was quietly coloring when the priest said, “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!” At which point Jack stopped with poised crayon, and observed loudly, “WHAT? …

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December 23, 2020
25 Stories to Christmas

As December approached in the year when I was expecting my third child, I decided I wanted to tell the Christmas story to our two children, five-year-old Barbie and six-year-old Carl, in a way they would find meaningful. Wouldn’t it be fun, I thought, to tell it in a series of installments, one each day …

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December 22, 2020
Wartime Christmases

Preparations for Christmas in World War II England generated much excitement in my home. My mother, sister, and I made decorations out of cotton wool, sticky colored paper squares, beads, and greenery. We cut the paper squares into strips to make paper chains that, with my father’s help, we strung diagonally across the living and …

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December 21, 2020
Christmas 1968 – Another Period of Time with Unrest and a Pandemic

My husband and our four children (three sons age eight, ten and twelve, plus a little girl, age three) and I had moved into our new home in Miami. I was prepared to make this Christmas a very special one. 1968 had been a very sad year: the war in Viet Nam was escalating, Robert …

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December 20, 2020
A Bedtime Call from Santa

My older brother’s birthday is December 3rd. After his birthday we just knew that Christmas was soon to come. My dad was a baker, so he had to go to work at night during the holidays to get orders filled. We were left at home with our mom, who would be busy with laundry and …

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December 19, 2020
An Impromptu Musical Moment

This story is about my daughter, Bonnie Meyer, who happens to be musically inclined. When she was 17 years old, she was singing in the church choir and was called to do a special solo with her guitar. Right before the service started that evening, the minister had requested that she do the first verse …

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December 18, 2020
A Wooden Christmas Tree

In December of 1952, I was in the Army stationed at Clark Air Force Base, which was located on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. All my fellow soldiers in our Quonset hut agreed that we should celebrate Christmas by having our own Christmas tree. We soon realized that what we think of as …

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December 17, 2020
Remembering Special Christmas Gifts

I have such fond memories of special Christmas gifts received over the years . . . When I was about four years old, I received a beautiful sturdily built doll about two feet tall. She was dressed in a lovely pink dress with a ruffled collar, pantaloons, and a hat decked out with a dainty …

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December 16, 2020
Our Special Christmas Tree

My father wanted to be an architect, but he had to drop out of college to help take care of his sick mother. He ended up running the family hardware store instead. My parents were married during the Depression, and I remember them collecting ideas for their “Dream House” for years as I was growing …

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December 15, 2020
Heaven Can Wait

Christmas evokes special, lifelong memories for me of my mom simply because it was her very favorite time of the year. We all called her Mimi, the name my son had given her. She could not wait to put up the holiday trees, decorated so beautifully—usually three plus one “Charlie Brown” tree outside on the …

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April 24, 2017
Introducing our new Executive Director

Upon the announcement of Nancy Brechtelsbauer’s retirement in December of 2016, the search for a new Cedarfield executive director was launched. After several months of searching, Virginia United Methodist Homes, Inc. is pleased to announce the appointment of Michael Shaw to the position starting April 2017. Shaw brings seventeen years of senior living experience to …

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May 27, 2016
Twenty Events To Celebrate Twenty Years

04/marked the beginning of a series of 20 events and activities in 20 weeks, which will conclude with a final big bash, Cheers to 20 Years, planned for August. See what has been going on at Cedarfield as we count down the 20 weeks!

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December 3, 2015
Giving Back to the Community

Driven 2 Destiny Outreach Center is a non-profit providing outreach and resources to people and families experiencing temporary set-backs due to unemployment, illness or other life-changing events. The center provides vocational training, parenting classes and more. They also offer Christmas Camps that give children a safe place to spend the day when school is closed …

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October 14, 2014
Cedarfield Special Care Center

Caring for a loved one with an advanced dementia disease (such as Alzheimer’s) can be overwhelming to families and friends. Statistically, a person with Alzheimer’s disease will live an average of eight years and as many as 20 or more years from the onset of symptoms. Eventually, 24-hour personal care may be required, whether in …

