How do you spend a hot, sunny, summer day. The answer for a group of Hillcrest Seniors Lodge residents was simple, a tour of Betty Properzi's farm and property.
How do you spend a hot, sunny, summer day.
The answer for a group of Hillcrest Seniors Lodge residents was simple, a tour of Betty Properzi's farm and property.
Shelly Oswald, Hillcrest Lodge activities director, said she has known Properzi for years and never thought about the possibility of asking her if the Lodge's residents could come and take a tour of her property until recently.
She said she was having a conversation with Wilf Seal, one of Hillcrest's residents, about a plane Properzi had made out of wood.
“Wilf was hoping to convince Betty to let him have the plane or for her to make another one that he could hang in his room,” Oswald said, adding that even though Properzi had visited the lodge with part of her extensive doll collection, Oswald nor the lodge's residents had ever had ever had a chance to see her property.
“It is an amazing property and Betty is just an amazing, wonderful woman,” she said, adding that besides her collection of more than 300 dolls, Properzi has an amazing collection of antiques, furniture and crafts. “Many of them that she makes herself, I don't know where she finds the time.”
Properzi said she was pleased to host the group.
“I just love to collect, neat old stuff and I love showing it to people,” she said.
Besides showing off her collection of antiques, Properzi showed the residents her farm animals, which includes donkeys, cows, dogs and two unique looking sheep.
“Most people think they are goats, but they're not,” she said. “They are actually a lamb that has hair instead of wool.”
Included in the tour was a visit to what she calls the Mackenzie house. The building is a small guest house, that she made herself.
One of the features the Hillcrest Lodge residents found the most interesting was the interior wall finishing. Instead of using conventional paint or wall paper Properzi decided to use brown, torn paper grocery bags.
“I watered down some ordinary white glue and then spread it on the walls,” she said, adding that before the glue dried she then put a patterned piece of torn grocery bag less than one square inch in size on the wall. “I had to use Co-op bags because they were a little bit thicker. Then I used a clear varnish on the wall.”
When the residents asked Properzi how she found time to do all these projects she it was a conscious decision she made after she successfully fought breast cancer. “After I got sick I decided I would never live life on a clock again,” she said. “I wake up, eat and go to bed when I want to and do projects that interest me.”
