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Christmas bulbs bloom brightly
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William D. Lewis | The Vindicator: Bev Muresan, a member of Mignonette Garden Club, plants amaryllis bulbs each year and shares them with residents at area nursing homes.
By Sean Barron
CANFIELD
Winter can be a gloomy, dark and depressing time of year for many people, especially nursing-home residents. But thanks to Bev Muresan, many will get an early taste of blooms and added cheer.
“The project is to brighten their days. It’s something to look forward to,” said Muresan, referring to the amaryllis bulbs she planted earlier this month that were recently distributed to several area long-term health-care facilities.
Muresan, a member of The Mignonettes, a 61-year-old area garden club, recently potted about 26 bulbs, 15 of which were given Wednesday to four nursing homes as part of the 17-member club’s annual service project.
Receiving the bulbs were North Lima-based Assumption Village and Ivy Woods Manor, as well as Shepherd of the Valley in Boardman and Briarfield Manor in Austintown, where a former garden-club member lives.
The remainder of the bulbs went to home-bound club members, she noted.
Muresan spoke recently from her Stoneybrook Lane home about the amaryllis bulbs, noting that each can grow up to a half-inch daily and have stalks 1-inch thick with as many as five red, white and pink flowers 5 to 6 inches in diameter. They likely will be in full bloom next month or in February, she said, adding that it should be pleasing for many residents and staff to watch them mature and blossom.
“They will want to watch them grow,” she continued.
Also, each bulb can yield three stalks and grow to around 30 inches, said Muresan, who joined the garden club in 1973.
Reaching out to others seems natural for Muresan, who retired in 2000 from Boardman Center Middle School after having worked 23 years as a special-education teacher for fifth- and sixth-graders.
In the mid-1990s, she began volunteering at Assumption Village, where her mother, Yolanda Bezak, was a resident. She now visits the facility each Wednesday and reads to the residents uplifting stories from the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series.
The Mignonettes club also is a branch of the Catholic Collegiate Association, an organization of Catholic women with college degrees that distributes college scholarships every May to qualified women.
The association got underway in the 1920s, Muresan noted.
The Mahoning Valley may be in the throes of winter, but it looks like Muresan, who also enjoys painting with watercolors, will continue doing her part to add brightness and color to many people’s lives before the weather will allow her to undertake another of her passions.
“Gardening is my first love, I think,” she said with a chuckle.