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Andrews bowls for the first time in 40 years
By TIM CLEVELAND
For more than 20 years, Mafalda “Muffy” Andrews belonged to a breakfast bowling league in Weirton, W.Va., spending three days a week in the lanes.
However, for the last 40 years Muffy hasn’t seen the inside of a bowling facility. Now a resident at Shepherd of the Valley Boardman Campus and 87-years-old, she assumed her days of bowling were over.
When SOV Boardman activities director Kim Osborn learned of Muffy’s love of bowling, she sprung into action to get her back on the lanes.
“We have a program called Second Wind Dreams,” Osborn said. “What we do is we go around the facilities and we try to find residents that maybe did something in the past that they haven’t been able to do anymore, or something that they’ve never done before, and she told us she was an avid bowler. She hasn’t been back in about 40 years to a bowling alley. That’s been a long time for her, so we thought let’s make it happen again for her.”
“We do the Second Wind Dreams all the time at Shepherd,” Musgrove said. “Kim [Osborn], my activities director, spoke with Muffy about a month ago and she was asking her what different things she used to do all the time. Muffy said she used to be a bowler. That’s when Kim got the idea to do the Second Wind Dreams for Muffy, and we surprised her.”
Osborn and SOV Boardman administrator Robyn Musgrove made arrangements to take Muffy, her daughter Georgette Black and son-in-law Bob Black to Camelot Lanes on June 4 for a game of bowling, followed by lunch at Olive Garden.
Muffy was emotional when she learned of the trip.
“This morning when I told her, she was just in shock because she didn’t really think anything was going to happen,” Osborn said. “I had talked to her about a month ago about coming to bowling and she asked why I was asking all those questions about bowling. I just said I want to know. When I told her we were coming today she just started crying. She was very thankful. She said it was a dream come true.”
“Oh my gosh, she started tearing up,” Musgrove said. “She was so excited. All the staff standing around had tears in their eyes. She was so excited. That’s all we want, to make them happy.”
While she gets around in a wheelchair, Muffy used a ball ramp as an aide and shot a score of 102 in her first bowling game in 40 years.
“I was shocked, I couldn’t believe it,” Muffy said of receiving news of the trip. “I was crying. It feels good.”