Valentine’s Day

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I think about a wonderful couple I met while working in senior living.  At the age of 90 & 94 Ann & Jack were true sweethearts, they would hold hands every time they were together & he always called her honey or baby.  What was really remarkable about them is that he is afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease, yet somehow, he always knew her, even though he might not have known her name  on any given day.

Theirs is a true love story.  Originally from a small town in Arkansas, sweethearts from grade school through high school.  Most every childhood memories Ann said she has, Jack was a part of for her.  Life interfered as they grew older and he left for the service, and Ann went about having her own life.  They each married other people and began their families.  Ann moved to a small rural town outside of Houston with her husband and children.  She had no idea where Jack settled after coming back from his time overseas or if he ever married.  She loved her husband dearly and had a perfectly wonderful life.  Sadly, Ann’s husband passed away when she was 83.  One day, close to 2 years later, she was reading her local paper and saw an obituary with a last name that sounded familiar to her.  It turned out to be Jack’s last name & his wife had just passed.  Small world that it is, Jack & his family had settled in a small town 6 miles away from Ann’s.  She sent Jack a condolence card & a quick note expressing her sympathies.  Jack saved the address from the card, as this was an old childhood friend, he would like to touch base with later, just to see how she was doing & see where life had taken her.  Jack waited one year after his wife passed, before he would call Ann, out of respect for his wife whom he loved very much.  When he called Ann, they set up a time to meet & visit.  Ann said it was like 60+ years had never passed.  Their talks and laughs just fell naturally into place.  Both of their families were happy they both found friendship after losing their spouses.  9 months after that second “first” date, Ann said they got married.  She often joked she “just knew people were going to talk about the whole 9 months thing & expect a baby!”  They had a wonderful year together, and then the Alzheimer’s diagnosis came for Jack.  Ann, having gone through this illness with another family member feared the worst.  But she now feels that love conquers all.  Though afflicted with such a sad illness, they were both determined to make the most of their lives together.  Date nights, walks in the park, and time together became their daily routine. While Jack is pleasantly confused most days, he is always loving, affectionate and happy to see her.  Ann just looks at each day they have as an added blessing.  They are quite a delightful couple to spend time with, with always a kind word for each other, a hug, and they truly enjoy being together.

I guess the point to this story is, love can happen for all of us, no matter what age.  Good and bad things happen when you’re in love.  Embrace the good days and love to your fullest ability. Jack didn’t always know Ann by name, but his heart knew.  And they both knew to love every minute they have together.

- Michelle Rainer

The Magic

I have been in the healthcare field taking care of seniors for 22 years.  I have truly been blessed by learning so much from so many people throughout the years and experiences that I have had.  I think back of all the fond memories of residents and families that I have had the privilege to know and have learned from.   I often try to determine the most important lesson that I have gleaned from all of my experience in this field.  Today I try to teach our directors one primary concept, “Inspire our associates to show up every day to change the lives of our residents in a positive way.” 

Each associate must be competent in their job duties whether they are a performing housekeeping, dining service, resident care or concierge services, as those are the basics responsibilities.  The more important aspect is taking care of the psycho – social needs of the residents.  Our associates are always interacting with our residents throughout the day.  How are we trying to brighten their day, or make them laugh or smile?  How are we trying to be a positive influence with each interaction?    Are we acknowledging the associates that do it well and helping the others to develop the same skills?  Each associate needs to understand their influence and their ability to truly change lives daily.

I have found that it takes a lot of acknowledgement and communication to build this kind of culture.  Each day our directors need to observe these interactions occurring and praise the associates for their positive influence.  There are not any magical trade secrets in senior living.  The magic happens when the positive culture is established and each associate is living it and each resident felling it.  Because the magic happens to the associate that understands.

Kendal Nelson

Regional Director of Operations

Why Legend has a “Lifestyle” Department

 Most retirement companies have what they call an “Activity Department”, so you might ask why does Legend Retirement have a “Lifestyle Department” instead? If you ask almost any of our residents what is important to them in their retirement years you will hear: Care, safety, food and socialization or their lifestyle. Legend takes all of these to heart in every program we create or initiative we take and creating the best “lifestyle” is on the top of our list.

