Lutheran Services Carolinas is celebrating its 65th anniversary throughout 2025. As part of our commemorations, each week we are sharing stories from LSC’s past and present.
Lynn Barringer Nail, a life enrichment specialist at Trinity Oaks assisted living and an LSC teammate for nearly 39 years, remembers the Salisbury, North Carolina senior living community before it was Trinity Oaks.
“When I started with LSC, Trinity Oaks health and rehab was known as the North Carolina Lutheran Home,” she recalled. “Then it became the Lutheran Home, then Lutheran Home Salisbury, and then the Lutheran Home at Trinity Oaks.”
She joined the health and rehab team in 1986 as a certified nurse assistant and grew with the organization.
“In 1990, one of our activities teammates went out on a maternity leave and didn’t come back,” Nail said. “So, I stepped into a new role.”
The rest is history. Thanks to her long and successful tenure, Nail knows almost everyone on the Trinity Oaks campus.
“The biggest change I’ve seen at Trinity Oaks over the years is the clientele,” she noted. “Before independent living came along, residents didn’t come here until they had to. Now, they come here because they want to.”
Nail makes a point of building rapport with independent living residents because eventually, some of them spend time in assisted living.
“Sometimes a married couple will come in together, and one of them will transition to assisted living,” she said. “I enjoy getting to know them ahead of time.”
In her work with assisted living residents, Nail provides a wide variety of activities designed to enhance cognition, strengthen bodies, and boost mood.
“I have two dogs who I bring in for visits,” she said. “They’re service dogs and also trained as ‘good citizen’ dogs. They’re very popular.”
Nail’s weekday exercise classes have been a major factor in helping residents recover from the pandemic.
“Covid was hard on residents’ bodies in more ways than one,” she said. “Isolation protocols helped contain the disease – but it also meant a lot of time spent in their rooms. We’ve been able to rebuild strength and stamina through gentle daily stretching and exercise.”
Other resident favorites include noodle ball (with pool noodles), adult coloring and other crafts, and one-on-one manicure touch-ups for the ladies.
“We try to provide a little something for everyone,” Nail added. “It’s all part of living abundantly.”
Top photo: Trinity Oaks Life Enrichment Specialist Lynn Barringer Nail and 103-year-old assisted living resident Mary Kidd show off Kidd’s Bird of Paradise plant. “My parents taught me the value of Christian service,” Nail said. “Listen to God; He will put you where He wants you.”