Dreaming big is for the young – for people with energy and time to chase long odds.
Small dreams are a better fit for the residents of Tacoma Lutheran Retirement Community in West Tacoma. There, employees who listen to and care about the residents count themselves members of the Dream Team.
They’ll set a dream free on the waters of Puget Sound this Saturday when they take a resident aboard the Odyssey, a Sea Scout yawl, for a day sail.
The framed photo of The Lady Washington in Dion Daggett’s room was the only clue that the 72-year-old man yearned to sail one more time – until the Dream Team listened harder.
They’re alert for the odd dropped comment, the wistful, “I’d always thought I’d. …” and turn the conversation toward that smidgen of bucket-list regret.
The listening alone honors that facet of the resident’s life.
Often, wishes are beyond granting, said Life Enrichment Director Colleen Clark: The use of limbs that no longer function. Time with lost family and friends. Going home.
Sometimes, the wishing reveals a chance to fill a gap in a life story.
That’s where the fun kicks in.
Wishes, Dream Team members have learned, are quirky. Granting them is an adventure in ingenuity.
Edna Morrison, 102, was at coffee hour when she said she’d always wanted to show and sell homes.
Kristine Grant, who came to Tacoma Lutheran as a nurse and now is director of marketing, contacted Realtor Larry Tuell. He had just the condo, just the client. On July 5, 2007, Morrison gave that client the tour that sealed the deal.
Sara Ianniciello’s friends knew she had a lovely voice, but a Dream Team member learned she had the moxie, and the wish, to perform in front of hundreds of people.
On Oct. 13, 2007, Ianniciello headlined the retirement community’s gala fundraiser with “What a Wonderful World.” She upended the concept of granting wishes.
“She made everybody cry, and get out their checkbooks” said Grant’s sister-in-law, Mary Grant.
Ianniciello had a polar opposite in the wish biz, a man who wanted an evening of perfect solitude.
“We had a gentleman who wanted nothing but to sit in a dining room alone with a big seafood feast, a glass of wine, his newspaper and music,” Kristine Grant recalled.
Another woman yearned for a St. Patrick’s Day celebration like the ones her family used to throw. Setting it up was a blast, Clark said.
Now Dion Daggett’s trip is turning into one of the best.
Daggett grew up in Bellingham, where he joined Sea Scouts and learned to sail. He served in the Navy, testing planes in wind tunnels in California during the Vietnam War. He worked for Boeing, then as a circulation district manager for The News Tribune.
In 1973, he was water skiing when a pontoon boat ran over him. The propeller gashed his head.
In 1992, he and his wife, Cathy, planned to retire to a 35-foot Beneteau sailboat.
“Dion and I decided to do off-shore sailing,” she said. “We sold the house and had the boat picked out.”
Life intervened. A son needed to move back home. Instead of the Beneteau, the family bought a house in Tacoma.
“Dion says, ‘Sometimes we have to give our dreams back to the Lord,’ ” Cathy said.
Four years ago, the old head injury caused new trouble.
“I started falling,” Dion said.
Two years ago he moved into Tacoma Lutheran’s Health Center. He’s in a wheelchair, and Cathy visits every day.
They got to talking about sailing, and the Dream Team got to planning.
Odyssey’s captain, Bud Bronson, figured out how a substantial man in a wheelchair could get aboard and sail safely. An American Medical Response ambulance crew volunteered for the heavy lifting.
Dion received the invitation, sealed in a bottle, along with a skipper’s hat and a custom jacket, at a lunch at Harbor Lights.
He’s been beaming ever since.
“I’m going sailing,” he tells people in the halls, at meals. “I’m going sailing.”
Saturday, the dream he and Cathy had given up will come back to them.
Kathleen Merryman: 253-597-8677
kathleen.merryman@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street
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