I have had the pleasure of working very closely with one of our Lifestyle teams at The Adante Senior Living in San Antonio, Texas. It has been one of the most rewarding experiences to watch this team create a Lifestyle for our residents like no other. The mission and focus of our program is to provide group and individualized activities that maintain the health and well being of each resident we serve. Our goal is to create and enhance balance for our residents in every aspect of their being:

 • Spiritual

• Social

 • Physical

 • Intellectual

Our Adante team has done this and so much more with their Lifestyle program. They have started a local volunteer program called “Adante Cares” in which a group of residents pick local charities to support and work for in the San Antonio area. Adante also has a program called “Health Rewards” in which our residents are rewarded for staying healthy. Rather by attending exercise classes, choosing the best meal options from our menu or attending classes or forums that help them to become healthier. Adante is working on ways to live longer, stronger and healthier. We are also honoring teachers with our “Teacher to Teacher” program where retired teachers in our community are giving back by starting local school programs with students and sharing the knowledge that only our senior generation can offer.

My list could go on and I am so very proud not only of what our Lifestyle associates are doing, but also so for each life that is being changed in the programs that they are creating and living every day. This is what being a resident in a Legend Retirement Community is all about: The most fulfilling and deserving “Lifestyle” you can achieve.

Dara Brown

Living To Be 100

A few months ago I met a resident named George at our Aberdeen Heights community in Tulsa. He asked me to take a walk with him, so I could see the 2-mile loop he makes every morning. George is in his 80s, he has had heart problems and cardiac surgery and his main focus on life now is to live to be 100. So he eats right, and walks 2 miles every day. I quickly realized that my walk with George was no easy stroll; he is a power walker and it took me a minute to get adjusted and keep up with his speed. I learned a lot about George on that walk, and much of what he told me has stayed with me even today.

Most of us have the choice to live to be 100. We all know how to eat right and exercise and omit stress; however, many of us choose not to. After my time with George, I have decided to make living to be 100 one of my goals. Most mornings, on my 2-mile jog, I think of George, power walking through his community with a smile on his face. And my vegetarian lifestyle is hovering much closer to being a vegan these days. They are not easy choices, but if George can do it, I can do it too.  

Here’s to a healthy 2012. Let’s all take a look at our lifestyle and see what changes we can make so we can all join the Centenarian Club.

~Jennifer Malloy

A Different Kind of Resolution

As we all begin a new year, most people will be thinking about changes that they want to make and inevitably, most people will have a resolution regarding food.  It may be to go on a diet, try new foods, eat healthier, and so on and so forth.  But I would ask that you think about a slightly different version of a food resolution:  Make food a focal point of your social well-being.

Don’t misunderstand me…eating by yourself can be a rewarding experience if done right.  This article from the Denver Post is a great look at the why and how of that.  What I am hoping that you will do is be purposeful about how you eat when with a group.  Many times we may use a meal to rehash the day’s events or complain about work/school/whatever.  Instead use the opportunity to embrace the food you eat as not simply fuel, but as an experience in and of itself.  Curious about Indian food?  Find a simple recipe.  Think that having wine with your meatloaf seems crazy?  Try it.  With all of the exposure that we have every day to things like celebrity chefs and restaurant make-over shows, food & cooking websites, the Food Network, etc., there should be no limit to the number of great ideas that you can come up with.  And don’t be afraid to make meals interactive, especially with the little ones.  There truly is not, in my opinion, a more rewarding experience than eating a great meal that you made with your own two hands and sharing it with others.

We all just spent the past few weeks doing this, with most of us taking away very positive experiences.  So why does that have to end because its January?  I don’t think that it should.  We all have to eat, so why not eat together and indulge ourselves not only in the food we eat but in the company we share it with?

 

- Aaron Fish

Director of Food & Beverage

Legend Retirement Corporation

Closing Up 2011

With 2011 coming to a close, we all naturally take time to reflect on the previous months, and look forward to the year ahead.

2011 brought us three new communities in South Texas, many new associates, and wonderful memories.  From Heritage Tomball’s addition of a memory care community, to Rio Terra’s renovations and The Adante’s Grand Opening, this has been a very busy and productive year for Legend.  These new communities are a wonderful addition to the Legend family and we look forward to a strong future.

I would like to take this time to thank all of our residents at Legend for sharing your lives with us; you have made an enormous impact on us, shared wonderful stories, and taught us so much. Our business is in the people around us; our residents are the guiding light to all we do. You have empowered us and helped shape this company to what it is today…one that focuses on commitment, communication, empowerment and excellence.

We wish you a peaceful holiday season and happy New Year.

