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VOL.17, NO.1
F O R
P E O P L E
O V E R
JANUARY 2020
More than 125,000 readers throughout Greater Baltimore
Beloved waitress writes fiction PHOTO BY AARON LEVIN
I N S I D E … BALTIMORE BEACON — JANUARY 2020
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Horse therapy helps dementia patients By Ivey Noojin Horses can change lives for the better. A number of residents from a Baltimore retirement community have had first-hand experience with the healing powers of a soft nose and gentle eyes. Each spring and fall, Broadmead, a Quaker Life Plan Community in Hunt Valley, sends four to six of its residents with dementia to the Rose of Sharon Equestrian School (ROSES) in Glen Arm — a therapeutic program built around horsemanship — to spend time with some fourlegged gentle giants. Prior to working with Broadmead, ROSES focused its “equine facilitated learning experiences” on children and young adults with disabilities. Stacey Young, Broadmead’s director of lifestyle and dementia programs, and Andy Switzer, director of health and wellness, were looking for a way to incorporate equine therapy into their residents’ lives. They knew of potential benefits from the practice from a 2014 study by researchers at Ohio State University. The first study of its kind, it found that grooming and touching horses helped ease the symptoms of Alzheimer’s dementia, including agitation, fidgeting and lack of physical activity. After searching the Internet, Young and Switzer found the ROSES program, located in next to Gunpowder State Park. The 12-acre facility is home to two miniature ponies and three horses specially trained for therapeutic work. “We knew that we wanted [ROSES] to be a part of our program” for residents, Young said. So, they reached out to Joan Marie Twining, the executive director and founder of the school. “The more we learned about how dementia affects not only an individual, but his or her family and other caregivers as well, the more we realized how many similarities there are with our students,” Twining wrote in an email. After a year-long process filled with logistics, the school established a program in 2017 called Silver STEEDS — Special Therapeutic Equine Experiences Designed for Seniors. It is now held twice a year, in the spring and fall, for a session of five once-a-week visits.
PHOTO BY TOM O’CONNOR PHOTOGRAPHY
By Diane Carliner Everyone in Baltimore, it seems, knows Peachy. Leonora “Peachy” DePietro Dixon has waited tables at Sabatino’s restaurant in Little Italy since 1974. (She received her childhood nickname for her peaches-andcream complexion.) With a wide circle of friends from all over Baltimore and celebrity acquaintances, she is well known for her warm-heartedness. Among the famous people she rubbed shoulders with at Sabatino’s and other local restaurants are Frank Sinatra, Cardinal Keeler, Ted Kennedy, Mother Teresa, President Jimmy Carter, Johnny Depp, Debbie Reynolds and Muhammed Ali. A few years ago, Dixon, now in her 70s, discovered another talent in addition to being a people person: writing. “I always thought about writing, but my parents never pushed me. My brothers have college degrees, but as a girl I was expected to get a job after high school,” she recalled. Her writing career came about as a result of an accident. A pickup truck swerved into her, injuring her knee. Spending long hours on her feet as a waitress slowed her recovery. But during that time, an aunt reached out to her and revealed some family stories. With the stories, Dixon said, “Memories started flowing out of me. [My] sister came to read what I wrote. We both started to cry. ‘Peachy, you have something here. Don’t stop writing,’ my sister said.”
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A resident of Broadmead in Hunt Valley greets a resident of the barn at Rose of Sharon Equestrian School, located in Glen Arm. The school has begun providing older adults who suffer from dementia with “horse therapy,” which has been found to boost both mood and memory in those with the condition.
Benefits for all Around the horses, residents of the community become less anxious and are able to express themselves and communicate more. Caryl Connor, whose 84-year-old mother has lived at Broadmead for four years, has nothing but good things to say about the program. “The moment I heard about it, I jumped on it,” Connor said. “I knew this would be something my mother would really benefit from and enjoy.” Connor’s mother had grown up around horses. Her father rode them competitively, and she even owned one at a young age. She was one of the first residents to participate the program in 2017. “She could be having a really rough day,” Connor said, “but when I would bring up this activity of visiting the horses, she would calm down and smile.” Even though Connor’s mother cannot communicate well, her body language told Connor all she needed to know: The pro-
gram was making a real difference in her mother’s life. “I can just see how meaningful it is to her because she would relax when you bring up the horses,” Connor said. “It gives me great joy to know she is having a good experience.” Her mother even placed a picture of one of the horses from the barn in her room.
Emotional, cognitive changes Young has seen other positive cognitive effects from the barn program. One man, who hardly speaks anymore, was able to converse with his wife about the geological surveys he had conducted during his career. Another resident, who cries every afternoon and most mornings, quickly calmed down around the horses. Someone else, who typically can’t remember what she did that morning, was able to recollect the grooming procedure, according to Young. “I just see this wonderful connection between the horses and the people,” Young
said. Twining describes it as “magic.” The partnership with ROSES hasn’t only benefited the residents with dementia. It has also helped the patients’ families and caregivers. “They can also struggle with what happens with dementia,” Young said. “Seeing their loved ones joyous and connected means a lot.” And the horses love it as well. They wait at their stalls, with their heads peeking out, and get excited when the residents come, according to Young. Having been trained around all sorts of equipment for the school’s riders with disabilities, the horses are used to any walkers, wheelchairs and canes that the participants might use. “They tend to act very gently,” Twining said of them. The way these horses can bring out the personality of everyone, including those who have dementia, has left the program coordinators in awe. “Words don’t describe it,” Young said.
SEE SPECIAL INSERT Housing & Homecare Options following page 12
ARTS & STYLE
A lucky break
Leonora “Peachy” Dixon, 72, has long been a highly popular waitress at Sabatino’s in Little Italy, where she has worked since the 1970s. But she is also a published author. Her fourth book, a novel set in Baltimore, will be released in March.
Finding an editor for her first book was a great struggle. But she was helped along the way by a Sabatino’s customer who was an editor, and by Michael Olesker, a former Baltimore Sun columnist. CityLit Press published A Peachy Life in 2011. As the title suggests, the book is autobiographical. It deals with her early years growing up in Highlandtown, her family life, and her strict Catholic upbringing with a father who worked at Bethlehem Steel. These vignettes are followed by her rape on a blind date, her subsequent pregnancy and then disastrous marriage to the man, who was an abusive husband. But she also writes about her two wonderful daughters and demonstrates her resilience.
“Peachy is a good storyteller, and she has the kind of life that deserves to be in a book,” said Gregg Wilhelm, publisher of CityLit Press. “She and I worked really hard together crafting that manuscript, but it’s all Peachy.” The book launch, held at Sabatino’s, was “one of the highlights of my publishing career,” Wilhelm said. The line outside the restaurant stretched around the block, he remembered. “All the celebrities who have ever been through Sabatino’s — the news reporters, the athletes — everybody showed up,” Wilhelm said. “She was in her glory.” At Peachy’s request, Wilhelm said he “ordered what I thought was an insane
amount of books for one event — and darn if we didn’t sell all but two.”
First book led to three more The second book, A Peachy Business, published in 2015, is about her short stint in the restaurant industry and the many challenges involved in being a female restaurant owner in the 1980s and 90s. Two years later, she published her third book, My Peachy City, about authentic Baltimore. Descriptions of significant local people past and present — such as former Governor William Donald Schaefer, Congresswoman Helen Bentley, Senator Barbara Mikulski See WAITRESS, page 20
Sculptor Melvin Edwards’ revolutionary career; plus, Agatha Christie’s thrilling ride, Murder on the Orient Express, at Everyman Theatre page 19
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