By PHYLLIS ZORN

Staff writer

Evelyn Matz brought a lifelong hobby to other seniors living at Homestead Senior Residences soon after she moved there in September.

Residents were looking for an activity that would let them spend time together and get better acquainted.

She brought a few puzzles from her large collection, and puzzle fever proved contagious.

“I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t like doing puzzles,” Carol Wilson said as she pieced together the frame of a puzzle. “When they said they were going to do this, I said I won’t do it. They’re addictive.”

That might account for why Matz sometimes sets out a puzzle in the evening and gets up the next morning to find it finished.

“I didn’t think they’d do them overnight, but they do,” she said. “I don’t know what I’d do without this.”

Now the center is filled with puzzles pieced together and mounted on the walls. So far, residents have finished 57 puzzles, three of which were sold and 16 of which will be mounted.

“There are some in the back, there are some on the walls, there are some in the laundry,” manager Wendy Buchanan said. “We have some extra spaces.”

“We’d be thrilled to sell more,” Wilson said. “The prices would be very reasonable.”

“We kind of ask for a donation,” Matz said. “We like to get $10.”

Money made from selling the puzzles is used to buy more puzzles, Buchanan said.

Matz moved to Homestead from Newton after her daughter moved to Russell.

Wilson is a widow after taking care of her husband for years. She lived at Parkside Home in Hillsboro until 2016, when she qualified for a grant intended to help seniors capable of living independently move out of nursing homes.

After her nurses, doctor, and caregivers certified she was able to live independently, the grant paid her deposits on a residence and utilities, and provided money to purchase household furnishings and supplies, and stock her pantry.

She admitted that after several years of not shopping for groceries, she suffered sticker shock at the market.