CASPER, Wyo. — Barbara Hooper quietly closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she settled into a chair just before the first-ever Primrose Retirement Community’s company-wide spelling bee on Wednesday afternoon.
In front of her was a laptop showing live pictures of her fellow contestants from other regions. There were seven in all — including Barbara — who made it through the last three months of bees to the regionals. On this day, the regional winners have gathered together remotely for a final round.
She admitted to being at least a little nervous before the start time. “Everybody wants to do their best,” she said, adding that it might feel a bit abrupt when someone misses a word. “They just blank you out on the screen,” she said. Camera-off and muted is a modern walk of shame, it seems.
The spelling bees were launched in early January across all 34 Primrose properties, according to Life Enrichment Coordinator Talia Thornburgh. It’s one way to help their residents remain engaged and sharp.
Barbara, who turns 96 this June, has been mentally and physically active her whole life. She moved to Casper from Fort Worth, Texas, after a hip replacement in 1997 to be near her son, and she kept working at least part-time until age 90. She lived independently before moving into Primrose a couple of years ago.
Jumping on the spelling bee was an easy decision for her. “It’s been a challenge,” she said, especially leading up to the regional championships. “I’ve only had seven days to acquaint myself with 100 words.” Contestants are given study sheets in advance to help them prepare, filled with some words that Barbara describes as “crazy.”
“I don’t want to sink into being disinterested in things,” she said. “I like to play a lot of games.”
Barbara concentrated on the laptop as the whole remote picture was shown on the big screen just overhead in the Primrose theater room. Fellow residents and employees have gathered to cheer her on, and Talia sits just to Barbara’s left, controlling the mute on the remote.
They go in alphabetical order by city name, and Barbara in Casper is third. The early rounds are rather easy, but become steadily more difficult. Barbara sails through “picnicking” and “abhorrent,” all the while silently mouthing along the spellings of the other contestants’ words.
Someone trips up in the second round and is the first to have her camera turned off. Another misses in the fifth round, but the remaining spellers are fierce. The bees usually last five rounds, but here they carry on. Barbara paused in round 10 but correctly finished, letting out an audible “whew” afterward.
Round 12 brought the word “xerosis.”
“The way he said it didn’t sound like the way I was reading it,” Barbara said. Another contestant got “absquatulate,” disappointing Barbara a bit. “I like that one; it’s my new favorite word,” she said.
The lo-fi audio of remotes added challenges. One player protested a ruled misspelling and was allowed to carry on. The Casper room was unanimous in its opinion that she had indeed misspelled it.
Barbara was given “excrescent” in round 13 and easily spelled it.
However, she was wrong.
The word was “excrescence,” but the remote audio dropped the ending “s” sound. Barbara wasn’t given the second chance and her camera went dark. After a deflated quiet moment, a fellow resident yelled out, “You were robbed!”
Barbara’s competitive nature soon gave way to something more philosophical. “I prayed this morning that the most deserving person should win,” she said. “I guess someone needed it more than I did.”
A line of residents and workers offered their praises while filing out, and Barbara was ready to move on. She wanted to grab a late lunch before bingo starts. She never misses bingo.
