By Dale Dauten, Syndicated Columnist<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n When you head back to Silveridge, you\u2019ll find the buildings have had a facelift and you\u2019ll find a new face at the front desk.<\/p>\n As for the facilities, many of the buildings are sporting fresh paint, and those hallmark Silveridge entry doors have been refinished and are waiting to open for your return.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n And once you\u2019re inside, take time to say hello to the new person on the front desk: Kay Kreun, the new Assistant Manager. She not just a new employee, but a new resident.<\/p>\n Kay Kreun at the Silveridge front desk<\/p>\n Like so many residents of Silveridge, Kay\u2019s had quite a long and winding road to get to us. Born in Slayton, Minnesota — her father, at 97, is still there, now retired from his job as VP of a construction company\u2014Kay went to high school in Slayton, married a local boy and raised two sons there. She and her husband, Don, once owned the town bowling alley.<\/p>\n Don and Kay at Broadway Bowl in 1973<\/p>\n (Those were the days when a bowling alley was a social hub. Kay smiles at the memories of those bowling alley days and nights, saying, \u201cThere were nights we were so busy that we didn\u2019t have time to ring everyone into the register, we\u2019d just toss the money into the cash drawer.\u201d)<\/p>\n But, as with so many people who eventually find their way to Silveridge, some wanderlust got to Kay and her husband, Don. He announced he \u201cwanted to try something different,\u201d and he surely succeeded: they moved from Minnesota to Quartzsite, Arizona, where they began as managers of one of the largest mobile home\/RV parks in the community. Then they moved to Nevada where he became an electrician for a large construction company while she headed \u201cdocument control\u201d for the same corporation.<\/p>\n Eventually, wanderlust set in again and the couple moved to the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific. If you can\u2019t quite picture the Marshall Islands, that\u2019s because they\u2019re owned and occupied by the U.S. military, and includes a test range for missiles.<\/p>\n And then it was back to Quartzsite, when Kay became Town Clerk and her Don worked at the local funeral home. When he retired, they moved to Cottonwood.<\/p>\n Kay lost Don earlier this year \u2013 he died as the two of them stood outside Cliff Castle Casino. It was their 50th<\/sup> Wedding Anniversary. She says of that day, \u201cDon had become so weak that the could not walk very far so his enjoyment became going to the casino for an hour or two just to get out of the house and see and visit with people. He was doing what he enjoyed doing and became tired and wanting to go home. We were just waiting for our car.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"img_1523\"](\"http:\/\/silveridge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IMG_1523.jpg\")
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