Saturday at Brookwood Community

by Penny Nelson August 3, 2015

The Brookwood Community sits on 475 acres of land just south of I10 on FM1489 in Brookshire, TX. That's about 15 miles west of Katy, TX and 40 miles west of downtown Houston, TX. For 15 years I lived down FM 1489 and drove past Brookwood nearly daily. The community is a cluster of buildings that sits on the side of a gentle hill with a beautiful church, complete with spire, at it's center. Just north of the main drive into Brookwood sits the cafe and store. The cafe is a wonderful place to eat lunch with great food and a peaceful setting. The store carries wonderful ceramics, greeting cards, stone cast figures and candles made by the residents of Brookwood along with beautiful plants in the nursery and a surprising range of fine art created by professional artists. The residents of Brookwood are all adults with various physical and mental disabilities. That pretty much sums up everything I knew about Brookwood until Peggy and I spent this past Saturday there.

We were at Brookwood on Saturday to teach finger knitting to the residents. We had been invited by friends of Peggy's who were at Brookwood under the auspices of the Girl Scouts and the National Charity League. Both of these organizations involve mothers and daughters so we had both wonderful engaged adult women along with their equally engaged teenage daughters to work and play with on Saturday. All during the summer the residents of Brookwood have a festive Saturday where they swim in the pool and do an array of games and projects. On this Saturday there were various coloring projects, interesting stickers to decorate visors, bookmarks and door handle hangers to create and finger knitting.

I think we saw about 40 women in the morning and a similar number of men in the afternoon. I had such a great time! Some of the residents weren't at all interested in the finger knitting but many of them were. We helped everyone who wanted to try for as long as they wanted to try. Some people made short bracelets while others made much longer necklaces. And quite a few people watched intently while their friends were engaged in the process.

It was great to see so many people with mild to significant challenges having such a great time. The caregivers we met were wonderful. The facilities are great and the pool was totally amazing. Everything at Brookwood is purpose built by people who pay attention to exactly what they need. Having met the caregivers and the manager and spent the day with the residents, I would definitely consider this community for a home for anyone who needed this level of support.

If you are out in this direction at lunchtime, stop by for a great meal. Just understand that you need reservations for larger groups and especially during the holidays. If you are looking for great gifts for family or friends or anyone, be sure to stop at the store here.