Bryan McCaleb, President

We are Different

Recently, I was in a discussion with another associate regarding the term “Associate.” I have been an “employee” since August of 1988 for one Company or another until Legend.

 Some say that when a Company uses the term “Associate,” it is just a euphemism and there is no difference between the two. Well, that may be the case at some employers and for some of our “Associates,” they may feel that it is the same with Legend. What I can tell you by experience is that Legend is different.

• Legend may not pay more than other Senor Housing Companies, but we are different.

 • Legend may not have better benefits than other Senior Housing Companies, but we are different.

 • Legend may from time to time miss the opportunity to timely recognize every birthday, anniversary, or special occasion, but we are different.

At the heart of Legend are people who care, not only about the lives of the residents we care for each day in our communities, but also the lives of those who provide the care. For housekeepers, dishwashers, servers, resident care attendants, nurses, cooks, concierges, and all the rest. It goes without saying that for-profit companies are in the business (whatever that is) in order to return a profit to shareholders, owners, partners, or investors. That is how capitalism works.

Legend was formed as a for-profit company; however, if you read our vision and mission statement, it does not mention profit, although there is no mission without a profit margin, otherwise, the owners would have no incentive for being in business. Legend is different because our mission is to be recognized for our commitment to residents and associates through Excellence, Innovation, and Compassion.

Our “Associates” are not just “Employees” paid to perform a job although they do their job well and are paid. Based upon my experience, our Associates are people who care and who have bought into the concept of “Resident First” and want to join a Company where decisions are motivated by more than just the bottom line. I am glad that I am an “Associate” at Legend Retirement Corporation and I’m proud of my fellow Associates for the lives we change every day.

- James Hull

Vice Presdident of Human Resources

Pictures

We recently had some new pictures hung at the Home Office.   Not just any pictures, real photographs of our Residents and Associates.  I love the pictures but I have also really enjoyed witnessing the reactions of the Home Office Associates to the pictures. 

Instant recognition of Residents, prompt stories of favorite moments spent together or a life achievement or an endearing quality that has affected an Associate.  I’ve learned a lot about the people I work with from these pictures. 

 As I walked down the hall to grab a cup of coffee this morning I stopped at one particular picture;  a man playing the harmonica, surrounded by what I imagine are his children and grandchildren, smiling on as he plays for them.   

I notice the simple gold band on his finger and wonder how many smiles he brought to his wife’s face over the years they were married. 

I see the pens in the pocket of his pressed white shirt and imagine that whatever he did in his life he probably gave it a lot of attention and probably brought a smile to his employer’s or employee’s  faces too.

Today he brings a smile to my face. 

Being relatively new to the company, I haven’t met a lot of our Residents but even so, I enjoy looking at each and every one.  They remind me of the fun I had with my own Grandparents, now long gone and they are the image of times to come when our teens are grown up with a family of their own.

They are not models or generic stock photos, but  real residents who live in our Communities.    So even though my role at Legend does not require me to visit our Communities on a regular basis, these photographs connect me to the core of Legend Retirement and remind me every day,  that our business is not numbers – it’s first and foremost about the people we serve. 

I think the pictures are a priceless edition to our décor. 

Ali Britton

 

 

 

 

The Power of Compassion

We had a resident move in last week that passed earlier this morning.  She wasn’t here long enough for our associates to know her extremely well but our care associates took the time to begin the process to make a difference in her life.  She was a very spiritual person as was her daughter.  The family asked the charge nurse if there was someone who could pray with them last night, and the nurse knew some of our aides who were comfortable doing so and called to ask June and Dinora to stop by the room.

Dinora prayed with the sweet resident until her shift was done and then June prayed with her throughout the night when she could for peace and to ease her pain.  The resident explained that she ”just wanted to go home to God”.  The daughter could not be with her all night because she was just too worn out to stay.  But June stayed. She kept praying throughout her shift and into the morning with her new friend and sister in Christ.

June called today to check on the resident and was deeply saddened to hear that she has passed.  But she had great peace in knowing that the resident passed with her physical pain eased and her spiritual pain soothed.  And while the daughter is tempted to batter herself with guilt for not being here, she takes solace in knowing that her mom was surrounded by people showing her love and making her comfortable and praying her into Jesus’ arms.  That is making a difference in a person’s life.

