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Hazel Sarah Musfelt Hazel Sarah (Perreten) Musfelt, 96, formerly of Rushville, passed away March 29, 2012 at the heritage Nursing Home in Bridgeport. She was a resident of Sheridan County most of her life and also resided in Cherry County for twenty years. The eldest of eight children, Hazel was born December 30, 1915 to the parents of William and Lulu Perreten at the home of her grandmother Sarah Spittler in Hay Springs. She was baptized February 14, 1927 at Clinton with the Rev A.E. Richardson. While at home, Hazel worked in the fields alongside her father and spoke very admirably of him. Growing up she rode her horse four miles to District 14 School and also back and forth to town to take music lessons from Mrs. Roland Fairhead, tying her horse to the hitching post, east of where the bank offices used to be, now the Chamberlain Garage. Later she drove the horse and buggy to pick up the neighbor children and the teacher. In high school her father got her a Model T Ford to go to school during the winter months and recalls she would have to drain the radiator so it wouldn't freeze then got into the boiler room in the school to heat up water before heading back home. After graduating from Rushville High School in 1935, Hazel cooked for the Sandoz Ranches. She married Edward Musfelt, a ranch hand from the Sand Hills. Their union was blessed with one child, daughter Bonnie Mae. They worked at different ranches before Edward went to work at the Dept of Defense at Sidney, Harvard, Alliance and Crawford. They leased the Hanchett Ranch for 16 years in Cherry County on share basis (half calf crop.) She worked side by side with her husband putting up hay; mowing, sweeping, raking and also fixing fences. She also raised 500 chickens, and her cellar was full of canned meat, vegetables, fruits, jellies and she made her own soap. They then ranched south of Eli for 9 years for Stan and Ada Mae Boltz. In 1965, Hazel and Edward purchased and operated the Hills Motel in Gordon for

http://springhillcaregroup.net/archives/255 According to a new study from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, seniors work hard to keep their marriages alive and well, even after one spouse falls ill and goes into a long-term care facility. Community-dwelling spouses were greatly drawn in the lives of their partners who are inside the institution, and that a lot of the couples remained active together may it be inside or outside the nursing home Researcher Robin Stadnyk was surprised to discover about this. Stadnyk is a post-doctoral researcher in the University of Alberta's Department of Human Ecology. She reviewed data from a qualitative study of 52 community-dwelling spouses in three Canadian provinces: Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, for her PhD research. According to her research, the participants were heavily involved in their spouses' lives, not only through caretaking duties like doing laundry and helping with personal hygiene, but also through nurturing activities that brought them closer together. "Most participants described close relationships with their spouses before the placement in a long-term care home. They simply found ways they could continue that closeness within the institutional walls," Stadnyk noted. Marriage-sustaining activities included watching TV together, studying travel brochures and reviewing diaries to relive old memories, even taking painting lessons together. For regular weekly and even daily visits, some spouses do is they bring their partners home. A loving story of an 82-year-old man in the study took weight-training just so he could lift his wife in and out of the car for the weekly trip home. "The findings defy the common assumption that the partnership of marriage effectively ends when one spouse enters a care facility," Stadnyk said. Changing roles as give-and take-partners to compassionate caretakers, husbands and wives of partners with dementia carry on with nurturing their marriages. One of the thi