Submitted photo Nick Schall enjoys a banana split at a special Father's Day celebration at Haaland Estates.

Haaland Estates honored the fathers among their residents with a virtual Father’s Day celebration in the facility’s dining room Sunday.

About eight fathers sat at individual tables spaced six feet apart to listen to poetry and stories read by Haaland Activities Director Tammy Tufte.

“We’re going to honor all grandfathers, dads, step-dads, dads-in-law, new dads, pet dads, godfathers, dads in heaven, expecting dads and honorary dads,” Tufte said at the beginning of the program.

The men sat quietly, listening as Tufte asked each one to send a virtual greeting to family members viewing the celebration on social media. Some shared a brief hello, while others shared messages to children and grandchildren.

“Some got a little teary-eyed,” Tufte said of the honorees. “Some were a little quiet. But they say women do most of the talking anyway, so they just let us talk,” she added with a laugh.

Some fathers mentioned their many children and grandchildren, and sent special greetings.

“I’m happy to see you all,” Don Hanson told his family. “Little Harper, I heard you got the record for fish. You must be the best fisherman in the family if you caught 100 of them!”

“I’ll be looking forward to seeing you guys when you can finally come to my room to see me. I hope you’re all having fun. I miss you and I hope to see you again,” he added.

Nick Schall told his family, “I’ve been in here for, it’ll be 10 years. We’ve had all kinds of celebrations. I’ve been to 70 Father’s Day events. This is the first one where the family isn’t here, so it’s going to be a memorable day.”

“I’d like to say greetings to my daughter, Diane, my son Duane in heaven and David in Bismarck. I also want to greet my nieces and nephews. I’ve got six grandchildren, Dustin, Travis, Mandy, Beth, Tyler and Sophia.”

Schall said he has 13 great-grandchildren “and my birthday’s October 13.”

“Tyler is the only Schall grandson. I love them all. I hope to see them soon. God bless,” he said.

Schall added, “We’ve got four activity ladies in here. They’re bending over backwards to put on different events and I want to thank the four activity ladies for all you’re doing.”

“One more thing,” Schall said, sharing a saying of his: “Grandpas know everything, but sometimes they remember something in a hurry.”

Tufte said the activities staff was working to cheer residents up and keep them busy with a variety of activities, within guidelines set by Heart of America Medical Center and the North Dakota Department of Health.

“We’re doing what we can until we know what we can do next,” Tufte noted.

“As of yet, we can’t still have people come in to do music or anything like that,” she added.

Tufte said that although some activities may have to be postponed or altered to fit guidelines, “We’re always looking for something new and something different just to keep the spark going in here.”

“It’s in my plan to maybe get the bus out there if we can do that,” Tufte added. “We’ll get a few residents out there, because they can’t go anywhere yet, either. They stay on the bus anyway. With any outdoor activities they do, they stay on the bus. They can’t go out to eat or anything like that yet. We’ve not reached that goal yet.”

“We’ve got to follow the guidelines,” Tufte added.

Future activities include socially distanced parade viewing on the Fourth of July, Tufte said. Residents will watch the parade from seats on the Haaland bus.

“They’re happy anytime we go a little bit more forward,” Tufte said of Haaland’s residents.

“So, they can visit with someone outside. It’s one more step. With each thing we do, it’s getting a little better and getting their spirits up. You see a few more smiles.”

Tufte said clergy visits to the facility would begin this Friday.

“Just having the ministers come in and the priests, that’s going to help a little more. I’m so happy for that to happen,” Tufte said.