When I walked into my grandparent’s fancy 3 story Senior Housing Community when I was 13 years old, I realized I wanted to work at a place like that.  I thought “this is a hotel for old people”.  I have always had a huge heart for the elderly and knew that I wanted to make their lives special no matter how old they were.  Many years later, I was blessed to manage the very first Arbor House in the year 2000.  I quickly learned we weren’t a “hotel” for our residents but more of a “family and home”.  I still run into family members of those wonderful seniors who lived in my Arbor House home in the grocery store and we reminisce about their loved one.

I was fortunate to be able to move my grandmother into one of our Communities. She enjoyed the friends she made at Arbor House of Norman – both fellow residents and those who helped make her days easy and enjoyable.   As her Alzheimer journey progressed, she was able to move into one of our Memory Care Communities.   This was a hard decision because I still wanted to see Nana as my independent grandmother and honestly fought the idea of moving her to our memory care. It was quickly proven to be the best choice for her.  Nana is a reference point in all of my trainings.  I love our Best Friends Approach of caring for our Residents because they truly are friends with the Residents during mealtimes, bathing times, medication times, etc.  This approach decreases the anxiety level for our Residents.  I witnessed this with Nana and for so many of our Residents.  This supportive and loving way of providing the care she needed allowed her to become more of her “old self” again.  I am so thankful that I got to be a part of that for my grandmother.  

I truly am so blessed that I get to come to work every day and make a difference for someone.  I hope you will allow us to make a difference for you.