Jackie Younger

Executive Director

The Heritage Tomball

Adding Purpose to Your Life

 My friend MariBeth is the only daughter of her mother Anna. MariBeth has three brothers, one who passed away several years ago from a lengthy illness.  Even though the other two brothers live within five miles of Anna, just like MariBeth, they visit only about twice a year.  This puts the entire burden of taking care of their aging mother Anna all on MariBeth.

Anna lives in an Independent community in our small town.  It is “the” place to live for seniors, if you can’t live at home. Even though it’s the best in town Anna has not adjusted well to living in the community.  She loves people and visitors, but refuses to engage or even go to the dining room for meals.  She won’t walk her little dog, though perfectly capable, due to the fear of leaving her apartment  and running into someone she doesn’t know.  Anna is a sweet, funny, charming and intelligent, but scared.  She has told me on numerous occasions when I visit how she just feels useless, bored and lonesome, yet  she won’t take the initiative to change things.  Anna was an office manager and court administrative director for a Texas judge until she retired.  She is used to multi-tasking and thinking on her feet.  The dementia she is experiencing at 80 is overwhelming to her, even though it would be considered mild in a professional assessment.  MariBeth is at wit’s end on how to keep mom social, alert and active, with her doing this independently and not relying on MariBeth for everything.  Anna is capable physically and for the most part mentally.  It is surprising to her daughter, how this free spirited, indepedent  and formerly socially active woman has changed over the past five years to a clingy, reclusive and insecure person.  MariBeth is exhausted, lacks her own social life due to being at mom’s beck and call and becoming angry at her mom.  She feels a tremendous amount of guilt for feeling this way.

MariBeth’s teenage son, Shane, seeing his mom exhausted and his grandmother depressed, came up with a creative idea to help him with school volunteer hours and to give them both some help.  Shane went to his school counselor to find students whose parents are on reduced lunch programs.  His idea was to gather newspapers and print coupons from the computer for his grandmother to help cut out and then anonymously send to these families to help with their grocery costs in today’s economy.  It has now carried in to the government funded senior living center a few miles away for older adults as well. They deliver to those mature adults each month too.  Here are some of the benefits MariBeth and Shane are seeing with grandma since the project began.

• This task/activity is simple & easy to coordinate for a lady who previously enjoyed paperwork or managing things. It’s repetitive and makes Anna feel like she is contributing to her community
• She spends quality time with her teenage grandson & now 3 of his friends 5 or 6 times a month, a great intergenerational activity and she is up on the current hit songs on the radio!  She heard a song come on the radio when shopping with MariBeth and me the other day & said “that’s .50 cents! “ ~ we both nearly fell out of the car laughing.  Seems her favorite is still George Strait, but she does that some of that GaGa girls songs.
• Encouraging her to help find coupons, has led her to getting out and asking her neighbors for magazines and newspapers that might have coupons too. Something she may have never done, if not for the fact she feels needed and that she is helping others.  She now has 3 friends after 4 years at this community, they now comes to her apartment once a week to “clip”. She in turn has started having lunch with them on the “busy” days in the dining room.  A first this past April.  Up until then she had never dined in the dining room since her initial visit to make a reservation to move-in.
• She has organized an old office cardboard paper holder in her closet, a sort of multi-compartment coupon holder by food categories (“Dairy,” “Cleaning Products”). You may have a loved one that enjoys the sorting and organizing process too, if the cutting is too complicated. Someone in the early stages of the disease may be able to sort them by date, removing or taking out the expired coupons.
• Packaging and stamping the envelopes or boxes to send to the families has become fun.  It is simple also.  In the beginning they were delivered by the counselor, now they are mailed direct or delivered by Shane and his friends.  Anna & her friends have started sharing notes of good wishes, hope and scriptures with some.  They get so much joy from this they have now decided to try a stocking stuffer drive for each family this year for Christmas.  The biggest stocking they can find filled with every kind of coupon or gift certificate they can gather.
• Computer use!  Two of her friends now double the boy’s efforts by perusing and printing coupons of the internet too!

 

Now MariBeth visits when she wants to, as opposed to when she “has” to.  Their visits are fun again and they have things to talk about.  Anna enjoys quality time with her grandson and his friends, in turn this has gotten her to bake again, wanting to be sure “those little boys have a snack when they come”.  Most of all Anna leaves her apartment and has friends.  She has a purpose each day and she knows what the dining room looks like and how good the food is at her retirement community. 

This is a story worth repeating for those you know in the same situation. At Legend Retirement we look for any opportunity we can to help our residents feel important.

 

-Michelle Rainer