Land of 10,000 Stories: Nursing home residents sport nicest nails

HOPKINS, Minnesota – The young woman unpacking her well-stocked nail kit has done so before.

A beauty student needs a lot of repetitions.

“I graduated in December,” says Marielle Smith as she sets up her desk. “I went to Atelier Academy of Beauty in Hopkins.”

Turns out the newly certified nail technician had an ace up his sleeve. Marielle’s part-time job at a nursing home meant lots of willing fingers to practice with.

“We’re getting our nails done today,” announces Toots Holland as she rolls over to Marielle’s table alongside her friend Dee Lowell.

Both women are in wheelchairs. You couldn’t be more tickled to be here.

“We’re going to be beautiful,” says Toots.

For the next three hours, Marielle will file, polish and lavishly paint Toots and Dee’s nails in a small nursing home.

Patience is all it will take. Luckily they have plenty of time.

“She can be here until midnight,” says Toots. “I’ll be there.”

Toots notices Marielle’s attention to detail. “See how she takes care of every nail,” says Toots. “Now that’s a talent, it really is.”

Those are the kind of compliments a grandmother might give.

“Yeah, she’s like a granddaughter to me,” says Toots.

The 19-year-old was hired as a certified nursing assistant by the Good Samaritan Society Ambassador two years ago. Marielle has recently moved into health information management and works at the front desk.

“She cares,” says Toots. “She is, she’s a caring person.”

When Marielle started painting residents’ nails, Toots and Dee encouraged her to go to beauty school — and then kept cheering her on.

“They definitely encouraged me to keep going because I wasn’t good when I started,” says Marielle.

While Marielle was in practice, nursing home residents began sporting increasingly stunning nails.

“That was Mary,” says Marielle as she scrolls through her iPad portfolio to reveal the resident-to-resident hands.

During the holidays, Marielle decked out her nails with painted holly berries, candy canes, and wrapping paper.

Last month Toots wore Valentines.

This month, Marielle decorates the 85-year-old’s fingernails with Easter bunnies.

“You look good,” Toots sings to her own tune while admiring the progress. “You look good.”

Toots used to work in a machine shop. She never thought of a manicure.

“I’ve never been to a beauty salon to watch the ladies,” she says.

When Good Samaritan’s director of nursing Kim Stoltzman hired Marielle as her nursing assistant, little did she know what other benefits the teen would bring.

“When I help a resident with a task, they point it out to me very quickly and are very proud of their nails,” says Kim. “It just makes them feel good. It just brings so much joy to her day and life.”

One day Marielle hopes to open her own salon.

She says she knows she’s not “saving lives” like the nurses she works with, “but it makes me feel like I’m doing something to change their lives.”

With the job complete, Toots and Dee are surrounded by a small group of nursing home residents and staff eyeing their nails.

The freshly adorned women are beaming.

“Oh, I feel wonderful,” Dee says of her afternoon with Marielle. “It’s one of the best things I can do for myself.”

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