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December 1, 2019
Mother’s Christmas Saving Skills

In Cedarfield tradition, the Pastoral Care Team created this compilation of holiday memoirs by team members and residents. We will share one a day through the holidays. Happy Holidays to you and yours! Elena Wiggins -Team Member When we were little and living in New York, we put our tree up on Christmas Eve every …

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November 30, 2019
Let’s Keep it Even

In Cedarfield tradition, the Pastoral Care Team created this compilation of holiday memoirs by team members and residents. We will share one a day through the holidays. Happy Holidays to you and yours! Jacqueline Chaplin, Resident My parents never wanted to have the appearance of favoritism between my brother and me, so they worked especially …

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November 29, 2019
A Christmas Eve Tradition

In Cedarfield tradition, the Pastoral Care Team created this compilation of holiday memoirs by team members and residents. We will share one a day through the holidays. Happy Holidays to you and yours! Barbara Fischi, Resident Excitement stirs in the air all the days before Christmas Day. When the young children begged for their gifts …

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November 28, 2019
Walgreen’s Saves Christmas

In Cedarfield tradition, the Pastoral Care Team created this compilation of holiday memoirs by team members and residents. We will share one a day through the holidays. Happy Holidays to you and yours! Amy Chapman-Team member When my children were young, during the winter holidays, their gift requests were always pretty predictable. Jordan, my oldest …

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November 27, 2019
Time to Play

In Cedarfield tradition, the Pastoral Care Team created this compilation of holiday memoirs by team members and residents. We will share one a day through the holidays. Happy Holidays to you and yours! Judy Johnson, Resident One of my favorite Christmas memories comes from a Christmas during World War II. My father had a hardware …

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November 26, 2019
Santa by Fire Truck

In Cedarfield tradition, the Pastoral Care Team created this compilation of holiday memoirs by team members and residents. We will share one a day through the holidays. Happy Holidays to you and yours! Michael Shaw, Team Member My favorite childhood story involves a treasured Christmas tradition. Every year in Penndel, Pennsylvania, I visited my grandma …

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November 25, 2019
An Antsy Christmas

In Cedarfield tradition, the Pastoral Care Team created this compilation of holiday memoirs by team members and residents. We will share one a day through the holidays. Happy Holidays to you and yours! Sally Dvorak, Resident In December 1961, I was living in Bermuda with my new husband, Michael. It was our first Christmas together; …

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November 29, 2018
Blessing of the Pets – 2018

Every year millions of animals are blessed during a traditional service established to honor St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals. On or near St. Francis’s annual celebratory feast day, in remembrance of his love of all animals, creatures great and small are led to churches and various places of assembly to be …

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September 25, 2018
Gardens with Wings

Making the Move to Cedarfield Beth Burrell Horticulturist at Cedarfield This month I have high hopes of seeing our first Monarch butterflies visit and reproduce in our Butterfly Garden and our Park-Lane Four Season Garden. Migrating Monarchs are starting to head south toward Mexico and southern California traveling up to 3000 miles to reach their …

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August 16, 2018
Return to Home

It’s a beautiful day in Cedarfield’s Sunshine Plaza Neighborhood! Recently on a lovely summer afternoon residents, family members and team members from across the Cedarfield community gathered to celebrate and commission our first neighborhood – Sunshine Plaza. This festive occasion marked the realization of a new vision for living at Cedarfield. From bricks and mortar …

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February 16, 2018
Secret Valentines

Cedarfield is feeling the love this month! Secret senior valentine bags, sponsored by The Giving Heart, were fulfilled by Cedarfield residents and team members! Secret Senior Valentine Bags offer a loving and thoughtful gift of essential toiletries, warm weather items and a few personalized touches to independent-living seniors within the Greater Richmond Metropolitan Area.

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January 31, 2018
Snow at Cedarfield

This month, Richmond, VA had several snow days, but the roads and sidewalks stayed clear here at Cedarfield. Thanks to our wonderful team, a little snow didn’t stop us. Cedarfield residents are able to resume their day to day. Our dining venues even deliver to-go orders to our cottage residents so they can enjoy the …

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