A treasure chest of relationships: Mary Ott has been blessed by seniors she’s served

By Chelsea Retherford | Living 50 Plus

Mary Donna Ott found her passion for working in elderly care by chance after she’d moved to Florence from Fairhope in 1984.

Now a Life Enrichment director for The Renaissance senior living community, Ott stepped into the role at the facility in 1999 when it was known as Morning Star — and later Brookdale under previous owners — without actually applying for the position.

“I came out here before they put the walls up,” she said. “I came over here with a little lady named Mrs. Brown. She went to my church, and she wanted a ride over here. So, we came to check it out, and there were no walls. It was just studded all the way down.”

While Ott and Brown were walking the property, Ott said a man named Dave Jameson, who turned out to be a hiring manager, drove up in his car and greeted them. Brown then asked if he’d found an activities director for the new facility, and when he replied no, he hadn’t, she pointed towards Ott and said, “There’s your person.”

“It was a God thing,” Ott recalled.

The request for an interview came unexpectedly, but Ott felt this might be her shot to find a job more in line with the kind of career she’d hoped to pursue while she was in college at the University of South Alabama.

“My parents had a recreational business. We had a riding stable and a skeet range, and it’s funny, I worked at The Grand Hotel as a junior hostess, so I was kind of doing this for kids already,” Ott said.

“When I was two or three years into college, my mother said, ‘You’re going to have to choose a career.’ I said I wanted to do recreation, but that wasn’t a thing back then. She didn’t understand that was a thing.”

Instead of finding work in recreation, Ott became a radiologic technologist, a health care professional specially trained in medical imaging like x-rays. She worked for a time in that field while living in Selma, but when she came to the Shoals, she knew she needed a change in scenery.

After that first meeting with Jameson on the grounds of what would become a senior living facility, Ott was asked to return for the interview. That would become an opportunity to integrate Ott’s other passion for gardening.

“He said to me, ‘If I hired you, what could you do for the residents that nobody else can do?’ I said, ‘Well, my grandmother loves flowers. I’ll grow them flowers.’ And I kept my word.”

Twenty-five years and two name changes later, the gardens and courtyard at The Renaissance of Florence likely rival any other lush botanical display around the Shoals, and the planting isn’t all owed to Ott.

Over the years, she used her love for planting to help engage the residents who shared an interest in gardening and a green thumb. While many blooming annuals were planted more recently by seven of the residents who are dedicated to the garden, Ott said some perennials, trees and shrubs were planted by residents who have since passed on.

“Everybody gives something to the garden,” Ott said this summer as she showed off several thriving plants and ornaments around the courtyard. “Ms. Sybil — she loved to order things, and she ordered that rose. It’s been here for 17 years. Years ago, one resident brought all the hydrangeas — one for each of her family members.”

Ott said the garden blooms across three different seasons. In one area of the courtyard, residents had even planted tomatoes, cantaloupe, blueberries and other produce they’d gotten to enjoy throughout the summer.

“We have three or four fig trees, we have blackberries and gladiolas,” Ott said, checking off the plants as she walked by them. “They wanted to try some cotton, so we planted cotton. There are some green beans. We’ve already eaten some from the green beans.”

Since starting the landscape, Ott said she’s seen the project become therapeutic for some residents who say they find purpose and meaning in the work they contribute.

“They’ve just taken hold of this, and they feel like this is their home,” Ott said. “They feel a part of it all. Also, you have to remember, they are in their 80s and 90s. They’re getting on it. There is one resident, I can’t make her quit. I have to make her come inside out of the heat, but she just loves it.”

With an average of about 70 residents staying at The Renaissance at any given time, Ott said she also finds other ways to engage the seniors who might not be interested in botany or herbology.

A monthly calendar might include anything from participating in a Cooking Club, where participants get to prepare meals together, or a yoga class or movie nights and Bingo.

Ott said she’s enlisted exercise instructors, local artists and musicians, and community speakers to hold small events for the seniors in her care.

“I treat them as if they live at home,” Ott said. “They go to the theater if they want to go to the theater. We have exercise. We have picnics. I try to do everything possible. We’ve even done a Hillsdale College course, and they got to graduate from it.”

Ott said she couldn’t do what she does at The Renaissance without help from volunteers throughout the community. If a resident asks to do a craft or an activity she isn’t familiar with, Ott does her best to find someone who can. So far, Ott said she’s gotten positive response from people willing to make a difference in the lives of seniors at the facility.

While all the activities and engagement are enriching for the residents, Ott said she’s the one who feels blessed for having the chance to get to know all her clients.

“I’ve had so many wonderful relationships,” she said. “These are my mothers, my grandmothers, my aunts, my best friends, you know? We all find some kind of fit, and I call this home. It’s just been wonderful.”